Feb 16, 2007 12:16 pm US/Pacific
Bloomberg Fends Off Clergy Condom Condemnation
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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More than 100,000 of New York's 8.2 million residents are living with HIV or AIDS. (File)
AP
After Catholic leaders chastised city officials for a free condom program that they said was immoral, Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday defended the initiative as a "real world" tactic to combat HIV and AIDS.
"This is not an issue of faith, this is a health issue for the city," he said on his weekly radio show.
Cardinal Edward Egan, head of the Archdiocese of New York, and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn released a joint statement on Thursday that said City Hall leaders "fail to protect the moral tone of our community when they encourage inappropriate sexual activity by blanketing our neighborhoods with condoms."
They came forward a day after the city unveiled its official condom, with a newly designed subway-themed wrapper. For the Valentines Day launch, volunteers handed them out around the city.
"The taxpayer money that is being spent to distribute condoms and promote the attitude that anything goes would be far better spent in fostering what is true and what is decent," said the statement from Egan and DiMarzio.
The city negotiated a deal with the maker of the LifeStyles brand for 4 cents per condom.
The free condom program has been in place for years and gives away 1.5 million condoms each month. Many other localities have them as well—the Los Angeles County health department gives out just over a million condoms per year, according to Peter Kerndt, director of the department's sexually transmitted disease program.
In New York, officials hope that the new distinctive design—featuring the words "NYC Condom" in the fonts and colors used in the subway system—will help them track usage with their annual community health survey.
Respondents will now be asked whether they used condoms in their most recent sexual encounters and what the wrappers looked like.
Their responses will be used to determine the effectiveness of the distribution.
Bloomberg said Egan and DiMarzio, who together serve more than 4 million Catholics, have the right to communicate to their followers what they feel is proper behavior. But, he added, the city is trying to find ways to reduce its rates of HIV and AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases.
"They should preach to their congregants what they think is the appropriate ways to live your lives, but the health department has to work with the real world of people not practicing protected sex, not practicing abstinence, and this is a ways to keep people alive."
More than 100,000 of New York's 8.2 million residents are living with HIV or AIDS.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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