AIDS conference

Hi all! It's a busy week with the AIDS conference here in TO. I went yesterday with a media pass to film an interview with a young lady named Tess who is involved with aids work in Malawi. She was a worker for WYD in TO four years ago, met her husband through it, got married last summer, and is now working for an NGO in Africa, where her husband also teaches high school.

Needless to say, the "global village" at the AIDS conference, which was open to all the public, was rather grotesque. Instead of anything informative, as most of the rest of the conference tried to be, (many come to get the most recent research on HIV/AIDS, such as a young lady from Catholic Charities in Houston, whom we also interviewed) the "global village" was geared toward teens and hypocritical "safe" sex. It completely demeaned the beauty of sex, lowering it to a game (and getting HIV was "game over,") with innumerable stands selling (or shelling out) condoms, pamphlets, posters, etc.
I'm told that the actual conferences were more focused on the problem - combatting and preventing the spread of AIDS - and while much vitriol was spouted against the promotion of abstinence, some progress was made, I'm told, in favour of "empowering women" (which has largely been touted as supplying women with condoms, but in practice has more to do with education and recognition of the dignity of the female person, which is exactly what is lacking in Africa.)

And much vitriol has been spouted against the church. Imagine this: tomorrow the church allows condoms, and suddenly the AIDS crisis in Africa is over, and everyone lives happily ever after. It's the same logic as the Da Vinci Code: "exposing Christianity as a fraud will lead to stopping the oppression of women worldwide and lead to peace among nations, in saecula saeculorum, Amen." Give me a break. If the church allowed condoms, what would it stop? Anything? The practicing Catholics in Africa already practice abstinence and fidelity; they're not the ones infected/infecting. how would a Catholic reversal of the teaching on contraceptives stop anyone from getting HIV/AIDS?!? And yet the Church is called "complicit in the mass slaughter of Africans through AIDS because of its 'ridiculous'[sic] stance on condoms."
Again: how would allowing condoms change anything, especially considering the sexual practices in such cultures? Women have no control over sex, and these victimized women are the ones our liberal brethren want to throw condoms at. Instead, both the women and the men must be educated on dignity and sexual ethics. We're talking about fundamental cultural change here. It will take time, but it's the only way. Condoms will not help the situation. (Sorry, Melinda.)

Anyway. I'm filming one last interview on Friday for the "AIDS and the Catholic Church" Focus episode, and that will be the end of the conference.