Catholic League president William Donohue commented today on the role the Catholic Church has played in dealing with AIDS:
“The Catholic Church has much to be proud of in its efforts to stem HIV/AIDS and in treating AIDS patients. AIDS that is contracted through sexual transmission cannot realistically be stemmed by technology or research: it requires restraint. In the Vatican’s message for World AIDS Day, it correctly blames a ‘pansexual culture that devalues sexuality, reducing it to a mere pleasure without any further meaning.’ In other words, moral education—rooted in Judeo-Christian ethics—is the most effective means of addressing this problem. Indeed, the success that Uganda has had by stressing abstinence stands in stark relief to those nations that have relied mostly on science to eradicate AIDS.
“Catholics make up 17 percent of the world’s population, yet the Catholic Church accounts for 27 percent of all AIDS relief worldwide. Through its hospitals, hospices, orphanages, clinics and think tanks, the Catholic Church has serviced more AIDS patients than any other institution in the world.
“The good work of the Catholic Church in teaching prevention and in treating AIDS patients is not well known. And that is because those who entertain a libertine understanding of liberty regard the Catholic Church as the enemy. In reality, those who embrace such a flawed conception of freedom are the very ones responsible for sexually transmitted diseases in the first place.”
