Fidelity in
marriage and premarital abstinence from sex are the key
weapons in the fight against AIDS, a senior Vatican
cardinal, who prepared a study on condom use, said
Wednesday. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who heads
the Vatican office for health care, told the
Associated Press that it was not yet known whether the
Vatican would issue a document about the use of
condoms after examining the study his office had
prepared at the request of Pope Benedict XVI.
But, on the
sidelines of a conference on AIDS sponsored by the U.S.
Embassy to the Holy See, he said the request for the study
''shows the desire of the pope'' to battle AIDS and
demonstrates that ''he is not indifferent to this
difficult problem.'' The Vatican study on condoms
deals only with married couples in which one partner has
HIV.
In remarks to the
conference, Barragan reiterated church teaching on how
to prevent the spread of HIV, saying individuals must ''have
the courage to proclaim clearly chastity'' in a
society in which sex is part of the pursuit of
pleasure.
The study on
condoms was prepared with the help of scientists,
theologians, and other experts exploring scientific, moral,
and technical points of view. The Roman Catholic
Church opposes the use of condoms as part of its
overall teaching against contraception. It advocates sexual
abstinence and sexual faithfulness between husband and wife
as the best ways to combat the spread of HIV.
But several
leading churchmen have spoken out on the issue in recent
years as the Vatican has come under increasing criticism.
Some, such as retired Milan cardinal Carlo Maria
Martini, say condoms were the ''lesser evil'' in
combating the spread of AIDS. Barragan, of Mexico, has said
condoms could sometimes be condoned, such as when a woman
cannot refuse her HIV-positive husband's sexual
advances.
Other cardinals,
however, have rejected the idea that condoms could be
used, including Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, who has
contended that condoms may help spread AIDS through a
false sense of security.
Karen Stanecki,
a senior adviser to the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS, told the conference that AIDS is on
the rise among married women, including in Ghana,
where married women were three times as likely as
nonmarried women to be infected. ''There is a concern that
the messages need to be changing,'' said Stanecki, referring
to the long-standing warnings targeting higher-risk
populations like sexually active gay men and
intravenous-drug users.
She said U.N.
officials were ''very pleased that Pope Benedict has been
speaking more about AIDS in his speeches.'' (AP)