The Religious Consultation
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Agence France-Presse , April 18, 2005 Catholic Teaching
on Morals Deeply Contested in Africa
DATELINE: DAKAR As cardinals withdraw to elect a new pope, in Africa many Catholics have great difficulty in following the Vatican's conservative dictates on sexual questions such as contraception, co-habitation and abortion, which often clash with legal and social realities. The Vatican ban on the use of condoms even to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS causes heated controversy, but the Church insists that the only way to slow the pandemic is to change customs and practice abstinence. African Christians frequently live together without getting married, posing a problem for a Church which teaches that sex outside of marriage is illicit. In the West African country of Cape Verde, which is 99 percent Christian, "church marriages have been on decline since the 1990s in favor of concubinage" according to a priest, Angelino Gomes. "People are refusing to get married because they do not want a serious commitment." But co-habitation is recognized by Cape Verde law, according to which any couple living together for three years has the same rights as a married couple. It is also common in many other African countries, including Gambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where about half the population is Catholic. The Gambian church has categorically condemned living together outside of marriage. The Rev. Sean Devereux, director of the Gambian Pastoral Institute, exhorts Catholics "to change their behavior and be faithful" and says that cohabitation is "not acceptable." Devereux says polygamy is also a big problem for the Church, particularly where Catholics are surrounded by a predominantly Islamic culture. The head of a Christian charity in Banjul, Gambia recently took a second wife, provoking the wrath of Church authorities who are threatening him with excommunication. Local Church authorities appear to have difficulties in getting across the Vatican's stern prohibition on the use of condoms, even as one of the means of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. "The position of the Church is that condoms are not allowed," said the Rev. Efrem Tresoldi, information officer of the South African Catholic bishop's conference. A handful of senior church people have publicly expressed doubt about the teaching, including South African Archbishop Kevin Dowling, who has said that in certain circumstances, "the use of a condom can be seen not as a means to prevent the 'transmission of life' leading to pregnancy, i.e. as contraception, but rather as a means to prevent the 'transmission of death' or potential death to another." The question of condoms is more theoretical than real in some countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where preservatives are not part of the culture and where most people cannot afford them anyway. If use of contraceptives is rare in towns, it is virtually unknown in rural areas. The rate of new HIV infections in the country among people between the ages of 14 and 19 is 3.8 percent, nearly four times the worldwide average for this age group, according to Pierre Somse of UNAIDS, the United Nations agency for the disease. Lack of contraception leads to a high rate of abortions, which although illegal, are carried out in conditions of deplorable hygiene. Emmanual Ilanga, a general physician and leader of a Christian assembly in Kinshasa, said abortions were responsible for the death of many young women in hospital and also caused sterility and other malfunctions. But Lea, a 26-year-old student in Kinshasa, said that for many women it was "the only means of contraception, since the practice of buying a condom has never been a part of their customs." Although a condom costs 50 francs (7 euro cents, 10 dollar cents) "young men are ashamed to go to the pharmacy to buy condoms, but they can spend 500 to 1000 francs on a prostitute without ever asking for protection," said Joe, 31, who lives in a poor quarter of Kinshasa. Last year, more than three million Africans contracted HIV/AIDs, and many hope the next pope will ease the Church's prohibition on contraception. With such a pandemic, "how can you expect people not to use prophylactics," said one young Catholic in Banjul. "There is no alternative. The use of the condom is one of the solutions to fight against the spread of AIDS," said Attaher Maiga, a member of Mali's national council for the fight against the disease. << Agence France-Presse -- 4/18/05 >>
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