UN official hopes new pope will ease condom stance

The U.N. population chief said on Monday she hoped the next pope would ease the Catholic Church’s opposition to contraception in order to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Pope John Paul II, who died on April 2 after 26 years at the helm of the Roman Catholic Church, was criticised by Western health campaigners for his views on contraceptives, seen as the most effective way to quell the spread of AIDS.

“There has been a beginning of an opening, especially on HIV/AIDS and the use of condoms for prevention of infection,” Thoraya Obaid, director of the United Nations Population Fund, told Reuters on the sidelines of an aid conference.

"We are hoping the new pope will take this message further, because it makes no sense sending people to their death.”

While a strong supporter of human rights and social justice, Pope John Paul condemned contraception as a means of fighting the AIDS epidemic, instead calling for abstinence and marital fidelity in the face of opposition from liberal Catholics.

“We hope that all positions would focus on what is really needed to fight ... HIV and take the morally correct decision on how to do that,” Obaid said.

“We have seen some pressure from the churches in Spain and Brazil to talk of the need for the church to recognise how to prevent HIV. I am hoping that a continued dialogue within the church itself will bring more openness on this issue.”

The U.N. Population Fund is the biggest international source of funds for programmes to avoid sexually transmitted infection, improve health care in pregnancy and childbirth and help with family planning and unwanted pregnancies in developing nations. 

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