Real Talk By UNAIDS at Vatican AIDS Conference

Late last week, the Vatican hosted a major meeting on “The Centrality of Care for the Person in the Prevention and Treatment of Illnesses Caused by HIV/AIDS.” This was the Catholic Church’s first meeting of its kind since last fall when Pope Benedict commented that in some narrow circumstances condoms might sometimes be morally acceptable.

PBS filed this fascinating and in-depth report about the “condom controversy.”

UNAIDS director Michel Sidibe was seemingly the odd man out at the conference.  He is, of course, very much a proponent of condom use.  From his address to the conference:

UNAIDS believes it is every person’s right, including young people, to have access to effective education on human sexuality, health and life skills to enable that person to make informed choices and follow through on them, including abstinence, reducing the number of sexual partners, mutual fidelity and how to use condoms consistently and correctly. Research has shown that such education does not result in increased sexual relations.

Good to see that at least someone was waving the flag for condoms as an effective STI prevention device.  Here’s Sidibe’s full speech.