The Pope, AIDS, and Sex Education

Pope Benedict released a lengthy statement to African Catholics addressing a wide range of topics. From husbands and wives to children and the elderly. Ecology. Migration. Globalization. Church practices and so forth. Out of 170 plus paragraphs, addressing different issues, the media of course zeroed in on his discussion of AIDS and the need for morally responsible behavior, e.g. abstinence and fidelity. Of course, this a huge issue in Africa and certainly is an appropriate topic to address.

Here's what he said on the topic:

72. Serious threats loom over human life in Africa. Here, as elsewhere, one can only deplore the ravages of drug and alcohol abuse which destroy the continent’s human potential and afflict young people in particular.[113] Malaria,[114] as well as tuberculosis and AIDS, decimate the African peoples and gravely compromise their socio-economic life. The problem of AIDS, in particular, clearly calls for a medical and pharmaceutical response. This is not enough, however: the problem goes deeper. Above all, it is an ethical problem. The change of behaviour that it requires – for example, sexual abstinence, rejection of sexual promiscuity, fidelity within marriage – ultimately involves the question of integral development, which demands a global approach and a global response from the Church. For if it is to be effective, the prevention of AIDS must be based on a sex education that is itself grounded in an anthropology anchored in the natural law and enlightened by the word of God and the Church’s teaching.

He says the problem "clearly calls for a medical and pharmaceutical response. This is not enough, however: the problem goes deeper. Above all, it is an ethical problem." He's absolutely correct. Most, all of our social problems are ethical at their core.

And practically, to prevent AIDS what's needed is "sex education that is itself grounded in anthropology anchored in the natural law and enlightened by the word of God and the Church's teaching." While the Pope is talking in the context of Catholic sex education and the Church, those teaching sex education in our public schools could learn something from his comments. They could appropriate and look at sexuality and sex "grounded in an anthropology anchored in the natural law." Show there's a meaning and purpose to sex. It's not a leisure sport where we can make up the rules as we go along.

Pope Benedict is to be highly commended for bringing to the fore, once again, the ethical dimension of society's problems.