FIRST GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO END CATHOLIC BISHOPS' BAN ON CONDOMS LAUNCHED ON
INTERNET, BILLBOARDS, IN SUBWAYS AND NEWSPAPERS

"Banning Condoms Kills" is World AIDS Day message for massive mobilizing
effort
in U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America to change Vatican's condom
policy.

The first global campaign to end the Catholic bishops' ban on condoms is
being launched by Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) on the eve of World
AIDS Day 2001. Billboards and ads in subways and newspapers carrying the
message "Banning Condoms Kills" will begin appearing around the world on
November 30. This unprecedented worldwide public education effort is aimed
at Catholics and non-Catholics alike to raise public awareness of the
devastating effect of the bishops' ban on condoms. It invites the public to
join a global campaign to end the ban--Condoms4life at www.condoms4life.org.
People who join the campaign will be asked to contact local policy makers
and express their support for the availability of condoms and their concern
that the bishops should not undermine responsible public health policy on
HIV/AIDS.

The roll out of advertising in the U.S. and in countries with a significant
Catholic population or AIDS crisis, such as Mexico, the Philippines, Kenya,
South Africa, Chile, and Zimbabwe, is the first phase of a sustained
mobilizing effort to change the Vatican's policy and its aggressive lobbying
against availability and access to condoms, especially in areas of the world
where HIV transmission and AIDS deaths are rising dramatically.

"The Vatican and the world's bishops bear significant responsibility for the
death of thousands of people who have died from AIDS," stated Frances
Kissling, president of CFFC, an advocacy organization of Catholics who
disagree with Vatican positions on sexuality and reproduction. "For
individuals who follow the Vatican policy and Catholic health care providers
who are forced to deny condoms, the bishops' ban is a disaster. Real people
are dying from AIDS. Real bishops are silently acquiescent. We can no
longer stand by and allow the ban to go unchallenged."

The initial phase of the Condoms4life campaign includes advocacy advertising
that starts on November 30 in Washington, DC, with 50 bus shelter and 225
subway poster ads and a Federal Page ad in The Washington Post. In Europe,
a full-page ad in The Guardian Weekly will appear on November 29.
Billboards will go up at prominent locations in January 2002 in Brussels,
Belgium; Cape Town, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe; La Paz,
Bolivia; Santiago, Chile; Manila, the Philippines; and Mexico City, Mexico,
with newspaper ads reinforcing the message, "Catholic People Care - Do Our
Bishops? Banning Condoms Kills." (Newspaper and billboard ads can be
viewed at www.condoms4life.org.)

The effect of the bishops' ban on condoms-the only technology available that
can prevent sexual transmission of HIV- has been noted by world leaders in
the fight against AIDS. UNAIDS director, Peter Piot, stated in June 2001
that "When priests preach against using contraception, they are committing a
serious mistake which is costing human lives. We do not ask the church to
promote contraception, but merely to stop banning its use."

The Condoms4life campaign ads point out that many of the 4,435 plus bishops
worldwide actively lobby governments and the United Nations to restrict
access to condoms claiming that condoms cause AIDS, not prevent it. For
example, the South African Catholic Bishops Conference said:

"Widespread and indiscriminate promotion of condoms [is] an immoral and
misguided weapon in our battle against HIV-AIDS. … Condoms may even be one
of the main reasons for the spread of HIV-AIDS."

The Condoms life campaign is particularly important in Catholic countries.
"When the head of the Mexican Red Cross, responding to pressure from the
Catholic bishops, came out and said that condoms cause AIDS, the impact was
devastating," stated María Consuelo Mejía, director of Católicas por el
Derecho a Decidir, México. "With 150,000 Mexicans living with HIV, we
cannot afford any confusion about the best way to prevent HIV
transmission--use a condom every time you have sex."

The campaign will be visible in European countries as well, with a billboard
going up first in Brussels in early 2002, where the European Union plays a
significant role in HIV/AIDS funding to developing countries. "Now is the
time for the European governments to put pressure on the bishops to change
their life-denying policy," said Elfriede Harth, European representative for
Catholics for a Free Choice. "All of our worthwhile efforts to fight AIDS
are undercut by those bishops and the Vatican who work to deny access to
condoms."

In addition to the advocacy advertising on billboards and newspapers, the
CFFC news journal, Conscience, distributed to policy makers and opinion
leaders in over 100 countries, has just released a special issue called A
Body Weakened: The Church and AIDS.

--end--


For more information: www.condoms4life.org


Catholics for a Free Choice shapes and advances sexual and reproductive
ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women’s
well-being, and respect and affirms the moral capacity of women and men to
make sound decisions about their lives. Through discourse, education and
advocacy, CFFC works in the United States and internationally to infuse
these values into public policy, community life, feminist analysis, and
Catholic social thinking and teaching.

Ritorna alla pagina principale