Catholics respond to Tutu
2004-02-25 11:24
Special Report
A new digital media service will foster the global collaboration of physicians and help them to share the latest advances in Aids and other virus research, its promoters say.
Cape Town - The Catholic Church in South Africa says it is "dismayed" at Archbishop Desmond Tutu's criticism of the church's stand against condoms.
Tutu, an Anglican, 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 caused promiscuity was totally untrue.
However the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference's Aids office said in a statement on Wednesday that by focusing on promiscuity, Tutu had failed to note the "wider positive and negative ramifications around the use of condoms".
"The Aids office also regrets the continual harping on condoms, by the public at large and by the media, as though that were the only thing to be said about the Catholic Church's involvement or lack thereof in the response to the Aids epidemic.
"Second only to 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."
- SAPA