South Africa: Catholic Bishop Calls for New Aids Theology : AllAfrica.com

A South African Catholic cleric who supports the use of condoms against HIV/AIDS, contrary to the church's stance on the prophylactics, has called for a new "theology" for the pandemic.

Bishop Kevin Dowling [C. SS. R., Rustenburg] told The Chicago Tribune that such a theology would be based on an ethic of "human dignity and justice and human rights instead of just an ethic of sexuality".

Official Roman Catholic teaching bans condoms because they are a form of contraception, arguing that abstinence is the best way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

However, Dowling argued that abstinence in marriage should be reconsidered "in a diocese full of desperately poor women with few options beyond prostitution to feed their children."

If he can no longer teach official Roman Catholic teaching, he ought to resign so the people of his diocese can have a bishop who does.