VATICAN CITY (CNS): The Vatican said the continued increase in AIDS and HIV is fuelled in part by a “pansexual culture” that reduces sexual activity to mere pleasure.
The safe way to prevent sexual transmission of the disease is to practise sexuality within the context of marriage, said the Vatican’s annual message for World AIDS Day on December 1.
The message did not mention condoms in AIDS prevention.
In the past, the Vatican has opposed condom campaigns, saying they do not truly protect against transmission of the disease and may end up encouraging promiscuous sexual activity.
The Vatican message strongly urged legal reforms to give more equitable health care to AIDS patients in developing countries and asked pharmaceutical companies to make anti-AIDS drugs more accessible to the poor.
The text was signed by president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan.
