The Catholic Church and the Scourge of AIDS
Errol C. Fernandes—HLI Bombay
November 2004


1st December is observed as World AIDS Day, and NGO’s and Public Health officials get a lot of media coverage for what they are supposedly doing to fight AIDS.

In the process, people tend to think that the Catholic only lectures on sexual morality but do not address the problem of AIDS, especially in Third World countries. Let’s look at some facts:

The Catholic Church alone is responsible for the care of 26.7% of AIDS patients worldwide, and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers is constantly looking for new ways and means to combat the problem, particularly in Africa where there are 38 million AIDS patients and three times that number infected with the HIV virus.

Many accuse the Catholic Church of aiding the spread of HIV infection and AIDS by teaching against the use of condoms. But the facts speak otherwise. Look at Botswana for example. This rich African country has the highest distribution of condoms, but 39% of its population is infected with AIDS.
Most people think condoms guarantee protection from HIV and AIDS. How valid is this idea?
Consider this:

• In observes trials with couples always using condoms for one year, between 10% and 20% have a pregnancy. That is, of 100 couples always using condoms, between 10 and 20 couples will have a pregnancy within one year?
• A woman can get pregnant is she has intercourse on 4 days in her cycle. In contrast, the HIV virus that causes AIDS can be transmitted either way (man to woman, woman to man) on any day of her cycle.
• If the condom has been proved, by trials, to be so unreliable in preventing pregnancies, how can it ever be relied upon to prevent the transmission of HIV-AIDS?
  By offering a guarantee of protection against the spread of HIV-AIDS, which it cannot provide, the promotion of condoms in the name of “safe sex” has actually changed people’s behavior and moved many into a high risk extra-marital sexual lifestyle. In effect, the promotion of condoms in the name of “safe sex” has actually contributed to the spread of AIDS.