Cardinal endorses condom use

[cappie]

Cardinal endorses condom use for married couples


Cameroon's cardinal has approved the use of condoms as a protective measure against HIV/Aids, provided the couples using them are married.

"If a partner in a marriage is infected with HIV, the use of condoms makes sense," Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi, Archbishop of Douala, said in an interview with the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Condom use would be permissible only within marriage but "possibly there can be a rethink there", said the 75-year-old cardinal.

The Tablet reports that he said he does not expect the Vatican to stray from its official line against condom use and he agrees with its view that "loyalty and abstention remain still the best protection against AIDS".

HIV infection in Cameroon grew slowly between the late 1980s and 1996, with average incidence among pregnant women in urban areas rising from below 2% to 5%. However, the latest data indicate an HIV prevalence of around 11% in all the West African country's provinces.

Close to one million adults and children are currently living with HIV/Aids in Cameroon and an estimated 210,000 children under 14 have lost one or both parents to Aids.

When the Director of the United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, Dr Peter Piot, visited the country two years ago he called upon the Cameroonian Government to improve its HIV care and prevention programs, and one of its responses has been to urge condom use among high-risk groups.

At that time, Cardinal Tumi lamented the "safe-sex" campaigns that were plastered across billboards in Douala. His current view may have been influenced by the disappointing outcome of an international meeting held in Cameroon last week of scientists involved in the African Aids Vaccine Program. They announced that the prospect of developing a preventive vaccine in the near future remained bleak.

Several church leaders have broken ranks with the Vatican's position over the past two years. In February, Cardinal Georges Cottier, the theologian of the papal household, said the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" should be considered in cases where sexual activity involves a partner who is HIV-positive.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who chairs the Pontifical Council for Health, believes the use of condoms to be acceptable when abstinence is not an option. Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, has said that opposition to condoms amounts to a death sentence for women who cannot insist on abstinence or fidelity.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote]The Tablet reports that he said he does not expect the Vatican to stray from its official line against condom use and he agrees with its view that "loyalty and abstention remain still the best protection against AIDS".[/quote]

Actually, I believe the Vatican said that in the context of also saying that condoms were never acceptable...

We need to pray for this poor Cardinal.

[beatty07]

If you can only do it with a condom, you can't do it. This is going to sound cruel, but is the vocation of marriage still open to people with HIV? I can't imagine how, since there's no way they could open their marriage to children. People who are already married, and one of them contracts the disease...I guess they're called to continence. They'd have a good chance of a canonical separation, but that's probably not a viable option for most women in Cameroon.

It's a horrible thing, and cruel...but it's the disease that's cruel, not the sanctity of the marital bed.

What does he mean by women unable to insist on abstinence? That must mean rape, right? Or at least incredible pressure from an infected husband? The prohibition to contraception applies to the marital act, which rape can never be.The classic example is that nuns who are evangelizing in areas where they are very likely to be raped may employ non-abortifacient contraception in case such a terrible thing should occur.

[Sojourner]

A mother with HIV does not always pass the disease along to her baby. In fact, if I remember correctly, it's more likely the baby will [i]not[/i] have HIV. I interviewed a couple several months ago who adopted two children from an AIDS orphanage in Kenya. Many of the children at the orphanage tested positive initially because of their mothers' infections, but within a year something like 80 percent tested negative. I'll have to look up the exact stats, and I can't do that from home.

While there is a chance an HIV positive mom will give birth to an HIV positive child, it's not as high as you might think.

[photosynthesis]

While condoms do prevent the spread of HIV, the level of protection they provide is small compared to the huge risk.

[jezic]

i am kind of wondering what is going on here .... this is a cardinal?

While i understand that AIDS is raveging countries, condoms aren't taking care of the real problem (sexual promiscuity) and so in the long run won't it just hurt them anyway?

[toledo_jesus]

This is disappointing.

[dspen2005]

his resignation will likely be accepted -- no need to fret much... just pray for him -- all priests and bishops need our prayers.

[tojo]

[quote name='beatty07' date='Nov 6 2005, 08:52 PM']The classic example is that nuns who are evangelizing in areas where they are very likely to be raped may employ non-abortifacient contraception in case such a terrible thing should occur.
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Would you clarify what is meant by this please?

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='dspen2005' date='Nov 7 2005, 11:25 PM']his resignation will likely be accepted -- no need to fret much... just pray for him -- all priests and bishops need our prayers.
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His resignation will likely not be tendered.

[jezic]

there are medicines mothers can take to greatly decrease the chance of passing on the disease to her child.

[jasJis]

I can certainly understand the Cardinals logic. Take into consideration the following example.

A married couple has children. The male spouse has sex outside the marriage and contracts AIDS. The wife cannot force the husband to not have sex with her. Is she then condemned to risk death and given the extreme poverty, risk the lives of the children the marriage produced? Isn't the culpability the husbands and she is acting in self defense? The intent isn't to limit children, but to protect lives of the innocent. The intent is not to close the marriage to life. The sins of husband did that.

It's a deep subject for theologians. Don't dismiss the man arbitrarily.

[jezic]

how does that make contraception right though?

[zabbazooey]

Contraception is never acceptable, even in marriage.

Let us pray for this misguided Cardinal.

[onathing1]

[quote name='zabbazooey' date='Nov 8 2005, 11:08 AM']Contraception is never acceptable, even in marriage.

Let us pray for this misguided Cardinal.
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I agree with you 100%...praying for the poor Cardinal.