The Anglican church on Thursday sought to smooth the ruffled feathers of its Catholic brethren in the wake of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s criticism of the Catholic stand on condoms.
”The Anglican Church in Southern African appreciates very warmly the tremendous work being done by the Catholic Church in the fight against HIV and Aids,” said Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane.
He is head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, a position previously held by Tutu.
”We, as Anglicans, believe that the morality of condom use is for the preservation of life. However, we must remember that different churches and organisations lay emphasis on different areas in responding to this pandemic.”
Tutu earlier this week used an international Aids conference in Dublin to speak out against Catholic disapproval of condoms as a way of preventing the spread of Aids.
He said the idea that promoting condoms causes promiscuity is totally untrue.
However, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s Aids office said it was ”dismayed” at his criticism, and that by focusing on promiscuity, Tutu had failed to note the ”wider positive and negative ramifications around the use of condoms”.
It said that after the state, the Catholic Church is the largest provider of home-based care for the sick, of palliative care for the dying, and of care and support for Aids orphans.
The Catholic Church has historically maintained that ”the conjugal act” must always ”leave open the possibility of conception”, and has therefore been opposed to condoms.
In 2001 the Bishop of Rustenburg, Kevin Dowling, stirred debate in the church when he urged that condoms should be promoted as a tool in the fight against Aids.
But he was slapped down by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which declared condoms are ”an immoral and misguided weapon in our battle against HIV/Aids”.
The conference said ”doling out of condoms to teenagers” is ”as likely to promote promiscuity as anything else”.
Last year the Vatican provoked new controversy by backing claims that condoms have tiny holes through which HIV can pass, despite assurances by the World Health Organisation that this is untrue. — Sapa