Inter Press Service - July 16, 2001
Anthony Stoppard

The Catholic Church has traditionally been opposed to the use of condoms - or any type of artificial contraception - because they interfere with the creation of life.

"When people for whatever reason choose not to follow the values we promote as Church - within and outside of our community - then the bottom line is the real possibility that a person could transmit a death-dealing virus to another through a sexual encounter.

"Such people, who are living with the virus, must be invited and challenged to take responsibility for their actions and their effect on others. They should use a condom in order to prevent the transmission of potential death to another," says Bishop Kevin Dowling, of Rustenberg, in South Africa's North-West Province. He also is a co-ordinator of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) AIDS Office.

The Catholic Church sees the use of a condom not as a means to prevent the "transmission of life" but rather as a means to prevent the "transmission of death" or potential death to another, Dowling points out. He affirmed his belief in the Catholic Church's position that the only complete safeguard against infection by the HIV and AIDS is abstinence from sex before marriage, and faithfulness to one's partner in marriage.

He also made it clear that he was not speaking on behalf of the SACBC. "My personal stance on this issue comes out of much reflection, not to say anguish over the enormity of the suffering of people in the AIDS pandemic, which I have experienced in a very personal way in my own ministry and support of AIDS programmes in the diocese'', he explains.

His views - and that of others in the AIDS Office - are contained in a draft pastoral statement that will be considered by a plenary of the SACBC, scheduled for Jul 24. The SACBC has not issued any official statement on the discussion document - which is still being circulated to its bishops. Indications are that the SACBC will not comment on the draft statement until after its plenary meeting.

However, the Archbishop of the coastal city of Durban, Denis Hurley, has reportedly backed Dowling's stance. The SACBC AIDS Office supports 85 programmes and projects in Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa. This makes it one of the largest anti-HIV and AIDS programmes in Southern Africa and active in four of the five countries with the highest HIV and AIDS infection rates in the world.

The programmes include education and prevention projects where teachers in primary and secondary schools in the Catholic network, and elsewhere, are trained to deal with sexuality and AIDS.

Orphan care and placement is another priority for the AIDS Office. At Winterveldt, a poverty-stricken area north of Johannesburg, it brings AIDS orphans to a Church centre where they receive proper treatment, food and support, plus care for the day.

Other programmes are trying to develop a network that will provide support to parents that take in orphans in a foster care programme. This programme will be an important focus for the office over the coming years as it is enormously complex. There is a need to change people's attitudes, to develop a spirit of caring and fostering in communities and to find a way to provide food and medical support for foster families. Once enough funding is secured, the office hopes to build a small eco-village to provide homes for families who are willing to foster and care for AIDS orphans.

The Office also has a great number of home-care and counselling programmes in all five countries where they operate. Members of the community are trained in counselling and home-care work and receive certificates at the end of their course. These people are paid a stipend for their work - to enable them live - and are provided with the medical kits they need for home-care work.

There are also several in-patient units in which terminally ill people with AIDS - and with no-one to care for them - are brought so that they can be supported and cared for in an environment where they can die with dignity.

The office also is setting-up a Mother to Child Transmission Prevention Programme (MTCT). Once an evaluation is complete and the support structures are in place, they hope to begin the programme in August by providing Nevirapine, which will be bought with funding, to pregnant mothers to reduce the incidence of transmission to the child.

Later, the office is planning to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to provide a cocktail of anti-retrovirals that will keep the mothers on the MTCT programme alive as long as possible.
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