HIV/Aids: Catholic Church in Condom Palaver

AllAfrica ^ | Chioma Obinna

[narses]

The Catholic Church has been accused of warning people in African, Asian and other countries with high rates of HIV infection that condoms do not protect against the transmission of the virus, the claims come just a day after a report revealed that a young person is now infected with HIV every 14 seconds.

According to BBC report, "cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns in four continents of the church have been quoted as saying HIV can pass through tiny holes in condoms but latest warnings were made in a Panorama programme called 'Sex and the Holy City' by one of the Vatican's most senior cardinals Alfonso Lopez Trujillo who allegedly suggests that the AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon and could pass through net formed by the condom.

Trujillo, President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, called on governments to urge people not to use condoms.

His words "These margins of uncertainty, should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do, with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger."

In swift reaction to this claim, the World Health Organization (WHO) has condemned the comments and warned the Vatican to desist from putting lives at risk with such utterances.

A spokeswoman to WHO was quoted as saying that" Statements like this are quite dangerous"We are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people and currently affects around 42 million. "There is so much evidence to show that condoms don't let sexually transmitted infections like HIV through. "Anyone who says otherwise is just wrong."

Also reacting, Catherine Hankins, Chief Scientific Advisor to UNAIDS,, argued that the statements by Catholic Church are totally incorrect saying that Latex condoms are impermeable. She added that latex condoms are not only good but can perfectly prevent HIV transmission from one person to another during sex.

According to her, " "It is very unfortunate to have this type of misinformation being broadcast, "It is a concern. From a technical point of view, the statements are totally incorrect. "Latex condoms are impermeable. They do prevent HIV transmission."

Meanwhile, several anti - AIDS campaigns have also condemned the call by the Vatican arguing that condoms are straightforward and effective way of preventing HIV transmission and to suggest otherwise is dangerous.

However, the claim by the Catholic Church is already having effect on the condom distribution activities of some anti HIV/AIDS programmes.

Efforts to get a reaction from Catholic Secretariat in Lagos were unsuccessful as at press time.

[ABrit]

The answer lies in the World Health Organization's definition of "AIDS" in Africa which differs decisively from AIDS in the West. The WHO's clinical-case definition for AIDS in Africa (adopted in 1985) is not based on an HIV test or T-cell counts but on the combined symptoms of chronic diarrhea, prolonged fever, 10 percent body weight loss in two months and a persistent cough, none of which are new or uncommon on the African continent.

HIV TESTS are notoriously unreliable in Africa. A 1994 study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases concluded that HIV tests were useless in central Africa, where the microbes responsible for tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy were so prevalent that they registered over 70 percent false positive results.

Furthermore, everything we know about viruses tells us that they are equal opportunity microbes. They will attack men and women weakened by malnutrition, the most effective cause of immune suppression. Venereal diseases left untreated can also impair one's immunity, rendering any victim susceptible to other infections. Africans are often assumed to die from "AIDS-like" symptoms after their immune systems have been weakened by malaria, tuberculosis, cholera or parasitic diseases.

By calling these deaths "AIDS" and claiming there is a new epidemic in Africa, are health officials from the West, perhaps unwittingly, helping to provide opportunities for development agencies, biomedical researchers and pharmaceutical companies who clamor for more money and markets? Certainly, promulgating the idea that AIDS is an epidemic caused by sexual promiscuity will deepen Africa's dependency on Western aid for diagnostic tests, high-tech sterilization equipment and medical personnel.

http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/cgafrica.htm

[honeygrl]

The article says: "Trujillo, President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, called on governments to urge people not to use condoms. "

90% safer is better than 100% unsafe. [period] You can defend them all you want, but what they are doing is still wrong. Like I said before, promoting abstinence is FINE and no one would have problems with that alone. Telling people not to use condoms if they do have sex is wrong.

[Unam Sanctam]

Please cite one actual quote, rather than a tendentious journalist, where the Church said that condom use IS GOING to fail. All they have said is that they are not foolproof. THAT IS A FACT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are deliberately and maliciously twisting the facts to fit YOUR agenda. And if the Church is going to be accused of murder of those who sadly contract AIDS, then if 10% of the people engage in sex and die as a result of your telling to take a chance on a condom, why are YOU not in part responsible for the murder of those individuals?

[narses]

If you only want to have sex ONCE, is a 10% chance of a fatal illness worth it? In a 10% failure rate environment, how often must one have sex before you are likely to die? 10 times? 100 times? And how will you expect poor african truck drivers to ALWAYS correctly use pristine and undamaged condoms?

The Vatican promotes an honest, life giving, moral approach. The medical-industrial establishment promotes a profit driven culture of death.

[narses]

"90% safer is better than 100% unsafe"

That is ONE TIME thinking. The FACT is that AIDS is a disease of promiscuity. Encouraging condom use encourages the disease vector. It is imoral.

[WackyKat]

In a free society, the Church has a right to her beliefs, and to force her to promte sin is, frankly, totalitarian.

Get off your persecution pedestal, no one's "forcing" the Church to do anything.

I am criticizing the Church for what is a despicable position straight out of the Dark Ages.

Condoms greatly reduce the chances of getting AIDS. That is a scientific fact. For a bunch of old, (supposedly) celibate men to say otherwise is a LIE, and it is a LIE that will kill people.

[narses]

Yep. It is the profit motive gone evil.

[Unam Sanctam]

You are deliberately misrepresenting Cardinal Trujillo. He nowhere says that one should have sex but not use condoms. In accordance with Catholic teaching, one should abstain outside of marriage.

[narses]

"Condoms greatly reduce the chances of getting AIDS."

Not true. All it takes is ONE failure and the victim has a death sentence. Condom use promotes the very activity that spreads the disease, promiscuity. It is evil and death dealing. It is a LIE, and it is a LIE that will kill people.

[honeygrl]

"If you only want to have sex ONCE, is a 10% chance of a fatal illness worth it? "

See the thing is, telling me things like that is useless. I'm married. I have sex only with my husband BUT WE STILL USE CONDOMS. Why? We can't afford another child. You going to tell us to abstain?

And no matter how much everyone wants the people in Africa with AIDS to abstain, they aren't going to do it. That doesn't mean I agree with them having sex. That just means I don't live in a fantasy world.

[cyborg]

What is RCC doing to address the belief in witchdoctor and superstition that often fuels the methods of AIDS transmission in Africa? Such as having sex with virgins (which means children and babies unfortunately), and having anal sex (the most common mode of transmission)... Not sure about Asia, there's a lot of prostitution and child whoredom there.

What the population control and Planned Parenthood brigade don't want people to know is that in places like Uganda, AIDS rate has plateau'd out because of abstinence education.

[narses]

You claim that "Condoms greatly reduce the chances of getting AIDS."

Botswana and Zimbabwe are ranked among the top countries world-wide for HIV prevalence. Yet both countries are condom-friendly and make condoms readily available. In 1991, Uganda also had an HIV infection rate of more than 20%. By 2001, however, the rate was only 6%.

A 2002 Harvard study conducted by anthropologist Edward C. Green and Vinand Nantulya, an infectious-disease specialist, revealed the cause of the discrepancies between Uganda's HIV infection rate and those of other heavily infected countries. Uganda had begun a program focusing on abstinence and fidelity instead of condoms. While the rate of HIV infection in every other country continued to escalate, Uganda's fell dramatically. (Lest there be any concern over the researchers' religious zeal, Mr. Green describes himself as a "flaming liberal" who does not attend church.)"

Care for ketchup on your crow?

[narses]

See post 32. It details the REAL WORLD in Africa.

[Snidely Whiplash]

The Church has every right to belief artificial birth control to be sinful and to say so.

They do not, however, have the right to lie in the furtherance of that belief, especially when the lives of thousands if not more could hang in the balance.

Snidely

[Unam Sanctam]

Condoms greatly reduce the chances of getting AIDS. That is a scientific fact. For a bunch of old, (supposedly) celibate men to say otherwise is a LIE, and it is a LIE that will kill people.

It is not a lie to state that condoms are not foolproof. The same sex ideologues do not state that. It is therefore they who are lying if they say that condoms will prevent transmission of AIDS. I suppose I am supposed to feel much better about potential persecution now that you have shown your immense tolerance for others' religious beliefs with your gratuitous slurs, e.g. "dark ages", "old, (supposedly) celibate) men". I supposed you feel good to whack the God damned ol' Church one, don't you? As for being forced, there are forces at work at the UN and elsewhere who in fact are working to force Catholic institutions to defy her beliefs and promote condom use and promiscuity. In fact there are legislators and lobbyists in this country who are doing this as we speak. And the rhetorical hatred spewed at the Catholic Church, calling it a "murderer" for merely stating a scientific fact and for promoting its beliefs implies that the Church is not merely in the wrong for holding its position, but for not affirmatively acting contrary to its beliefs.

[Unam Sanctam]

Please quote one "lie" that has been stated. That condoms are not 100% foolporoof is a fact. To imply otherwise is a lie.

[honeygrl]

" All it takes is ONE failure and the victim has a death sentence. "

It only takes one accident to die in a car crash. It only takes one fall down a flight of stairs to break your neck. It only take one bullet in a gun to kill you. Yet, we try our best to make all of those things as safe as possible even though nothing makes any of them 100% safe. So, let's tell everyone to abstain from driving cars, using stairs, or owning guns and see how that works.

[cookcounty]

The press is so screwy. Look again at the quote of Trujillo, then look at the characterization

Trujillo's words: "These margins of uncertainty, should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do, with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger."

The Characterization of these comments: Trujillo, President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, called on governments to urge people not to use condoms.

Trujillo is pointing out the fact that the use of condoms does not constitute "safe sex." Condoms fail, that's why they have a disclaimer on the packaging. Failure rates are about 3%, and that isn't for transmission of HIV, that's for transmission of semen. If a person engages is serial sex acts with infected individuals, while using condoms, they will almost certainly be involved in transmission of the virus.

Sex is a frequently repeated act (maybe not at some folk's houses) , whether you stop for stop signs 97% of the time or none of the time, at the end of a year, the result will be the same---you'll be dead.

Trujillo is complaining that political entities are completely failing to make this known, hence the on-going spread of AIDS, albeit a tad slower.

[narses]

See post 38 instead.

[WackyKat]

You obviously don't understand statistics.
Condoms greatly reduce the rate of AIDS transmissions.
You would rather people die while you look on feeling morally superior and saying it is their fault for not abstaining from sex.
If abstaining from sex is so easy, why can't Catholic priests do it?
I would rather people use condoms and live. If that makes them and me "sinners" in your eyes, then so be it.
I think my position is much more morally defensible than yours.