New assault launched against condom use

Catholic bishops in Mozambique have flown in the face of scientific opinion by claiming that condoms promote the spread of HIV/AIDS. The bishops recently expressed shock over posters appearing in secondary schools suggesting sex with condoms could be pleasurable, local news agency, AIM reported. "Some posters present the use of condoms in such an attractive manner that young people and adolescents are seduced, or take such serious things as jokes," the bishops said in a pastoral letter released on 24 April. Although research shows that, in the absence of a vaccine, condoms are a proven means of tackling the spread of HIV, the bishops say "conjugal chasteness" is the only defence against infection.