VATICAN CITY, Nov 30 (AFP) - The Vatican on Tuesday reiterated its view that chastity and responsible sexual behaviour are the best way of avoiding AIDS, in a message on the eve of World AIDS Day.
In a message to the worldwide episcopal conference, the Mexican cardinal charged with pastoral care at the Vatican, Javier Lozano Barragan, echoed Pope John Paul II's view that AIDS is a "pathology of the mind".
"To fight it in a responsible way, you have to increase prevention, through education on the respect of the sacred values of life, as well as the correct practice of sexuality," the prelate said.
The Vatican has come under intense fire over its AIDS policy and was forced to defend its opposition to condoms, backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a means of avoiding infection with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
It has also controversially maintained that condoms do not protect against HIV, despite a broad scientific consensus that condoms are impermeable to the human immuno-deficiency virus.
The cardinal said that education, reduced prices of AIDS treatments and elimination of all kinds of discrimination against people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome should be used to fight the killer disease.
On Wednesday, a 40-year-old US citizen, Victor Mooney, who is an activist in the fight against the fatal disease, was to receive the pope's blessing at his weekly audience.
In February Mooney plans to row solo from Senegal to Brazil, then to New York, to promote the papal message of "abstinence, responsibility and prevention" as weapons against AIDS.
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