World Aids Day 2010: The Pope and condoms

BY SUSIE WILSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

SEX MATTERS

There is some good news about the pandemic this World AIDS Day. Fewer people are becoming infected with HIV than at the peak of the epidemic, according to Unaids. But we can't be complacent: 2.6 million people became newly infected in 2009, and the epidemic still rages with a vengeance in southern Africa.

Yet a revolution in HIV prevention may be at hand, and it might just be found in a pill, a microbicide gel, and — perhaps most importantly — the personal courage of Pope Benedict XVI.

The pill is Truvada, which combines two antiretroviral drugs usually given to people already infected with HIV. It prevents the virus from replicating, and it is already available by prescription in many countries. A well-designed study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 44 percent of people who took the drug as prophylactic were less likely to get infected than an equal number taking a placebo. (The study looked at 2,500 gay men from the United States and five other countries.)

If uninfected gay men took the pill every day, the study found, "[it] was more than 90-percent effective."

"That's huge. That says it all for me," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who directs the infectious disease division of the National Institutes of Health.****

The low-cost microbicide gel, presently only available in clinical trials, holds promise for men and women. The best aspect of the gel is that it can be easily applied, so that men who can't use condoms because they sell their bodies for sex, or believe they in danger of prison rape can use it as protection. Women can also use the gel without obtaining their partners' permission.

But the blockbuster news affecting the future of HIV prevention came this week from the Vatican. The Pope surprised — no, stunned — the world by saying that the use of condoms, presently banned by the Catholic Church as a contraceptive, could be used as a first line of defense against HIV. He shared his view in an interview with Peter Seewald, who co-authored a new book with him, Light of the World: The Pope, The Church, and The Signs of the Times.

Condoms were not "a real or moral solution," he told Seewald, but "in some cases, they could be used as a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility."

He added: "She [the church] of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

The pope's unprecedented comment was expanded upon a few days later by the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman. Lombardi did not backtrack or say that the pope had been misquoted or misinterpreted. Rather, he reiterated that for Pope Benedict, the use of condoms by people infected with HIV could be "the first step of responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk to the life of the person with whom there are relations."

Lombardi explained that the pope was sanctioning the use of condoms not only for male prostitutes and male-to-male sexual relations, which some analysts and conservative Catholic leaders believed. When asked if the pope's words were only applicable to male prostitutes, Lombardi replied, "No, the decision applies whether it's a man or woman or a transsexual."

Make no mistake, the pope separated the use of condoms to prevent disease from their use to prevent pregnancy. The Catholic Church has not sanctioned the use of contraception, because it believes that sexual relations should only be for the purpose of procreation.

Still the pope was taking a huge step forward in the fight against HIV/AIDS. By ending the two decades-long struggle within the Vatican over how to respond to requests from Catholic AIDS workers in Africa and other areas where the disease rages, Pope Benedict sided with those who believed that it was immoral to forbid the use of condoms to help stem the epidemic's tides.

The pope's decision will affect disease prevention — and in due course, pregnancy prevention — everywhere. His decision legitimizes the efficacy of condoms, a point that has been overlooked in the discussion.

In the U.S., for example, the pronouncement will greatly weaken supporters of abstinence-only-until-marriage education, who insist that only the negative aspects of condom use be emphasized to young people. These supporters tend to be conservatives and religious leaders and their political allies, who believe that students should learn about condom failure rather than about their positive aspects.

The pope's advocacy of condoms to prevent disease will help expose the lies of the right wing. With the House of Representatives now controlled by anti-choice, abstinence-only education supporters, we can expect more efforts to slip in added appropriations for failed abstinence programs. The pope's words will be useful in the struggle to honestly educate young people about sex.

I've had the great honor of meeting two popes in my lifetime: Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI. I have deep respect for the authority of the office. I can see what a great influence a pontiff can make for encouraging good in the world, particularly in calling attention to those living in great poverty or affected by wars and natural disasters.

But Pope Benedict's reaction to the child sexual abuse scandal that swept through the Catholic Church worldwide had sickened me and caused me to lose respect for his papacy.

Yet I think he deserves praise for his words about condoms. When the history of the AIDS epidemic is written, historians may point to this moment as a critical turning point in the struggle for change.

Robert Kennedy spoke these words: "Each time a man stands up...or acts to improve the lot of others...he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Speaking out about condoms, Pope Benedict stood up.

Susie Wilson, former executive coordinator of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University's Center for Applied and Professional Psychology (now renamed Answer), is a national leader in the fight for effective sexuality and HIV/AIDS education and for prevention of adolescent pregnancy. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it