Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
18 January 2008
Tzaneen — Abstinence and fidelity in marriage are the surest ways of fighting against HIV/AIDS in Africa, a South African bishop said.
Bishop Hugh Slattery of Tzaneen pointed out that condoms use in fact fuels the pandemic, adding that South Africa and the neighboring countries of Botswana and Swaziland have the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the world and also the highest rate of condom distribution.
"The conclusion is inescapable that more condoms mean more cases of AIDS and more deaths. It is, of course, "politically incorrect" both here and in the Western world to even hint at the possibility that condoms may in fact be fueling the spread of this deadly disease rather than curbing it," the bishop told ZENIT news agency recently.
Thought there is increased knowledge of the disease, the knowledge seldom translates into behaviour change, Bishop Slattery said. He also noted that South Africa's liberal democracy had worsened the situation by eroding parental authority over children.
"The transition to democracy in this country has brought about freedom but at a price, especially for young people. There has been an aggressive promotion of a very secular human rights culture for everyone, including children. As a result, parents feel they have no authority over their own children and just let them do what they like. Sometimes children threaten their parents: 'If you touch me, I'll tell the police!'"
The main challenge for the church, according to Bishop Slattery, is to get people talking about HIV/AIDS openly and to convince them that there is a real crisis, but which has a solution in abstinence and fidelity.
Uganda, he said, was a model of a successful fight against HIV/AIDS, where the government succeeded in bringing down infection rates from over 25 percent to 6 percent not by "safe sex" through condoms, but because of the maintenance of cultural values that emphasize fidelity and condemn premarital and extramarital sex.
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Abstinence and fidelity are a pleasant pipe dream (what are you smoking) but not a reality. Your premise is wrong, your math is worse. If you want to connect to real people; address their real problems with real solutions that don’t postpone, over-simplify and aggravate the problem.