Catholic HIV Guide

posted: 07/02/2011

The Vatican will hold an international conference in May on HIV prevention and care, after all the confusion the Pope caused last year about using condoms for HIV prevention.

The conference findings will help create a guide that the Vatican is preparing on the prevention and care of AIDS patients.

The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers also announced that they are working on a set of guidelines for Catholic doctors, nurses and others who care for people with HIV.

More information 

Catholic bio-ethics guide for healthcare workers
Rome HIV conference
 

Pope - Use Condoms with HIV

posted: 24/11/2010

The Vatican is now saying Catholics with HIV should use condoms. Trying to end the confusion at the weekend over words in a book of interviews with the pope, his spokesman made clear that using condoms is acceptable, a ‘lesser evil,’ where there was risk of HIV transmission.
 

Across Africa and the world, reaction to the statement showed the division of opinion within the Catholic church. Church conservative hardliners now have a doctrinal dilemma – do they push the pope’s anti-condoms opinions of last year, or what he says now?
 

African Hardliner: no condoms
Matthew Ndagosa, archbishop for the Kaduna diocese in Nigeria, with its huge numbers of Catholics said: "Everybody is misinterpreting the Vatican. People have made up their own minds on this issue and are twisting the words to fit them. Holy father's message was clear – there is no change in policy. The church will continue to believe that the indiscriminate use of condoms encourages promiscuity and aggravates the situation."

African Archbishop: condoms ‘good for prevention’
But Boniface Lele, archbishop for the diocese of Mombasa in Kenya, where 30% of the population is Catholic, said he was pleased: He has been advocating change in church policy on condoms, to the displeasure of the Vatican. "In my diocese, I tell couples that if one or both or them are sick, they should use condoms. For prevention it is good thing."
Gabriel Dolan, an Irish priest who works among the poor in Mombasa, described the church's historic stance on condom use as "an injustice to those in danger" in countries which have a serious AIDS problem. "This news is a relief," he said. "I think it's just the beginning. Once you make a small concession like this it's like taking a brick out of the Berlin Wall."
 

Translation confusion
According to the German original and the English translation of the book, ‘Light of the World’ by journalist Peter Seewald, the pope said the use of a condom by an HIV-positive male prostitute could be a good thing, because it shows responsibility. But some people saw the Italian translation of the pope’s words and read this to mean a female prostitute. Italian nouns have a gender, like French nouns, and the word ‘prostituta’ is a feminine noun, and it is used for both male and female sex workers.
 

Popes comes condom clean
But at a press conference in the Vatican to mark the launch of the book, his spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, explained that he had asked the pope on Sunday.
"I personally asked the pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine," Lombardi said. "He told me 'no'." Lombardi said the key point was: "It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship … This is if you're a woman, a man, or a transsexual."
 

As several experts have noted, the book cannot alter doctrine. But Lombardi's comments show that the pope approves of condom use as a lesser evil where there was a risk of HIV transmission.

‘Evil’ condoms
The Catholic ban on the use of condoms, or any thing else for contraception remains. One of the pope's most senior officials, Cardinal Rino Fisichella, told the press conference condoms were "intrinsically an evil".
 

Pope’s words
In Seewald's book, the pope repeats his view that condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection". But, asked whether his church is opposed in principle to their use, he gives a reply that falls well short of a straight answer.
"It of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality."
 

Church in confusion
The shift has caught out some of his most senior officials. Asked by the website of the US-based ‘National Catholic Register’ if the pope's statement indicated that in some cases condoms were permissible, Cardinal Raymond Burke replied flatly: "No, it's not."
In the UK, Elena Curti, deputy editor of the Catholic weekly, The Tablet, welcomed the shift, saying: "[The pope] has let the genie out of the bottle. Once you do that it's very difficult to put it back in. In allowing this chink of light in – despite the careful language he uses – it does open up the debate."
 

HIV charities welcome conversion
HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust expressed delight at the pope’s change of view. "It does represent a huge shift in terms of what the Vatican said before," said the trust's communications director, Genevieve Edwards. "His comments are sufficiently broad to allow people to interpret them as they feel they need to."
 

Anti-abortion denial
But John Smeaton, a Catholic and director of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, denied that there had been any policy change. "Pope Benedict, like other Catholics, is bound by the magisterium of the church which he proclaims in Caritas in veritate," he wrote on his blog. "He's not likely to promote a change to that teaching in an interview with a journalist a year later – and he doesn't do so."
 

The popular Catholic blogger, Father Tim Finigan, acknowledged that there had been a shift, but warned: "I must offer a reaction of my own to the holy father's comments on AIDS and condoms. It would be along the lines of Sergeant Wilson in Dad's Army: 'Do you think that's wise, sir?' We know that the widespread distribution of condoms to tackle the problem of HIV/AIDS has not worked in practice." [This is plainly wrong – the scientific evidence is very strong that the widespread use of condoms is the most effective way to prevent HIV].
 

adapted from Source

The Pope, HIV and condoms

posted: 13/09/2010

This week the Pope comes to Britain. Our interest is his part in the deaths caused by HIV of 2 million people each year. In May 2005, shortly after taking office, the Pope first talked about HIV, and came out against condoms.

He was addressing bishops from South Africa, where somebody dies of HIV every two minutes: Botswana with 23.9% of adults between 15 and 49 being HIV positive; Swaziland, where 26.1% of adults have HIV; Namibia, 15%; and Lesotho, 23%.
 

He has carried on since: in March 2009, while flying to Cameroon (where 540,000 people have HIV), Pope Benedict XVI explained that HIV is a tragedy "that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".

In May 2009, the Congolese bishops conference celebrated with this announcement: "In all truth, the Pope's message which we received with joy has confirmed us in our fight against HIV/Aids. We say no to condoms!"
 

Leading English archbishop joins in
The Pope’s position has been supported, in the past year alone, by Cardinal George Pell of Sydney and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. "It is quite ridiculous to go on about AIDS in Africa and condoms, and the Catholic Church," says O'Connor. "I talk to priests who say, 'My diocese is flooded with condoms and there is more AIDS because of them."
 

Infected lies and nonsense
Some have been even more imaginative in their messages against condoms. In 2007, Archbishop Francisco Chimoio of Mozambique announced that European condom manufacturers are deliberately infecting condoms with HIV to spread AIDS in Africa. Out of every 8 people in Mozambique, one has HIV.
 

It was Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo of Colombia who most famously claimed that the HIV virus can pass through tiny holes in the rubber of condoms. Again, he was not alone. "The condom is a cork," said Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Spain, "and not always effective."
 

In 2005 Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, explained that scientific research has never proven that condoms "immunise against infection". He's right, they don't. They stop a virus that can kill you from being transmitted during sex.

Condoms stop 80% of HIV infections
How effective are condoms? It's always wise never to overstate a case. The latest systematic Cochrane review of the literature found 14 observational studies. These studies generally looked at HIV transmission in stable heterosexual couples where one partner had HIV. Overall, rates of HIV infection were 80% lower in the partners who reported always using a condom, compared to those who said they never did. 80% is very effective.
 

There is no single perfect solution to the problem of HIV: if things were that easy, HIV wouldn't be killing 2 million people every year. ‘ABC’ is a widely used HIV prevention acronym in Africa: it stands for abstain, be [faithful], [use a] condom.
 

Selecting one of the most effective elements from these three and actively campaigning against it is plainly destructive, just as telling people to abstain doesn't make everyone abstain, and telling people to use condoms won't make everyone use them. But the Pope has proclaimed: "The most effective presence on the front in the battle against HIV/Aids is the Catholic church and her institutions."
 

This is ludicrous. The pope leads the Catholic church which is the only major influential international political organisation that actively tells people not to do something that plainly works well.
 

It’s fine to preach abstention and being faithful. But deliberately and misleadingly sabotaging the use of condoms which are 80% effective and which prevent an infection that kills 2 million people a year, makes the Pope and the Catholic church a serious global public health problem. 
 

Open Letter from NAT (National AIDS Trust) and FPA  

Source The Guardian Bad Science column (edited)

Catholics and World AIDS Day

posted: 19/11/2009

‘Can you drink the cup that I will drink? - HIV/AIDS: meeting the challenges, exploring the questions’ was a lecture given earlier this year to Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support (CAPS) at Westminster Cathedral Hall, London.

Professor Margaret Farley's (Yale University divinity school, USA) lecture was followed later by a conference on HIV/AIDS, at Roehampton University, London. Her lecture and the response are here.
 

She spoke about the All-Africa Conference: Sister to Sister (AACSS) organisation in sub-Saharan Africa, about the situation in sub-Saharan regions and countries, about the guiding principles that have shaped the work of Sister to Sister, and about the sources of hope that sustain the women in African with whom they work.

‘Can you drink the cup that I will drink? - HIV/AIDS: meeting the challenges, exploring the questions’ lecture

All-Africa Conference: Sister to Sister (AACSS)

Catholic HIV and other worship materials

World AIDS Day Resources: Positive Rites is a 90+ page booklet of worship resources, many of which deal particularly with previous World AIDS Day themes. It also contains some of the services used in past years at Southwark Anglican Cathedral, CAFOD/Caritas events throughout the world.
£3.00 each, or £5.00 (for two, incl. p/p) from Catholics for AIDS Prevention & Support (CAPS), PO Box 24632, London E9 6XF - 020 8986 0807 - e-mail  

These websites have HIV and worship materials you can download:

Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) -
Christian Aid
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance 
The Balm in Gilead 
The African American Lectionary 

This website, Catholic Relief Services College, has academic resources for Catholics and others interested in HIV and the church's response, including a series of 7 videos. 

Positive Catholics is a peer support network of men and women, who are living with HIV and have a catholic faith.        email
 

July Weekend for HIV Positive Christians

posted: 02/06/2009

Positive Catholics invite all Christians living with HIV to a weekend at the end of July / beginning of August for Reflection, Sharing, Prayer and Fun. Financial help is available. This will be an opportunity to reflect upon what HIV means in the context of Christian faith, with others, living with HIV. All Christians are invited.

‘Positive Catholics’ is a peer support network of catholic men and women living with HIV, meeting together for mutual support, prayer and fun, since 2004. They are especially keen to encourage women and people in the North West region to join the weekend.

The Retreat Centre at Douai Abbey, near Reading, Berkshire is the home for the weekend, like last year. The weekend starts at teatime Friday July 31st and ends on Sunday afternoon August 2nd.

Through sharing stories, using art and music, and praying together, we hope to understand more clearly how God is present with us, and shares in our experience of life with HIV.

Last year's Retreat received extremely favourable feedback, and was clearly a great encouragement for those who attended.

Book now

Places are limited of course, so they ask people to reserve a place quickly.

They expect the cost to be £110 for adults, and £55 for children.

Subsidies will be available for those on low incomes, or with limited means. If you need financial help towards the cost please contact Vincent in confidence. Questions to Vincent too.
For those who may wish to attend, early booking is strongly recommended in order to obtain the best possible train fares ahead of time. Saver tickets are around £70 from Manchester - but summer weekends mean they sellout very quickly> It takes about 4 hours to get to the nearest station from Manchester.

The Retreat is open to any Catholic or Christian living with HIV.

There are limited places available fopr parents who can only attend with their children. However, the Retreat is for adults, and where possible parents should try to make alternative arrangements for their children.