Controversy
The Pope on condoms and the AIDS crisis
By Father Alphonse de Valk

Hardcopy Issue Date: May 2009
Online Publication Date: Apr 2, 2009, 19:41

“The world … hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil” (John 7.7). Christ is the just one, humiliated and persecuted by the wicked.

It is no different for his vicar on earth, Pope Benedict.

The press had carefully prepared the condom controversy. On March 16, with the Pope still in Rome, the Associated Press (AP) speculated that the question might come up on the Pope’s first trip to Africa (“Africa awaits Pope”). The next day, while on board the Alitalia plane flying to Cameroon, five reporters were allowed to ask the Holy Father one question each. Associated Press reporter Victor Simpson was ready to wire the news around the world. The fourth questioner, reporter Philippe Visseyrias from TV France 2, asked what AP wanted to hear; indeed, what AP probably had requested him to ask.

Visseyrias: Holiness, among the many evils that scourge Africa, there is also and in particular that of the spread of AIDS. The position of the Catholic Church on the way to fight against this is often regarded as unrealistic and ineffective. Will you address this topic during the trip? Very Holy Father, would it be possible for you to answer this question in French?

Benedict XVI: I would say the contrary. I think that the most efficient reality, the most present at the front of the struggle against AIDS, is precisely the Catholic Church, with her movements, with her various organizations. I am thinking of the Sant'Egidio Community that does so much, visibly and also invisibly, for the struggle against AIDS, of the Camilliani, of all the sisters who are at the disposition of the sick.

I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome only with publicity slogans. If there is not the soul, if the Africans are not helped, the scourge cannot be resolved with the distribution of condoms; on the contrary, they increase it. The solution can only be found in a double commitment: first, a humanization of sexuality; that is, a spiritual and human renewal that brings with it a new way of behaving with one another; and second, a true friendship, also and above all for those who suffer, the willingness – even with sacrifice and self-denial – to be with the suffering. And these are the factors that help and that lead to visible progress.

Because of this, I would say that our double effort to renew man interiorly, to give spiritual and human strength for correct behaviour with regard to one's body and that of another, and this capacity to suffer with those who suffer, remain present in situations of trial. It seems to me that this is the correct answer, and the Church does this and thus offers a very great and important contribution. We thank all those who do this.

It was a dignified, truthful, and one might say, magnificent answer, directly to the point, crushing publicists and atheists in one swoop. Naturally, these responded with fury when Victor Simpson’s account reached them (“Pope says condoms not the answer to fighting AIDS,” March 17). Simpson himself already had inserted a quote acquired beforehand; namely, from Rebecca Hodes with the (AID) Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, who said: “His opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him then the lives of Africans.”

This view would echo around the Western world of atheist AIDS professionals in Europe and America, including Canada’s Stephen Lewis, who oracled that the Pope was “living on the moon,” and England’s medical journal, The Lancet, which stated that, “Benedict has distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine” (“The Pope’s dangerous mistake,” The Lancet, March 28 2009).

What about the one Portuguese and two German bishops who expressed their opposition to the Pope’s position? Well, it was ever such. And three out of 4,800 is not exactly overwhelming. What is more to the point is that the Holy Father’s cultural, as well as scientific, understanding of condoms is correct and that of The Lancet and its allies wrong.

1) The distribution of condoms has not controlled AIDS
2) Condoms promote promiscuity, unlike abstinence, which kills it
3) In the Western world, the use of condoms has led to an increase of venereal diseases like syphilis
4) And: a) condoms themselves are unreliable, with a significant failure rate. Their use is a form of Russian Roulette. For a recent example, see Althia Ray, “Do condoms really work? Popular protection may be riskier then you think” (Ottawa Sun, March 29, 2009). b) their use is subject to wear and tear, especially by inexperienced users who greatly outnumber the perfect applicators of the propagandists.
5) Finally, promoting the use of condoms is an insult to Africans and all other users who supposedly are unable to control the vice of lust. It demeans their humanity right from the start.

Note: For a full exposition of the above issue, see the related article by Dr. John B. Shea, “A critique of the angry response to Pope Benedict.”

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