To prove his point, Stefanick compared the African nations of Botswana and Uganda. Botswana promoted condom use from the beginning. Uganda, a primarily Catholic country, encouraged abstinence.Do watch the video.
“In Botswana, Cameroon, and Kenya - they saw AIDS prevalence rise alongside condom distribution until they both leveled out,” noted Stefanick. “In Botswana today, where condoms are available nearly everywhere, one in six people is HIV positive or living with AIDS.”
In Uganda, where abstinence is strongly promoted, the prevalence of AIDS has dropped and now affects less than six percent of the population. Stefanick quoted BBC News who stated that Uganda has done extremely well in fighting AIDS because, in many parts of the country, its prevalence “was at least three times higher in the early 90s.”
Stefanick also cited a similar comparison, made between Thailand and the Philippines, where AIDS broke out at the same time. Thailand’s approach promoted the distribution of condoms while the highly Catholic Philippines promoted abstinence. Twenty years after the outbreak, the prevalence of AIDS in Thailand is 50 times higher than in the Philippines.
“According to the British Medical Journal, which is not a Catholic publication mind you, ‘the greater the percentage of Catholics in any country, the lower the level of HIV. If the Catholic Church is promoting a message about HIV in those countries it seems to be working,’” said Stefanick.
How interestinf Chris Stefanick is the head of Youth Ministries in an American diocese, if only here in England and Wales ...
9 comments:
You have said it all Father: "If only in England and Wales..."
Further comment is superfluous.
No, REALLY??? Is the Pope Catholic...?
I would be interesting to compare rates of marriage breakdown in Catholic and non-Catholic countries.
Any chance of Cafod giving the same message?
these kind of comparisons are meaningless and in many cases they ignore what really happenned.
In the case of Uganda, condoms were widely available and contributed to the decrease in HIV.
As for Thailand and the Philipines, the comparison has been debunked so many times that it is getting tiring to have to do it again and again.
See my link...
Who would really trust a condom to the extent that they would have sex with someone whom they actually knew to be HIV+ ?
That surely is the test of confidence in these things.
However, it is worth following peripheries link, the matter really is more complex. The worrying thing about Thailand is "sex tourism".
"The UK's most commonly used contraceptives are the Pill and male condoms. The failure rate in typical use of the Pill is 8%, for condoms 15% after the first year of use."
BPAS press release 2010.
Chris is head of youth ministry in Denver (Archbishop Chaput's diocese)
The biggest problem of all forms of birth control is that it interferes with nature,we are all meant to reproduce ourselves to secure the future of the human species without resorting to other radical methods of keeping the balance.
Charlatans & assorted con-artists banging on about plasic carrier bags destroying the planet are the same NUTTERS who will want to bump off the elderly & non productive members of our society.
Young girls having babies are looked upon as irresponsible when they should be looked upon as saviours of the Human Race.
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