AEGiS-IRIN: Southern African Bishops Reject Use of Condoms

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Southern African Bishops Reject Use of Condoms

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks - August 5, 2001

Southern African Catholic bishops condemned the use of condoms to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic on Monday, saying it was immoral and dangerous. The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) concluded a seven-day meeting by denouncing the use of condoms, which they said destroyed moral fibre and encouraged casual sex. "The Bishops regard the widespread and indiscriminate promotion of condoms as an immoral and misguided weapon in our battle against HIV/AIDS," the conference said in a statement issued after talks in the South African capital, Pretoria.

Activists, arguing that condom use is integral to any prevention programme, condemned the SACBC position. Nkululeko Nxesi, director of the National Association of People Living with AIDS, said: "The use of condoms provides us with a solution that ensures we scale down the rate of the epidemic. You need a backup system and condoms provide that." According to a recent report in the 'British Medical Journal', when one considers the enormity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, providing condoms is cheap and cost effective.

The report states: "All aspects of HIV control are important, but a first priority must be prevention." It adds that condoms are a crucial feature of prevention. The South African government said it was saddened by the bishops' statement. The national health department said it was incorrect to suggest that condoms might be one of the main reasons for the spread of the disease, as the government had a responsibility to inform the nation of all possible ways to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

But the bishops' stance that condoms were no substitute for abstinence and sexual responsibility was supported by Doctors for Life, a group of some 700 doctors in South Africa. Dr Hyams, a member of Doctors for Life, told IRIN on Friday that "condoms haven't worked," and despite all the money and effort that had been put into the distribution of condoms, the problem of HIV/AIDS had escalated. She suggested that people adopt the message of abstinence as this was the only effective way of controlling HIV/AIDS. The bishops' statement came in spite of growing calls for the Catholic Church to soften its stance on safe sex in the face of the pandemic.

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