Condoms4Life Campaign - Global

In the first phase of the campaign (late 2001 through late 2003), the campaign used the mass media to raise public awareness. Newspaper adverts and billboard posters carried the message "Catholic people care. Do our bishops? - Banning condoms kills". This slogan appeared above a photograph of a line of bishops processing with their backs to the viewer into a service wearing mitres and cassocks. Globally, bus shelter and subway ads were posted, full-page newspaper ads appeared, and billboards were erected in prominent locations.

To celebrate World AIDS Day 2003 (December 1), Catholics for a Free Choice extended the reach of the campaign and adopted a new message: "Good Catholics Use Condoms". This phase of the campaign presents a positive message to sexually active Catholics about responsibility and caring for others. There are 9 versions of the ads, one of which includes a close-up photo of a man and woman and features these words: "We believe in God. We believe that sex is sacred. We believe in caring for each other. We believe in using condoms." This strategy aims to counter the message sent by Catholic bishops worldwide that condoms are immoral and unsafe. This phase of the campaign was first implemented in Washington DC, with ads appearing in highly traveled Metro stations and bus shelters in areas where young people gather. Then, on a rolling basis, the campaign will move worldwide throughout 2004 with newspaper and billboard ads, educational materials, and Internet action alerts.

The Internet is a key strategy in spreading the word and encouraging the public to take action to end the ban. The Condoms4life website includes web banners and camera-ready ads, as well as various HIV/AIDS resources. The site also provides tools enabling citizens to interact with others - including electronic postcards featuring campaign messages (meant to be sent to friends) and a letter to meant to build public pressure on the Catholic hierarchy. Action alerts enable the public to send individual letters and to use the e-mail network to lobby local and national elected officials as well as international policy makers asking them to withhold funds from any church agency that does not inform clients about the importance of condoms in preventing the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Printed materials designed to raise awareness are also part of the campaign strategy. As part of the first campaign phase, the CFFC news journal Conscience, which is distributed to policy makers and opinion leaders in over 100 countries, released a special issue called "A Body Weakened: The Church and AIDS". As part of the second phase, a brochure entitled "Sex in the HIV/AIDS Era: A Guide for Catholics" is being produced to assist at-risk Catholics who are struggling with questions around faith and conscience, sexuality, and the use of condoms for HIV/AIDS prevention. Copies of the brochure will be distributed globally and may be ordered on the website.

HIV/AIDS.

The Catholic Church teaches that sexual intercourse should be reserved for marriage and that married couples should not use artificial contraception. Church leaders have called for a prevention strategy revolving around matrimonial fidelity, chastity, and abstinence, while excluding safe sex and condom education campaigns that they view as associated with models of immoral behaviour. The campaign asks the Church not to encourage condom use, which is effective in preventing HIV/AIDS, but merely to stop banning it. Many of the 4,435 plus bishops worldwide actively lobby governments and the United Nations to restrict access to condoms, claiming that condoms cause AIDS, not prevent it.

To cite one example, in 2003, Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo claimed on a BBC programme that "the AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom." The World Health Organization (WHO) immediately responded that "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million." WHO maintains that "consistent and correct" use of condoms reduces transmission by 90%.