Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Tim ReidyMarch 25, 2009

The British online journal Thinking Faith has published a provocative article by the Jesuit Michael Czerny defending the pope’s criticism of condom use in the fight against AIDS. Here are the key paragraphs:

On the second issue of a strategy for whole populations, there is widespread belief that condom-use programmes are effective in reducing HIV infection rates. However, this proves true only outside Africa and amongst identifiable sub-groups (e.g. prostitutes, gay men), not in a general population. There is no evidence that condoms as a public health strategy have reduced HIV levels at the level of the whole population. Indeed, greater availability and use of condoms is consistently associated with higher (not lower) HIV infection rates, perhaps because when one uses a risk reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) because people take greater chances than they would without the technology.

Therefore at the public level, an aggressive condoms policy ‘increases the problem’ as it deflects attention, credibility and resources from more effective strategies like abstinence and fidelity – or in secular language, the postponement of sexual debut and a reduction in the proportion of men and women reporting multiple sexual partners. Abstinence and fidelity win little public support in dominant Western discourse, but they are vindicated by solid scientific research and are increasingly included, even favoured, in national AIDS strategies in Africa.

Tim Reidy

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
16 years 3 months ago
Christian Health Professionals and Bishop Kevin Dowling Discuss HIV/AIDS Prevention http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/news-2006-04-29.html A Catholic case for condoms http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/24/a_catholic_case_for_condoms

The latest from america

Although the IRS recently allowed religious organizations to address their faithful about electoral politics, the Church will not speak on specific candidates.
“We must pray for the conversion of many people, inside and outside of the church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” Pope Leo XIV said while celebrating a new formulary of the Mass “for the care of creation.”
A Reflection for the Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Ashley McKinless
Ashley McKinlessJuly 08, 2025
No one ever expected a U.S.-born pope. In this first-ever I “Inside the Vatican” Deep Dive series, those who know him best reveal who Pope Leo XIV—“the American pope”—really is. In Episode 1, we hear from the genealogist who uncovered his Louisiana roots, a teacher, and fellow Augustinian friars
Inside the VaticanJuly 08, 2025