My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Cardinal Egan and I issued a statement on Feb. 15, which is being reprinted here for your information since only fragments of it appeared in news articles in the daily press. We issued the statement in response to the wholesale distribution of condoms by the City of New York Health Department on St. Valentine’s Day. This is what it said:

“The decision of the City of New York to distribute 18 million free condoms to the public, and minors as well, according to news reports, is tragic and misguided.  The only certain way to protect against sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, is abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage.

“Our political leaders fail to protect the moral tone of our community when they encourage inappropriate sexual activity by blanketing our neighborhoods with condoms.  Although in their statements they give nod to the truth that only abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage are failsafe, by their actions they ignore that truth and degrade societal standards.

“The taxpayers’ money that is being spent to distribute condoms and promote the attitude that ‘anything goes’ would be far better spent in fostering what is true and what is decent.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to our statement in his weekly radio program when he was asked a question about it.  He begins by stating his respect for Cardinal Egan and me, as I have mutual respect for him.  The Mayor’s answer, as it appears in a transcript provided to me, follows:

“Look, I respect the Cardinal and the Bishop and they have strong views, which I respect. I happen to disagree with the views.  But this is not an issue of faith; this is a health issue for the City.  Sadly, New York City has a very high rate of HIV and AIDS, an unconscionably high rate, given the educational level of people in this City.  And they should know how they, how AIDS and HIV is transmitted.  What we’re trying to do, I think Tom Frieden said it best yesterday:  Abstinence really is the best way, but the real world is that an awful lot of people don’t practice abstinence.  And in those cases, if we can do something to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, we will save a lot of lives.  It isn’t so much that we’re giving out the condoms, enough to satisfy all the demand, it’s the publicity from it will perhaps convince people that they should not practice unprotected sex.  I think that they’d be better off, particularly young people, in waiting until they’re adults and that’s up to them.  And I think that is, incidentally, an appropriate thing for the Church, they should preach to their constituents, their congregants, what they think is the appropriate ways to live your lives.  But the Health Department has to work with the real world of people not practicing protected sex, not practicing abstinence, and this is a way to keep people alive.”

The problem with the Mayor’s reasoning, however, is that protected sex by using a condom is not safe sex, but merely safer sex since condoms are not 100 percent effective against the spread of the AIDS virus.  Even if used correctly, without failure, they do not eliminate 10 to 15 percent of the possibility of the transmission of the AIDS virus. 

The decision of the City Health Department to distribute condoms with the “NYC Condom” logo was certainly misguided and an inappropriate use of public funds to prevent a terrible disease.  Doing so on St. Valentine’s Day was also a misguided decision. The reality of prevention cannot be reduced to the use of a condom.  The City Health Department, perhaps, needs some scrutiny.  It is the same department that several months ago issued a policy that said persons could change the sex listed on their birth certificate simply by presenting a signed document by a physician stating that they had chosen to live as the opposite sex for at least a year. The policy was quickly withdrawn. 

I have great respect for the Department of Health as an important entity in any city government.  My own father was a Health Inspector for the City of Newark in New Jersey. I remember much about public health that I learned from him, but also remember much about the human person and morality.

Health cannot be separated from the human person because it is the health of the person that we must deal with.  We cannot deal with symptoms or means of prevention without dealing with the whole person.  Even if condoms were 100 percent effective---and they are not---the correct understanding of human sexuality is the real problem and must be addressed in the spread of the AIDS virus. 

The Church has been accused by many to be responsible for the spread of AIDS, since it opposes the distribution of condoms.  The Church does not oppose the sale of condoms, although a correct understanding of human morality supports the fact that every act of intercourse should be open to life.  But the use of public funds to distribute condoms and to offer sex education programs that foster their use is something the public in a democratic society can oppose.  When we speak about morality, however, the Church cannot change its position regarding human sexuality to accommodate even a pandemic because the only real solution is an adherence to sexual morality within and outside of marriage.

Recently, there has been some publicity regarding the use of an injection for young girls and women that has proven effective in reducing the spread of cervical cancer.  A campaign by the manufacturer to lobby state legislatures has been withdrawn, since the side effects have not been properly documented and the lobbying campaign was certainly self-serving.  The real problem is that some states have mandated the inoculation of young women without objection except for religious reasons.  This is another example of how the intrusion of public health authorities into the lives of individuals must be avoided.  Sex outside of marriage certainly helps spread the instances of cervical cancer among young women.  In some ways, again, the proposed program condones sex outside of marriage by offering these palliative solutions.

The only true and proven solution for humankind that will in the long run protect it against sexually transmitted diseases is a return to a family-centered culture.  Only a culture that respects the family and its true purpose, and the union of a man and a woman as the exclusive way that life must be transmitted, can hope to have long-term effectiveness.

As religious leaders “put out into the deep” in trying to influence our society, we do so with every perfect right.  It is not a matter of religious doctrine or an issue of faith, as the Mayor states in his radio remarks, but rather it is an issue of humanity that needs to be protected, not only from communicable diseases, but also from the public morality that does not give credit to the human person’s ability to abstain from sex when it is not morally permissible.

                                                     * * * * *