In Africa, pope says condoms no HIV answer

YAOUNDE, Cameroon - Condoms are not the answer to Africa's fight against HIV, Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday as he began a weeklong trip to the continent. It was the pope's first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.

Benedict arrived in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, yesterday afternoon and was greeted by a crowd of flag-waving faithful and snapping cameras. The visit is his first pilgrimage as pontiff to Africa.

In his four years as pope, Benedict had never directly addressed condom use, although his position is not new. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, often said that sexual abstinence - not condoms - was the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," Benedict told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane heading to Yaounde. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

He also said the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront of the battle against AIDS.

The pope said a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.

The church rejects the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against artificial contraception. Senior Vatican officials have advocated fidelity in marriage and abstinence from premarital sex as key weapons in the fight against AIDS.

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS. In 2007, three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide were there, as well as two-thirds of all people living with HIV.

Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said that if the pope were serious about preventing new HIV infections, he would focus on promoting wide access to condoms and spreading information on how best to use them.

"Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans," said Hodes, head of policy, communication, and research for the organization. She said the pope was right that condoms were not the sole solution to Africa's AIDS epidemic, but she added that they were one of the very few proven measures to prevent HIV infections.

Some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church's opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa. Ordinary Africans do as well. "Talking about the nonuse of condoms is out of place," teacher Narcisse Takou said. "We need condoms to protect ourselves against diseases and AIDS."

Benedict's African trip this week will also take him to Angola.

Earlier, as Benedict stepped off the plane in Yaounde, he was greeted by Cameroon's President Paul Biya, who has ruled since 1982 and whose government has been accused by Amnesty International of abuses in crushing political opponents.

The pope made no specific reference to the situation in Cameroon, but he did say in general remarks on Africa that "a Christian can never remain silent" in the face of violence, poverty, hunger, corruption, or abuse of power.

"The saving message of the Gospel needs to be proclaimed loud and clear so that the light of Christ can shine into the darkness of people's lives," Benedict said as the president and other political leaders looked on.

Africa is the fastest-growing region for the church, though it competes with Islam and evangelical churches.

The pope said yesterday that he intended to make an appeal for "international solidarity" for Africa in the face of the global economic downturn.

He said that while the church did not propose specific economic solutions, it could give "spiritual and moral" suggestions. He described the current crisis as the result of "a deficit of ethics in economic structures. It is here that the church can make a contribution."