Opinions

The Pope courts a contraception controversy

In print | March 19, 2009

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope, the Catholic right rejoiced. Michael S. Rose, in “The Man who was Ratzinger” wrote that as Pope, Ratzinger “will put to flight the reformists of the Catholic left.” The head of the arch-conservative Catholics League said of Catholic liberals, “We expect that the weeping and gnashing of teeth will begin soon.”

In the first couple years of his tenure, however, Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) disappointed these Catholic reactionaries. Writing last April in Slate, Catholic liberal Michael Sean Winters argued that Ratzinger’s politics appeared to be far less conservative than anyone had anticipated, citing the Pope’s moderate appointments, the Pope’s belief that even pro-choice politicians should be granted communion, and the Pope’s sacking of Vatican officials associated with the Pinochet regime. In short, Benedict proved that he was capable of being the moderate leader of a modernizing Church. Winters concluded, “If there is any gnashing of teeth, it will be coming from the bleachers on the far right.”

The last few months have proven just how wrong Winter’s appraisal was. A couple of days before last Christmas, the Pope gave a speech where he declared queer behavior, or any behavior that departed from traditional heterosexual norms, to amount to a “destruction of God’s work” and equated the fight to save his version of human morality with the fight to save the rainforest. Then, in February, Benedict overruled a prior papal decision to excommunicate members of the Society of Saint Pius, a far-right Catholic sect. When it was revealed that the most prominent member of the Society was Richard Williamson, a Holocaust-denying former arch-bishop, Benedict apologized and acknowledged that “mistakes” had been made. But Benedict’s decision to overturn the prior papal decree prompted even relatively conservative Catholics to ask why Benedict saw the Church’s reconciliation with Catholicism’s extreme right to be necessary.

Then, last Tuesday, Benedict struck again. Addressing journalists on a flight to Cameroon, Benedict said that AIDS “cannot be overcome by money alone…cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems."

The Pope is partially right, of course. Condoms, in of themselves, will not be able to halt the spread of AIDS. But the Pope’s radical statement, that condoms “aggravate” the spread of HIV, is undercut by nearly every study that examines the claim. Condom distribution, combined with contraceptive education, has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of AIDS in the developed and undeveloped world. According to an editorial in Wednesday’s edition of the New York Times, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites ‘comprehensive and conclusive’ evidence that latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are ‘highly effective’ in preventing heterosexual transmission of the virus that causes AIDS.”

The Pope’s statement did not attract immediate controversy because people were surprised by its anti-contraceptive stand. The Church decided against endorsing non-natural contraceptives in the mid-1960’s and has been opposed to most contraceptive techniques ever since. Benedict had already expressed his skepticism of prophylactic utility before, arguing that abstinence remained the only “fail-safe” way to prevent the spread of HIV. But while some of the Pope’s earlier statement displayed a simplistic view of HIV prevention and a moral opposition to the use of contraceptives, Tuesday marked the first time that the Pope openly put forth such a clearly counterfactual claim.

There are over 100 million Catholics in Africa and Catholicism represents one of the fastest growing religions on the continent. The Church’s teachings on contraceptive education are, therefore, crucial to the continent’s fight against the AIDS epidemic. Rebecca Hodes, director of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, said the Pope’s statement “conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans.” Hodes is working in a country where authority figures have misled citizens about AIDS prevention techniques many times before. We are disappointed to see that the Pope has contributed to this trend.

While we respect the Pope’s philosophical opposition to the use of condoms, the fact of the matter remains that his claims are empirically incorrect. And lest anyone confuse the Pope’s opinions on contraception with the Catholic Church’s as a whole, other prominent leaders within the Church, including the retired arch-bishop of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini, believe that the Church should not reject the use of condoms outright, as “the use of prophylactics can, in some situations, constitute a lesser evil.”