Archbishop: Church must dispel prejudice about its stance on AIDS

Published: 2007-05-02

LONDON (CNS) --The Catholic Church must do more to dispel "mistaken prejudices" about its attitudes to people with HIV/AIDS, said a Scottish archbishop. "It needs to be said again and again that the Catholic Church is committed to those works of mercy in the field of HIV/AIDS," said Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, Scotland. The archbishop spoke in Kiev, Ukraine, in late April to a Caritas-sponsored conference on HIV/AIDS in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. An archdiocesan official provided Catholic News Service in London with a copy of the text. Archbishop Conti said it was "very regrettable" that some people think the church is unsympathetic to AIDS patients because, in many cases, HIV is transmitted through sexual intercourse.

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