Caritas adviser notes importance of women, girls in AIDS prevention

Published: 2006-08-15

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Caritas Internationalis' special adviser on HIV and AIDS said he hoped the XVI International AIDS Conference would be remembered for focusing on women and girls. For their part, faith-based organizations and Catholic leaders working on the prevention and treatment of AIDS are not only focusing on gender discrimination that restricts women from education and health care, but they are "engaging men in the struggle, too," Father Robert Vitillo told Catholic News Service in an Aug. 14 telephone interview from Toronto, where he participated in the main conference as well as earlier conferences for religious leaders. Catholic organizations are promoting abstinence and lifelong fidelity in marital relationships so women are better protected from AIDS, he said. Women are sometimes victimized by men, who contract HIV when they have sex outside of marriage, then infect their wives, he said.

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