In this day and age, one who opposes the use of condoms could be looked at as backwards, maybe ignorant. Though rubber condoms have been around since the 19th century, with the epidemic spread of the HIV/AIDS virus, its popularity and necessity grew. Even with the popularity of condoms, abstinence-warriors — as I like to call them — never stopped. Included among these warriors is the Catholic Church. For nearly two decades the church has shown complete opposition to the common contraceptive, but then came progress.
The abstinence debate — though outdated, even in classrooms — has been the church’s answer, to combating unwanted pregnancy, but also AIDS. During his weeklong trip to Africa last year, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Condoms are not the answer to Africa’s fight against HIV.” The Pope ran the headlines as people listened in shock to his logic, “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms…On the contrary, it increases the problem.”
Most of the morals preached in the Catholic Church usually stay the same. This includes “fidelity in marriage, and abstinence in premarital marriage,” said MSNBC. Par to course the Church beleives that promoting condoms is promoting sex before marriage. The church has stated that sex should be mainly for procreation, and in 1968 Pope Paul VI explained in the “Humanae Vitae” that the use of artificial contraception is a mortal sin.
Africa is the fastest-growing region for Catholicism, but also suffers more deaths from HIV than any other continent in the world. According to Avert.org, by the end of 2008, there were approximately 22.4 million adults and children living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. In that same year, an estimated 1.4 million Africans died from AIDS. There are 1.8 million children in Africa living with HIV, and nearly 14.1 million children have lost either one or both of their parents to AIDS. Yet last year, the Pope still argued that condoms is not the answer for Africa. He has argued that a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.
Well, after a year he must have realized that moral attitudes, personal responsibilities and prayers will not help in the reduction of the epidemic. On November 23, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged that the need of disease prevention prevails against the Church’s stance with respect to condoms. Although the Pope’s new view on condoms is not one representative of the entire Church, it is representative of a progressive way of thinking. The Vatican’s spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi stated that the Pope’s attitude towards the use of condoms by people infected with HIV is possibly “the first step of responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk to the life of the person with whom there are relations…Whether it’s a man or woman or a transsexual.”
While many may be quick to roll their eyes in a mockery of the fact that the Pope — who represents the Catholic Church — is finally understanding the importance of a very common and popular contraceptive, one must understand that the church is very structured and barely ever changes its traditions and beliefs.
Pope Benedict XVI is not condoning premarital sex or changing views on sex being strictly for procreation. His acceptance of condoms just accentuates the growing popularity and necessity — even in the most traditional and conservative institutions — for disease control.
Uzo Umeh is a junior communications major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
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