Though it’s 2003, it seems the Vatican hasn’t quite
gone through the scientific revolution. Church officials say
condoms are ineffective in preventing the spread of HIV, and that
AIDS “has grown so fast because of the availability of
condoms.”
These baseless claims, which were reported on the BBC program
“Sex and the Holy City,” are irresponsible and pose a
dangerous public health threat, considering the substantial number
of Roman Catholics in the world. What’s worse is this
misguided medical advice seems like just another way for the Pope
and friends to take a moral stance against homosexuality and birth
control.
“The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the
spermatozoon (which) can easily pass through the “˜net’
that is formed by the condom,” said Cardinal Alfonso Lopez
Trujillo, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the
Family.” He argues that sperm and HIV can easily pass through
condoms via microscopic perforations, a claim the World Health
Organization and similar groups strongly deny.
Trujillo’s rebuttal to such contentions was limited to:
“They are wrong about that … this is an easily recognizable
fact.”
Not to me it isn’t.
How the Church thinks it can suddenly refute nearly two decades
of scientific research is mind-boggling. Yet, as if it were the
Middle Ages, Catholic priests from South America to Asia have taken
it upon themselves to spread false words about permeable condoms,
The Guardian reports.
Such a dogmatic and clearly erroneous stance on condoms will go
largely ignored in developed nations such as the United States.
However, the Vatican’s uncompromising position will
undoubtedly fuel the AIDS epidemic where the problem is already at
its worst: developing nations with large uneducated populations and
substantial poverty.
For instance, a 2000 survey reported there are 117 million
Catholics living in Africa. According to Avert.org, there are 29.4
million people living with HIV in the same area. That amounts to
117 million Catholics who are not only at high risk for AIDS, but
who are also susceptible to statements made by Church leaders about
the disease.
In Kenya, where the BBC reports one in five people are HIV
positive, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki, the Archbishop of Nairobi was
quoted saying: “AIDS … has grown so fast because of the
availability of condoms.” It’s one thing for the bishop
to take a moral stance on birth control based on the absolutist
principles of the Bible, but Church leaders should not spread moral
propaganda under the guise of clinical advice.
In addition to the Vatican’s failure to recognize this
important distinction, the Church has added further insult to
injury with its severe stance on homosexuality ““ an issue
strongly tied to the use of condoms and sexual morality.
In a recently published “ethical glossary,” Vatican
officials once again assumed the role of doctors, calling
homosexuality an issue of “unresolved psychological
conflicts.”
Wow. So not only does the Church now employ credible
epidemiologists, but psychoanalysts as well. If the Church has a
problem with gay men, they should just point to the Bible as the
basis of their reasoning, rather than coming up with
pseudoscientific, Swiss cheese-like arguments.
In all fairness, The Washington Post reports the Catholic Church
provides more care to infected patients in Africa than any other
institution. For all the silly comments it makes, the Church does a
lot of good. What seems to be the problem is a failure to
“separate moral judgment “¦ from the public health issue
of protecting people,” noted John Kaldor, Australian deputy
director of the Center for HIV Epidemiology and Research
Whatever else happens, the Pope should learn a lesson from our
good friends Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton and get with the
times.
Dang is a third-year political science student.