Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 27, 2001
Mary Crewe: Director: Centre for the Study of AIDS, University of Pretoria, Pretoria

As the epidemic has taken its grip in southern Africa it is to the church that people turn for support - spiritual, financial - and for care. Orphans and child-headed households also increasingly turn to the church for their guidance and support.

We have always lived in a vulnerable world and the church, it seems to me, has always tried to make us less vulnerable and to make the world safer and more manageable. We are made less vulnerable through advice, support and faith and the world is made more manageable through care and support.

HIV/Aids has moved into and through our society with unprecedented speed.

South Africa is facing not only the fastest growing epidemic in the world, but also perhaps one of the worst managed.

Well over 25% of the sexually active population is living with HIV and the peak of this infection is in young girls 16 - 26 years old. As deaths from Aids increase, household savings are depleted, households disintegrate and family life is destroyed. As Aids deaths increase so too do the numbers of children who are growing up without parenting, without food and often without love - to be the next generation of fathers and mothers and to try and re-establish society.

An epidemic such as HIV/Aids requires exceptional methods to deal with it. It requires exceptional leadership, exceptional vision and courage. So far we have not experienced this in South Africa, and the population, while aware of HIV and Aids, is trying to find ways to live through the epidemic without such leadership, vision and courage.

Their experience of the epidemic, and their mission of compassion and pastoral care placed the leaders of the Catholic church in a position to give this leadership and this vision, and, through courage, to take extraordinary steps to try and find ways in which the epidemic can be stemmed.

The 'Message of hope' issued by the Southern African Bishops' Conference should have been a document that looked for ways in which this epidemic could be addressed, lives saved and hope for the future created. Instead what we have is a message that mocks hope, that shows neither vision, nor courage,nor leadership.

On almost every part of their statement the bishops are wrong.

Their message of hope shows a terrible lack of understanding of where Aids programmes, campaigns and thinking have progressed. They display an ignorance of research and cling to old cliches that are as unhelpful as they are wrong.

There is overwhelming evidence to show that condoms do protect against HIV.

There is overwhelming evidence to show that when young people are given honest, open and reliable education about sex, sexuality and safe sex - including condoms - first sexual initiation is delayed, the level of sexual activity drops and young people feel secure enough to negotiate through the difficult terrain of peer pressure and the demand for sex from older people.

There is overwhelming evidence to show that many young people are targeted for sex by older people and that ignorance about their options is what places them at risk, rather than a wanton lack of self control.

There is a great deal of evidence to show that it is condoms that give people the confidence to feel safe in sex and to enjoy sex as a 'beautiful act of love".

There is a great deal of evidence to show that the demand for sex without condoms by older men turns the act of sex from one based on love and respect into a selfish search for pleasure.

Indeed, in an epidemic such as South Africa is facing, the use of condoms demonstrates training in self control, demonstrates a responsible sexual behaviour and enhances self respect and respect for others.

It is condoms that can bring back all the values so dear to the bishops in sexual behaviour and sexual respect and self control.

The Bishops got it wrong because they have not heard the research on condoms, nor listened to the stories of sexually active people.

The fact that despite the severity of the epidemic so few people use condoms is complicated by the fact that the Bishops have taken a stand that undermines the use of condoms and because there are not enough condoms available to South Africans. Far from having a widespread and indiscriminate promotion of condoms, there is a serious shortage of condoms. Condoms should be promoted within the context of self control, discipline and 'love'. The preservation of life, rather than the prevention of life, is what matters above all else.

Many people have struggled to follow Christ's way - a struggle that has been waged for many centuries. While trying to follow Christ's way, and sometimes failing, it is essential that young people can be safe at all times. As HIV is transmitted through sex and as the Bishops have come out so clearly implying that HIV is a result of sin, of the 'wrong sex' and of a personal failure, it is hypocritical to ask that people with HIV and Aids live openly. People with HIV and Aids can only live openly with the disease in a world of compassion and acceptance, not in a world that judges and damns in the manner and language of the Bishops.

The bishops make a claim for morality. They argue that Christ's way is the moral way - they argue that only sex within marriage is the moral way, and claim that this morality will be what protects people from HIV. Here again they are wrong. Here again they show their total ignorance of the reality of this epidemic and their lack of compassion and understanding about human life.

In an epidemic of this magnitude and this nature the only morality is that of saving lives. The only option is to make sure that all people know what will save their lives and how to act upon that information. Certainly abstinence will protect from infection, but to premise an Aids strategy on the hope of abstinence is an naive as it is dangerous.

Clearly mutually faithful marriages will protect from infection, but to premise an Aids response on such marriages is as simplistic as it is dangerous.

The 'Message of hope' is a message that will increase the risk of infection, make people more vulnerable and ensure that behaviours are ignored or pushed underground.

The message of hope is one that ensures silence, promotes dishonesty and which offers no hope,leadership or vision. It is an old message, we have all heard it before - it is not looking at the reality of the epidemic and taking steps of exceptional courage to deal with it.

And when the bishops are judged;when the day of judgement comes, I would expect that their god will say - you knew that to save lives you had to be honest, have integrity and show leadership and courage. In refusing to save people's lives, in refusing to open debate, in being complacent about unimaginable levels of death and suffering, you have failed us all. In allowing dogma and ignorance to stand in the way of life and protection, you have lost your claim to morality - you failed by not offering the message of life and on that you will be judged.

The bishops have failed us all - but most of all they have failed their own Christianity.
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