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)

Condoms for Pope in Portugal

posted: 12/05/2010

While the Pope’s arrival in Portugal yesterday was greeted by thousands of faithful lining the streets of Lisbon, there was also a protest against the Vatican's refusal to approve the use of condoms to prevent HIV.
 

The condom protest began as a small Facebook group just seven weeks ago but became a nationwide campaign backed by thousands of mostly young people, in one of the most devoutly Roman Catholic countries in Europe.

"We never imagined that we would one day have 14,500 people supporting us," the campaigners said yesterday after their Facebook group, formed on 20 March, mushroomed into a full-scaled protest against the Vatican's attitude to HIV prevention.
 

18,000 condoms and HIV awareness
Hundreds of young people flocked to distribution points in the capital to hand out free condoms, to protest the Vatican's refusal to endorse the use of condoms as a method to fight HIV. The campaign began when three young lawyers, Rita Barroso Jorge, Diogo Caldas Figueira and Joana Vieira da Silva, created a small group on the social networking site Facebook on Mar. 20. But it mushroomed until it had the support of nearly 15,000 people.
 

"By handing out free condoms, we are raising awareness in the fight against AIDS," said one of the campaign's organizers, Barroso Jorge. Their campaign was "a success beyond our expectations, because we distributed 18,000 condoms in three hours instead of the 16,000 in five hours that we had hoped to hand out."
 

The initiative, which has the support of Portugal's main women's and gay rights associations, among other civil society groups, will continue Wednesday and Thursday in Fátima, and Friday in Porto, the pope's next stops.
 

Another of the organizers, Caldas Figueira, pointed out that in March 2009, the pope acknowledged in Africa that HIV was a global tragedy, but the pope claimed the distribution of condoms has made the epidemic worse.
 

"Our protest was born in response to the pope's amazing distancing from reality and the extremely serious consequences that his statements can cause in the fight against AIDS," said Figueira.
 

Liberalising nation
The pope's visit comes as Portugal, where 90% of people say they are Roman Catholics, increasingly turns its back on the Vatican's preaching. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who met the pope today, is expected to sign off shortly a law that will make Portugal the sixth European country to permit gay marriages.
Portugal's centre-left Socialist government has also introduced a law allowing a judge to grant a divorce even if one spouse is against it. The same government, led by Prime Minister José Socrates, passed a law in 2007 finally allowing abortion in Portugal. Benedict sharply criticised the abortion law yesterday, saying public officials must give "essential consideration" to issues that affect human life. "The point at issue is not an ethical confrontation between a secular and religious system, so much as a question about the meaning that we give to our freedom," he said.
 

George House Trust comment
 

Pope Benedict will visit England and Scotland for four days from 16-19 September 2010. The power of social media in raising HIV awareness and activism is clear. Will someone be inspired to use the pope’s visit to Great Britain to raise HIV awareness here?
 

Visit plans

The pope flies to Scotland and sees the Queen at Holyrood in Edinburgh. He will celebrate Mass in Glasgow. In England, he’ll say Mass in Coventry but spend most of the rest of the time in London, with a speech to British civil society at Westminster Hall, and in meetings and services with the leaders of other Christian traditions.
 

Source
Pope’s UK visit
 

Pope to Africa - No Condoms for HIV

posted: 18/03/2009

The Pope today relit the controversy over the Catholic church's opposition to condom use as he made his first trip to Africa.

The pope said condoms were not the answer to the continent's fight against HIV and could make the problem worse. He gave no evidence for his astonishing claim that condoms could make things worse.

The late Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo made headlines in 2003 for saying that condoms may help spread AIDS through a false sense of security, claiming they weren't effective in blocking transmission of the virus. The church has tried to argue that condoms are somehow porous to HIV, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that they work very well and are the best preventative we have. The cardinal, who died last year, headed the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family.

Even some priests and nuns working with those infected with HIV question the church's opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa. Ordinary Africans do as well.

Benedict XVI made his comments as he flew to Cameroon for the first leg of a six-day trip that will also see him travelling to Angola.

Outraged health agencies

The timing of his remarks outraged health agencies trying to halt the spread of HIV and Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 22 million people are infected.

The Roman Catholic church encourages sexual abstinence and fidelity to prevent the disease from spreading, but it is a policy that has divided some clergy working with Aids patients.

The pontiff, speaking to journalists on his flight, said the condition was "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".

Rebecca Hodes, of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, said that if the Pope was serious about preventing new HIV infections he would focus on promoting wider access to condoms and spreading information about how best to use them.

Hodes, the director of policy, communication and research for the campaign group, added: "Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans."

"Talking about the nonuse of condoms is out of place. We need condoms to protect ourselves against diseases and AIDS," teacher Narcisse Takou said in Yaounde.

Stanley Obale Okpu, a civil servant working in the ministry of urban development in Cameroon, said: "What the pope says is an ideal for the Catholic church. But he needs to look at the realities on the ground. One should be aware of these realities. In the case of Cameroon _ and Africa as a whole _ condoms are very necessary ... You need condoms to prevent AIDS and for birth control."

Repeating the past

It is not the first time the Pope has made public remarks on the HIV epidemic ravaging the continent.

Shortly after becoming pontiff in 2005, he told senior Catholic clergy from Africa that, while the disease was a "cruel epidemic", it could not be cured through using condoms.

Addressing bishops from South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia and Lesotho who had travelled to the Vatican for papal audience, he said: "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids."

He also warned them that African life was under threat from a number of factors, including condoms.

"It is of great concern that the fabric of African life, its very source of hope and stability, is threatened by divorce, abortion, prostitution, human trafficking and a contraception mentality," he added.

More than two-thirds – 67% – of the global total of 32.9 million people with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Three-quarters of all HIV deaths in 2007 happened there.

Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic church, which competes with Islam and evangelical churches.

Call for economic solidarity

The Pope also said today that he intended to make an appeal for "international solidarity" for Africa in the face of the global economic downturn.

He said that, while the church did not propose specific economic solutions, it could give "spiritual and moral" suggestions.

Describing the current crisis as the consequence of "a deficit of ethics in economic structures", he added: "It is here that the church can make a contribution."

Internal dissent

Benedict dismissed claims that he was facing increasing opposition and isolation within the church, particularly after an outreach to ultra-conservatives led to him lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

"The myth of my solitude makes me laugh," he said, adding that he could count on the network of friends and aides he saw every day.

In a letter to Catholic bishops, released last week, he made an unusual public acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes over the rehabilitation of Bishop Richard Williamson.

While acknowledging that errors had been made in handling the affair, Benedict said he was saddened that he was criticised "with open hostility" even by those who "should have known better".

Source

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