July 2001 Africa News Headlines

Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - Web posted at 14:56:49 GMT

Catholic bishops to discuss condom ban

PRETORIA - The ban on the use of condoms by the Catholic Church and a controversial proposal that it be lifted to assist in preventing the spread of HIV-AIDS are among the issues to be discussed by bishops from across southern Africa who have gathered in Pretoria for a six-day conference.

The conference officially starts in Pretoria today with the delivery of a report by the Secretary-General.

Spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishop's Conference Henry Egen on Tuesday said a substantial part of the conference's discussion would focus on the Aids pandemic and related matters, including a proposal that the Church reconsiders its ban on condoms in a bid to combat the spread of the disease.

Church leaders will also meet with Aids activists from the Treatment Action Campaign to hear their views.

Rustenburg Bishop Kevin Dowling earlier this month when he was in the US, proposed that the church's ban on condoms be lifted saying Aids was killing so many people that he felt he could not duck the issue.

Dowling said while he supported traditional church policy that all sexual intercourse should take place only in wedlock, condoms should be seen in the context of many people not living out this value.

Dowling was supported in his proposal by the Catholic Church newspaper Southern Cross which stated that condoms provided one way of stemming the Aids pandemic.

It called on the church to reconcile its total ban on prophylactics with the philosophy of the sanctity of life.

SACBC president Cardinal Wilfrid Napier said earlier that Dowling's statement would be weighed against not only the church's teaching, but also scientific evidence on the effectiveness of condoms in situations which pose the greatest risk of infection.

Napier said the HIV-AIDS pandemic posed a serious threat to the survival of the nation.

In this regard the conference would reflect and debate the church's response to HIV-AIDS in the 3rd millennium.

- Nampa-Sapa

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