Catholic Bishop in Africa Renounces Condom Ban

Catholics have a strict policy of promoting abstinence before marriage which will theoretically, in turn, keep people from contracting sexually transmitted diseases like HIV. In the United States, this push for abstinence-only education is a much argued debate. Many feel that promoting only abstinence is not realistic in today’s society while others feel that promoting condom use is a way of encouraging promiscuity. Now take this debate out of the United States and move your way across the globe to a little town called Pretoria, South Africa where women and children live in extreme poverty and weekly funerals for both adults and children who have succumbed to AIDS has become commonplace. In a place like this, where AIDS has ravaged the population and desperate mothers trade sex for food and money for their children, is it possible to promote abstinence-only as a way to end the epidemic? According to Catholic Bishop Kevin Dowling, the thought is preposterous.

Bishop Dowling is known throughout the Catholic world as one who has strongly gone against the religion’s strict condom ban. This view came about once he became a first-hand witness to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, living in Pretoria for over 15 years. Single mothers raise their children in tiny metal shacks and engage in sex for money (oftentimes, unprotected) just to make ends meet. Bishop Dowling says about the dire situation, “It’s not prostitution in my view but simply a mechanism for them to survive. I believe the one way they can take control…is by demanding that the men they have transactional sex with use a condom.” In an interview with U.S. News, he explains why he feels that slowing down the HIV/AIDS epidemic by promoting careful, correct and consistent condom use should be a bit more urgent than pushing a religious ideal.

Unlike the United States where under 1 percent are currently infected with HIV, he lives in a place where the HIV infection rate is anywhere from 25 to 30 percent. In one of the largest clinics he helped found, almost half of the pregnant women were infected with HIV. Instead of handing out condoms (he does not need to do this since the government in South Africa distributes them at no cost), he focuses on spreading HIV education to the community, especially to young adults. One main reason he focuses on teenagers is because of the culture in South Africa that encourages young men to have sex with as many partners as possible, with or without condoms. Meanwhile, young girls are taught simply to submit to these sexual encounters; thus, Bishop Dowling also strives to help girls build up their self-esteem and self-worth in a society that has been strongly patriarchal. He admits that he hopes scientific research and studies can be done to see if what he and his colleagues are doing in their quest is actually making an impact.

He urges the Catholic Church to rethink their policy on the use of condoms, especially in light of the new society we live in today. While Bishop Dowling fully supports abstinence before marriage and being absolutely faithful to one’s husband or wife, he would like the Catholic Church to acknowledge that there are situations and cultures around the world that would not benefit from this religious idealism. He speaks of times when he spoke with distressed mothers living in their tiny homes and seeing “the babies in their arms dying of AIDS. Their hopelessness has seared my heart and spirit.” Because of these things he sees daily, he wishes to be the man they can trust and look towards to help their community out of the deadly abyss it has found itself in.