VATICAN CITY: Vatican Sets Up AIDS Foundation While Cardinals Avoid Debate on Condoms

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

VATICAN CITY: Vatican Sets Up AIDS Foundation While Cardinals Avoid Debate on Condoms

Associated Press (12.17.04) - Monday, December 20, 2004

On Friday, the Vatican established the Good Samaritan Foundation to help fund Catholic AIDS organizations. Pope John Paul II set aside $132,000 for GSF, and he is asking "all people of good will, particularly those in the economically advanced nations, to contribute," said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan.

Barragan, who is the pontifical council's leader on health issues, asked people to contribute to GSF even if they disagree with Catholic Church policy that condoms cannot be used to prevent HIV's spread because they are a form of artificial birth control. "Another thing is to help those who are sick, who are dying, while one is discussing condoms yes, condoms no. I don't care, what matters to me is that people are dying and we must help them," said Barragan.

Cardinals have shown signs of disagreement about the use of condoms to protect against HIV transmission. Last year, Vatican Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said condoms do not prevent AIDS and may help it spread by offering people a sense of false security. Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels said later on a Catholic TV program that if an HIV-positive person has sex, "he has to use a condom. Otherwise he will commit a sin" by risking the spread of a deadly virus.

In September, the pope said in his World Day of the Sick message that sexual transmission of HIV is "best avoided above all through responsible conduct and the observance of the virtue of chastity."
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