ABC method: abstinence, fidelity
and condom use
 An international,
interfaith effort is underway to encourage Pope Benedict XVI to
lift the ban on the use of condoms as a method of preventing the
spread of AIDS. Since he became Pope, 5.5 million people have
acquired the HIV virus and 3.7 million people have died of AIDS-related
causes.
Catholics
for a Free Choice campaign Condoms4Life
has begun an international, interfaith effort to encourage Pope
Benedict XVI to lift the ban on the use of condoms. While a letter
is already available for signing, the campaign will be launched
officially on World AIDS Day.
“The Vatican has announced that it has concluded its study
on condoms to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS. This 200-page
study on condoms, which the Vatican will not make public, has
been passed on to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
for additional theological and doctrinal opinions. Finally it
will end up in Pope Benedict XVI's hands, and he will decide whether
or not to lift the ban on condoms,” says an email message
from Catholic for a Free Choice.
“On World AIDS Day, people from all over the world will
officially begin asking the Pope to help stop the spread of HIV
and AIDS. We need your help to ensure that the Pope receives the
message loud and clear – the ban on condoms is wrong, dangerous
and irresponsible, and it should be lifted as a matter of justice.
“The hierarchy can no longer talk about a culture of life
and turn a blind eye to the suffering and dying. It can no longer
tell people to love and care for one another and deny them the
means by which to protect each other.”
The text of the letter follows …
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Apostolic Palace
VATICAN CITY
Your Holiness:
Today, we are writing to you in solidarity with the approximately
40 million people living with HIV and AIDS and out of concern
for the more than 15 million children who have been orphaned.
We know you share our concern and have supported the many Catholic
health and social service agencies, who have treated those with
HIV and AIDS. In so many ways, the Catholic community has been
an international leader in providing compassionate, non-discriminatory
treatment to those living with HIV and AIDS, and we applaud those
efforts.
We write to you today to express our support for your decision
announced 23 April 2006 for senior theologians and scientists
to prepare a document discussing the use of condoms as a means
of preventing the transmission of HIV. But we urge you to move
forward quickly to set new guidelines for the prevention of this
disease that would enable all agencies that collaborate with the
Catholic community to educate those at risk of the option of using
condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV and AIDS and to actually
provide condoms to those it serves whose conscience leads them
to choose to use them.
For years, Vatican spokespersons and other church officials have
made clear the church’s moral objections to condoms as a
contraceptive.
However, the extension of this position to HIV and AIDS prevention
has resulted in dangerous practices that have contributed to the
spread of HIV and AIDS.
There have been public burnings of condoms, gross distortions
of the statistics on the efficacy of condoms as a preventive and
disregard of the very real human toll of this pandemic by some
whose ecclesiastical objections outweigh concern for the common
good and the promotion of a culture of life.
Indeed, since you became Pope on 19 April 2005, 5.5 million people
have acquired the HIV virus. And 3.7 million people have died
of AIDS-related causes.
As people of faith, both Catholic and not, we urge you to pay
special attention to those bishops and health care workers who
have witnessed the devastation firsthand and who have courageously
spoken out in support of the use of condoms to prevent the spread
of HIV as a stand for life:
We think their witness demonstrates that a culture of life requires
support for a full array of prevention methods, including condoms.
We know that condoms are neither 100 percent effective nor a
simple solution to a complex problem. They remain however the
only hope for those who are sexually active, either voluntarily
or in forced circumstances, such as women who do not have the
right to say no to risky sex.
We believe the world community must offer compassionate quality
care to those already infected with HIV/AIDS, as well as fully
support integrated prevention programs that incorporate women’s
empowerment, sexual education, condom counseling and distribution,
monogamy and abstinence — without discrimination or stigmatization.
We maintain that the most ethical approach to combating HIV and
AIDS is a comprehensive and balanced approach that meets the varied
needs of all people while upholding scientific and medical integrity.
To that end, we believe in and support a comprehensive range of
methods by which to stem the spread of this pandemic, such as:
* the ABC method that equally emphasizes abstinence, fidelity
and condom use, and
* the SAVE approach that emphasizes safer practices, available
medication, voluntary counselling and testing, and empowerment
through education.
As concerned and compassionate people of faith, we are bound
together by moral and ethical values that call on us to address
the global AIDS crisis with compassion and respect for the dignity
and conscience of each person. Most of the world’s religions
have recognized that support for condom education and use freely
chosen reflects those moral values.
We call on you to bring the Catholic community into this religious
consensus and support condom use as an important part of the international
strategy to save lives.
We thank you for your consideration.
For people wishing to take action, you can sign
the letter on line, which puts your name to the above and
also allows you to personalise your message.
Or you can email infor@condoms4life.org
and provide your name, email and country.
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