By Clifford Akumu
A fifty-year-old papal letter to all bishops-what was then dubbed an encyclical Humane Vitae, still continues to affect the lives of the most vulnerable women today.
Human Vitae was published at a time when medical advances and upheavals in social attitudes were fuelling a revolution in sexual behavior in much of the world. According to Pope Paul VI, the artificial contraception was inherently wrong.
The letter had a contradictory effect and was both instantly disregarded by millions of women. Now, a new report released by a Roman Catholic lobby has poked holes on the relevance of that letter.
The report dubbed Humane Vitae and the damage done indicates that nearly three in every five Kenyan Catholics do not agree with the Vatican’s ban on modern contraceptive use. The group which has been at the forefront in trying to push the church to open the door and allow modern contraceptives points out that the policy – Humanae Vitae – by Pope Paul VI “slammed the door on Catholic’s use of modern contraceptives.”
The research also found that a big percentage of Catholic faithful use modern contraceptives in open disregard of the church’s stand. It adds to the danger of HIV rising especially with the ban on the use of condoms.
Findings of the study which was conducted by the lobby group, Catholics for Choice (CFC) show that three out of every five Catholics have also not heard about Humanae Vitae the main document on which the Roman Catholic Church anchors its stand on contraception.
Further, the researchers discovered that about 18 percent of Catholic faithful in Kenya are not sure what the document was all about. And the situation is not different in other parts of the world.
However, it must be noted that 27% of Kenyan Catholics support the ban on the use of contraceptives by the church. This even as it found 60% of Kenyan Catholics say it is common for Catholics to use birth control.
The strong influence of the Catholic Church on Kenyan health policies has also been noted as the reason why some grey areas still remain especially on reproductive health matters.
But the Catholic Church cannot be wished away just yet as it runs two out of every five health facilities in Kenya according to the Kenya Service Provision Assessment (KSPA) Survey conducted after the Demographic and Health Survey. These facilities offer no contraceptive services.
On HIV, the report states, “Nowhere has the public health impact of Humanae Vitae been felt more acutely than in efforts to combat HIV and AIDS. Despite scientific evidence that condoms are critical in HIV and AIDS prevention, the Vatican has refused to relax the ban on contraceptives and has spread disinformation about the effectiveness of condoms, which undercuts efforts to promote condom use.”
