Joshua Stephen Muoki
a University of KwaZulu-Natal , School of Religion and Theology, Department of History of Christianity , Private Bag 3209 , Pietermaritzburg , South Africa.
Afr J AIDS Res. 2010 Dec;9(4):437-47. doi: 10.2989/16085906.2010.545660.
The South African HIV and AIDS experience is unique in many ways considering the country's delayed and robust epidemic, the apartheid context, and successive HIV-denialist government regimes. While the struggle for democracy may have overshadowed the enormity of the unfolding HIV epidemic, there was also a delay in constructive religious responses to it early on. In 1990, HIV/AIDS was declared a Catholic institutional focus, and by 2000 the Church had established the largest system of care and treatment in the country besides that of the government. However, the Catholic Church suffered severe criticism on account of its anti-condom policy to HIV prevention. As a result, the institutional Church underwent both organisational and ideological changes in an attempt to adapt to the contextual challenges brought about by HIV and AIDS. Informed by archival collections and oral sources, this article endeavours to critically analyse the HIV/AIDS-related care and treatment activities of the Catholic Church in South Africa between 2000 and 2005. It argues that the complex interplay between HIV and AIDS, the controversy about condom use, and the availability of antiretroviral therapy, accompanied by church activists' multiple engagements with these issues, changed the Church's institutional HIV/AIDS response at that time, in effect transforming the Catholic Church in South Africa into a substantial health asset and agent. However, its stance against the use of condoms for HIV prevention, informed by a larger religious tradition on sexuality, proved to be a health liability.
考虑到南非艾滋病疫情出现较晚但规模巨大、种族隔离背景以及历届否认艾滋病存在的政府政权，该国的艾滋病经历在许多方面都独具特色。虽然争取民主的斗争可能掩盖了不断蔓延的艾滋病疫情的严重性，但早期在建设性宗教回应方面也存在滞后。1990年，艾滋病被宣布为天主教机构关注的重点，到2000年，教会建立了该国除政府之外最大的护理和治疗体系。然而，天主教会因其预防艾滋病的反避孕套政策而受到严厉批评。结果，教会机构在组织和思想上都发生了变化，试图适应艾滋病带来的环境挑战。基于档案资料和口述资料，本文力图批判性地分析2000年至2005年期间南非天主教会与艾滋病相关的护理和治疗活动。文章认为，艾滋病、避孕套使用争议、抗逆转录病毒疗法的可及性之间复杂的相互作用，再加上教会活动人士对这些问题的多重参与，改变了当时教会对艾滋病的机构应对方式，实际上使南非天主教会成为了一项重要的健康资产和力量。然而，受关于性取向的更广泛宗教传统影响，其反对使用避孕套预防艾滋病的立场被证明是一项健康负担。
