India’s experience fully backs Pope on AIDS, says Cardinal Gracias

(March 28, 2009) India’s Catholic Church is directly involved in caring for people living with AIDS, running 64 AIDS treatment centres. It is convinced that the disease must also be tackled from an ethical and moral point of view. For this reason, it shares the views expressed by Pope Benedict XVI at the beginning of his recent trip to Africa, said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay. The cardinal who is president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, CCBI, that groups together the Latin-rite bishops of the country, made the comment on Friday in an interview to AsiaNews. He was referring to Pope Benedict’s appeal for moral and spiritual renewal rather than the efficacy of condom distribution as means of combating HIV and AIDS. The statement of Cardinal Gracias came on the day the prestigious British medical journal Lancet further stirred the controversy over the Pope’s remarks on the use of condom by demanding he retract his comments. The journal said the Pope “publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine.” In response to this, Cardinal Gracias said that Pope Benedict “has not said anything new; he simply reiterated the authentic teaching of Our Holy Mother the Church.” “I would most certainly reiterate the statement of our beloved Holy Father for India,” he said adding, “in fact, some government officials are also saying that fidelity and abstinence are important values,” in the fight against the scourge of AIDS. “The Church absolutely cannot water down its teachings just to please public opinion - what is objectively right is right, and what is wrong is wrong,” Cardinal Gracias said. “The Universal Church, especially the Indian Church, is compassionate towards those who are afflicted by the disease. Yet, we cannot compromise on our teachings,” he added.