Harvard AIDS Expert: Pope Correct on Condom Distribution

By John-Henry Westen
3/20/2009
LifeSiteNews (www.lifesitenews.com)

The pope is correct...or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments.

I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem.

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BOSTON (LifeSiteNews.com) - Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has said that the evidence confirms that the Pope is correct in his assessment that condom distribution exacerbates the problem of AIDS.

"The pope is correct," Green told National Review Online Wednesday, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments."

"There is," Green added, "a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded 'Demographic Health Surveys,' between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction 'technology' such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by 'compensating' or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology." ( see the full interview with Green here: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTNlNDc1MmMwNDM0OTEzMjQ...= )

The full text of Pope Benedict XVI's exchange with the reporter, which has set off a firestorm around the world in the media, has been released by the Vatican press office.

The pope was asked, "Holy Father among the many evils that affect Africa there is also the particular problem of the spread of AIDS. The position of the Catholic Church for fighting this evil is frequently considered unrealistic and ineffective.?"

Benedict XVI replied, "I would say the opposite.

"It is my belief that the most effective presence on the front in the battle against HIV/AIDS is precisely the Catholic Church and her institutions. I think of the Community of Sant' Egidio, which does so much, visibly and invisibly to fight AIDS, of the Camillians, of all the nuns that are at the service of the sick.

"I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness - even through personal sacrifice - to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.

"Therefore, I would say that our double effort is to renew the human person internally, to give spiritual and human strength to a way of behaving that is just towards our own body and the other person's body; and this capacity of suffering with those who suffer, to remain present in trying situations.

"I believe that this is the first response [to AIDS] and that this is what the Church does, and thus, she offers a great and important contribution. And we are grateful to those that do this."

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1 - 8 of 8 Comments

Patrick O'Connell
4 years ago
amen
Charles Erwin RN
4 years ago
It's very simple. The only way to stop HIV from being sexually transmitted from person to person is to maintain a long term one on one sexual relationship (also called marriage between a man and woman) without any outside relationship, and both knowing from the start of their marriage that they are both HIV negative and outside a window period of 3-6 months, although 6 months is preferable when completing an HIV-ab test.

Condoms only give the user a false sense of freedom to have multiple sex partners, and the possibility of "forgetting" to use one consistently. Not to mention the chance of the condom either slipping off or breaking during use. CONDOMS ARE JUST NOT THE ANSWER. The only answer is a faithful marriage of a man and women knowing both are free from std's.
Eleanor
4 years ago
The pope has expressed globally what we who are really following the Church's teaching faithfully, has expressed in our own little ways. Wherever God sends us to evangelize, we carry the banner of Christ and His Church to fight against this evil.

Let us be loyal to the teaching of truth.
Stan Chizoba
4 years ago
The outcry of the so called leaders and condom sellers and advertisers when looked at from the faith perspective is a deadly ploy of the agents of devil. They seem to have perfected an art and ploy of shouting at any statement of the pope to cow him and make him shy away from proclaiming thr authentic truth of the gospel for which God chose and odained him. God is our strenght.
teresa
4 years ago
Let us share this important information with our friends!
claudia mooney
4 years ago
That's what I love so much about our Catholic faith and the Church and the leader of the Church our current pope and all the popes before him. We can always be assured to hear the truth.

The rest is up to us, we can embrace it and fallow it or reject it and suffer the consequences. The truth remains the truth and will set us free.

Claudia
HG
4 years ago
I couldn't agree more with the Holy Father. These so-called experts in fighting against HIV/AIDS by propagating the lies about condom use to prevent the disease are the ones who doesn't know what they are talking about.

Condoms are widely distributed eversince, and these same people are arguing that the AIDS problem will not be solved if they don't do this. This type of argument has been put forth for many years now. But the results that we see is just the opposite. How long will these people realize that their arguments are just as futile as condoms? To make matters worse, they are promoting sexual impurity of many different sorts: sex outside marriage, infidelity against spouses, etc. Evil just breeds more evil.

Perhaps, they can't stand with what the Catholic Church teaches because it will expose their evil deeds and their lust or sex. They don't want the Church to tell them to stop their immoral behaviors.
Holly
4 years ago
God Bless and its about time we heard some sense about this issue.

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