Voices on the Church's Condom Policy

PRO-CHURCH POLICY

"The truth is not in condoms or clean needles. These are lies, lies perpetrated often for political reasons on the part of public officials…by some health care professionals who believe they have nothing else to offer persons with AIDS…lies told by often well-meaning counselors."
Cardinal John O'Connor, accusing health care professionals of dishonesty in promoting condoms ["Pope Condemns Bias Against Victims of AIDS," Washington Post, November 16, 1989].

"Every condom sold sends the buyer to acquire the AIDS virus."
Fr. Gerald Magera Iga, in a campaign urging condom sellers in Uganda to burn up their stocks [Comtex newswire, January 25, 1999].

"Parents must reject the promotion of so-called 'safe sex' or 'safer sex,' a dangerous and immoral policy based on the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against AIDS."
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo and Bishop Elio Sgreccia of the Pontifical Council for the Family ["The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality," Origins, February 1, 1996].

"Using a condom to protect oneself against HIV amounts to playing Russian roulette."
Fr. Jacques Suaudeau, of the Vatican Council for the Family, in the Catholic journal Medicina e Morale [Our Sunday Visitor, Nov. 2, 1997].

"Use of this product is harmful to health."
Condom warning label suggested by Mexico City Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera [La Jornada (Mexico), August 29, 1997].

"[W]idespread and indiscriminate promotion of condoms [is] an immoral and misguided weapon in our battle against HIV-AIDS. …[C]ondoms may even be one of the main reasons for the spread of HIV-AIDS."

From the text of a statement issued by the bishops of South Africa following their semiannual meeting, where they considered a change in their official condoms policy in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic [Karen DeYoung, "AIDS challenges religious leaders,"
Washington Post, August 13, 2001].


CON-CHURCH POLICY

"When priests preach against using contraception, they are committing a serious mistake which is costing human lives. We do not ask the church to promote contraception, but merely to stop banning its use."
UNAIDS Director Peter Piot, shortly after the recent United Nations' AIDS meeting ["Church's stand against contraception costs lives," Agence France Presse, June 29, 2001].

"Death control is the issue, not birth control. The African bishops should speak this truth not to save the soul of Catholicism, nor to redeem a generation of lost Catholics—although they would—but simply to save the lives of the people with whom they have been entrusted by God."
Novelist and former Catholic priest James Carroll ["Dismantling the Church's Structure of Death," Boston Globe, July 24, 2001].

"I challenge the Vatican to redefine its attitude to condoms. The current Roman Catholic theology is one that favors death rather than life."
Gunnar Staalseth, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize committee and a bishop in Norway's Lutheran church, following a meeting with Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations ["Nobel committee member criticizes pope over AIDS," Reuters, August 21, 2001].

"The Catholic church ... opposes contraception but most Catholics in the world use it, so the Catholic church is stuck and wrong on these questions. But lots and lots of Catholics ignore the Catholic church's teaching, including lots of good priests and nuns who are in favor of condoms being made available."
Claire Short, the UK's minister for international development, speaking about the church being a "burden" in the effort against AIDS in Africa [Sue McGregor, "HIV/AIDS-Claire Short interview," BBC News, July 17, 2000].

"The current Roman Catholic theology is one that favors death rather than life. [The Vatican's] 'better-dead-than-condomed' position has not been blessed by any of the world's religions or by common sense. It is flat-earth embarrassing."
Theologian Daniel C. Maguire on the Vatican's opposition to the use of condoms in HIV/AIDS prevention programs ["Vaticanology," Religious Consultation Report, November 2000].

"The "changeless doctrine" keeps coming back in many absurd ways. For instance, the danger of AIDS cannot be averted by using condoms…even by a married couple when one has AIDS.... The condom is more evil than death by AIDS."
Gary Wills [Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit. New York: Doubleday, 2000].

"If a husband violates his marital vows and sleeps with other women, he must make sure that he does not transmit the virus to his wife, else he would be violating the principle of justice. This is where the principle of 'lesser evil' comes in."
American Jesuit theologian Fr. James Keenan, addressing a media forum in the Philippines ["Catholic theologian endorses condom use to prevent transmission of HIV," The Advocate, August 10, 2001].

"Many competent doctors state that a viable condom is today the sole means of prevention. In this respect, it is necessary. The condom is thus understandable for cases in which a person who already engages in sexual activity needs to avoid a serious risk, just as we insist that this is not a substitute for an adult sexual education."
AIDS statement from the French Conference of Catholic Bishops ["French Catholic Bishops Stray from Teaching on Condoms," Catholic World Report, February 12, 1996].

"The use of a condom can be seen not as a means to prevent the 'transmission of life' leading to pregnancy, but rather as a means to prevent the 'transmission of death' to another."
Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, on the need to change the church's policy on condoms in the fact of the AIDS epidemic ["Condoms for Catholics?" Newsweek, July 20, 2001].