Bishop speaks out against condoms
The Catholic Church, under the leadership of Pope John Paul the Second, has been nothing if not consistent in its stand on matters of sex and reproduction. But as anti-AIDS campaigns in Belize and elsewhere grow in size and specifically focus on the use of condoms, the church has grown increasingly uncomfortable. Our own Bishop O.P. Martin, never one to shy from controversy, today spoke out to News 5’s Patrick Jones.
Bishop Osmond Martin, Roman Catholic Church
“they have been advocating this for years and years and years and more and more people are being infected with HIV/AIDS and they are dying of this epidemic. The fact is there.”
Patrick Jones, Reporting
Head of the Roman Catholic Church in Belize, Bishop Osmond Peter Martin, today challenged people at the forefront of the fight against HIV/AIDS to rethink their strategy for fighting the disease. According to the Bishop, continuing to promote condoms, as a way of preventing the spread of the disease, is not the way to go.
Bishop Osmond Martin
“Anything that stops the transmission of human life is immoral. Condoms do that. They are meant to do that. They are meant to prevent conception. They are meant, maybe they are not aware that they are doing it, but they are meant to stop the transmission of human life, and as such it is very, very immoral.”
But the church’s stance on the issue puts it in an adversarial position with activists who, armed with reams of their own research, say condoms are an effective way to stop transmission of the deadly disease.
Rodel Beltran Perera, Dir., Alliance Against AIDS
“But if we are active or if we are engaged in unprotected sexual activity, we place ourselves at risk of getting the virus. But if we have barriers to prevent that, to allow that that does not occur, and if that barrier comes in the form of a condom, a latex condom, it is the best tool to use. If used properly and consistently every time we have sexual intercourse.”
Bishop Osmond Martin
“But trying to use condoms for the prevention of AIDS is very, very faulty. And even those who advocate this methodology know that it’s not fool proof. The only thing that will help to stop AIDS is abstinence, and if you have a partner, one partner. That will prevent the spread of AIDS.”
Rodel Beltran Perera
“That statement is extremely annoying and very disappointing, because we are seeing millions of persons in the world die and are living with the virus, because they did not use a condom. So that statement is extremely incorrect.”
Perera says the Roman Catholic’s point of view on condoms as an ineffective prevention method is based on outdated information.
Rodel Perera
“Condoms do prevent the transmission of HIV from one person to another by the use of a barrier known as a latex condom. Many studies have shown that there could be infection if a condom is not used properly and consistently. Meaning that if you put on and take off a condom and use a condom every time you have whatever kind of sexual intercourse, it does protect the users of transmission of HIV to or from a partner, the partner receiving or the partner giving. Latex condoms do prevent the transmission of HIV.”
Bishop Osmond Martin
“Its even difficult to acknowledge that it helps. Because the number of persons affected by HIV/AIDS is escalating. It’s going up, not going down. It’s not remaining stationary, it’s going up. In other words, the methodology has been ineffective.”
Martin says that since the epidemic is the result of people’s behaviour, change will only come when personal choices are better informed. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
Most AIDS activists agree philosophically with the Bishop that abstinence, followed by marital fidelity, is a near foolproof way of stopping the AIDS epidemic. Where they part company with the church is on how to pragmatically deal with the reality that most humans stubbornly refuse to behave as morally upright as the church would wish. In related news, Martin told News 5 that the diocese is donating two acres of land in Port Loyola for the construction of a hospice for persons with AIDS.
