Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 19, 2001
Carmel Rickard
This week a group of nuns calling themselves "Sisters for Justice in Johannesburg", said they supported the approach of Bishop Kevin Dowling who had expressed concern about the position of women in the HIV/Aids epidemic because of their vulnerability to sexual oppression and abuse.
The sisters said that the condom issue was "only the surface issue" and that what was really at stake was how the church should express compassion to those "in mortal danger who have no other means of protecting themselves".
A similarly carefully worded document by members of the Dominican Order in Pietermaritzburg said there were many people who had sex outside marriage not simply "for the selfish pursuit of pleasure". Poverty leading to prostitution, and loneliness caused by migrant labour could also explain "risky sexual behaviour".
While abstinence and faithfulness would be better, people who did not share these values could not be allowed simply to die, the order said.
This week, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said his church recognised that condom use was "the greater good or lesser of two evils".
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