Pastoral response to AIDS in Central America

Catholic New Times, Dec 14, 2003

SANSONATE, El Salvador -- New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof visited the Catholic hospital in the poor town of Sansonate in the southwestern part of El Salvador recently. The columnist described the pastoral approach to the galloping global AIDS pandemic.

In 1998, official Salvadoran church leaders helped pass a law which required condom suppliers to carry warnings that they do not protect against AIDS.

But far from the capital, the Catholic-run hospital responds in a different manner--doctors tell women about IUD's and the pill--and especially about using condoms. Local priests and nuns ignore "headquarters", and quietly do what they can to save parishioners from AIDS.

"The bishop is in San Salvador and never comes here," explains Dr. Martha Alica De Regalada. "So we never get in trouble."

The Vatican has consistently opposed condoms and safe-sex education, even claiming falsely that condoms don't protect against AIDS.

In the remote Guatemalan town of Coatepeque, Maryknoll sisters run a first-rate AIDS clinic and prevention program, saving lives on a vast scale. They work with prostitutes and school children and explain how condoms can protect against AIDS.

So what about Vatican teachings?

"Certainly, God does not want us to kill each other," said Marlene Condon, who works with AIDS patients. "You've got to do something."

Kristof pointed out that The Vatican has appointed hard-line bishops to break liberation theology and bring parishes back into line. Still, the French and German bishops' conferences have urged that condoms be permitted to fight AIDS, and Bishop Kevin Dowling of South Africa is pushing hard for the church to change policy to save lives.

Kristof took his hat off to the Catholic Church saying that "The irony is that no organization does more to help AIDS victims and their orphans than the Catholic Church. Some 25 percent of AIDS care worldwide is provided by church-related groups. Yet the Vatican blindly opposes condoms, even within a marriage when a husband or wife is infected with H.I.V. A member of the Kenyan Parliament has called the church "the greatest impediment in the fight against AIDS."