The Catholic Church might be one of the largest providers of HIV/AIDS
care facilities in the world. But researchers, scientists and believers
who have been waiting for Catholic Church's approval of condom use are
left disappointed.
At the conference held over the weekend Vatican
announced that its long-standing opposition against condom use to
prevent HIV/AIDS will not be altered.
Statements issued by Pope Benedict XVI during the past years had
ignited the hopes of condom promoters, mainly due to its ambiguity.
One
such statement published in Vatican newspaper in November 2010 had the
Pope saying that condoms can be justified in certain cases,"in the
intention of reducing the risk of infection".
The statement was in the
context of protecting male prostitutes from Sexually Transmitted
Diseases (STD).
As it turns out, even now, at the eve of 30th year since
HIV/AIDS was first detected, Church is not willing to let believers go
easy with their lives.
Greater issues like moral obligation and responsible living seem to
be the focal points of Vatican's approach on HIV/AIDS prevention.
Church's unyielding attitude has taken many by surprise particularly
because the 2009 official statistics on AIDS showed a staggering number
of more than 33 million infected population world wide, a steep increase
from the 8 million in 1990.
Greater precautions like restrained
lifestyle and accountability are sure winners, but a more progressive
stand on condoms to help the STD risk groups is not too much to ask for.
Turning away from something as ubiquitous as condom in the 21st
century might even render the Church completely out-dated, according to
condom advocates.
When Church is all about informed decision making, large section of
doctors and researchers believe that it isn't the lack of information
that is leading people to risky actions.
At least for some people sex is
a means of survival. Church will not include condom in the disease
prevention facility, thus closing a free access door to condoms for the
sex workers.
"The option to be faithful to a single partner within
marriage just doesn't obtain in these (survival sex) situations. That is
where the issue of the use of a condom, not for contraceptive purposes,
but to prevent the transmission of a death-dealing virus, comes into
play", says Bishop Kevin Dowling, best known for his pro-condom
attitude.
Vatican newspaper had published an article before the conference, by
Father Juan Perez-Soba, which maintained that condoms would make AIDS
worse by promoting indulgent lifestyle.
He advocated abstinence as the
best path to take if you happen to have a HIV-infected partner in
marriage.