Catholic AIDS strategy clear

It always amuses me that someone can trace every evil of society to the Catholic Church. Joseph Barillari's editorial titled "Condoms and the Church: A Well-intentioned But Deadly Myth" should substitute the phrase "Safe Sex: A Well-intentioned But Deadly Myth."

It is ridiculous to blame the Catholic Church's stance on birth control for today's HIV epidemic. The ludicrous example of "third-world prostitutes" was mentioned as one of the reasons why the Church's abstinence agenda fails. The Catholic Church doesn't exactly embrace prostitution, and I doubt it holds influence over the majority of prostitutes. In fact, the article mentions the "billions" of people who ignore the Church's teachings and have sex anyway, so it seems odd that its position on any issue should cause alarm. Even assuming that prostitutes are devout Catholics (which is, by nature, impossible), it is absurd to propose that a prostitute goes to confession and feels guilty about condom use. She just spent all night having extramarital sex!

People who strictly follow the teachings of the Church aren't merely having sex without condoms—they aren't having sex (outside marriage). Consequently, they aren't getting HIV. Contrary to the assertion in the article, the Church's teaching is not "old-fashioned." It's not "new-fashioned" or any other "fashioned" either. It's a static belief that hasn't changed for 2,000 years.

Was Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo wrong to say that condoms fail? Not in the least. It is not false to say that condoms don't block the spread of HIV — they don't. The article admits that they have a 10 to 15 percent failure rate, whether or not the virus is "slipping right through the latex." So basically, we can all have sex using condoms every single night, and guess what — we'll still be spreading HIV. Compare that to abstinence, which has a failure rate of zero. Barillari is right in saying that we find it hard to practice chastity, but is that the fault of the Church? No.

The real myth that should have everyone's concern is the myth of safe sex. While I certainly hope that "both the World Health Organization and the Church would prefer a world without HIV," wouldn't every citizen as well? If safe sex were possible, wouldn't we all be having it? Where we went wrong is when we decided that since people really have no more restraint than animals, and it's not their fault (because it's never anyone's fault but the government and the Church) promiscuity should be condoned. Give every kid sex ed and a condom, and it will all be OK. Well, everything's not OK.

A 10 to 15 percent failure rate is nothing to gloss over. That is the same percentage as there are left-handed people in America, and we all know a few lefties. Would you want to skydive with a parachute that has a fifteen percent failure rate? After all, it's a lot "safer" than jumping without one. Of course you wouldn't. In fact, most readers are probably thinking, "Well, I'd never sky dive—you can die that way."

According to the Johns Hopkins HIV report, 2.3 million people died from HIV/AIDS in 1997 alone.

Condoms can't stop HIV, no matter how much we might want them to, and it's about time that someone emphasize this fact rather than place it microscopically in the footnotes of a "safer sex" pamphlet.

As for the injection-drug users: I'm not quite sure what they have to do with condom use, but I am sure that they aren't born addicted. To stop the spread of HIV, they can use clean needles, or better yet, just say no in the first place.

In America, prostitution is illegal, drug use is illegal, and, if you're Catholic, extramarital sex is banned — hey, maybe these rules exist for a reason! The real solution to the HIV problem is to stop passing the blame, accept responsibility for the mess we created, and exercise a little self control. No matter what the Church is saying, that is the only way "we can stop the spread of HIV overnight."

Jennifer Mickell is a freshman from Monroe, Louisiana.