U.S. Catholic Bishops Agree to Draft New AIDS Statement

Ending a “festering” division among themselves, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops decided unanimously Monday to retain a controversial AIDS statement but to develop another, updated document that would include new facts and Vatican input.

The compromise was reached by about 175 bishops in a three-hour, closed session at St. John’s University here.

Some leading conservative bishops rejected the original statement, “The Many Faces of AIDS: A Gospel Response,” released Dec. 10 by the 50-member Administrative Committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference, the action arm of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Section Called ‘Confusing’

A section of the 30-page statement was labeled “confusing” by many bishops. It gave limited approval for Catholics involved in community-wide AIDS education to mention public health recommendations of condoms as a preventive measure. The statement did say that Catholics should always make clear their church’s teaching that sex is moral only within heterosexual marriage, but many bishops believed that the wording was open to misunderstanding.

A letter dated May 29 from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s powerful doctrinal guardian, expressed concern over “a good deal of confusion” created by news reports on the document. Ratzinger added that on subjects of worldwide interest, “it would seem advisable to consult in advance with the Holy See.”

Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin presented the motion adopted Monday to prepare “a new, updated statement on the AIDS crisis which will respond to the new facts, fears and efforts which have emerged in recent months.”

In remarks before the bishops, which he made public, Bernardin said it would be “imprudent” to retract or repudiate the first statement--as New York Cardinal John O’Connor and a few others had urged last December.

Withdrawing it would give the wrong impression that the entire document was flawed, Bernardin said. “Moreover, I am convinced that a majority of the faithful are not in doubt” about church teaching on sexuality, he said.

Bernardin said no bishop proposed altering or dropping the document during Monday’s discussions. Another bishop said O’Connor spoke very briefly and only to support the proposal to have a new statement developed.

‘Division Among Ourselves’

Bernardin, referring to what he called “the division among ourselves,” said, “We cannot allow it to continue festering.”

Archbishop John May of St. Louis, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, told reporters Monday that, in hindsight, “we made a mistake” in not having the full body of more than 300 bishops write and approve the statement over a longer period.

“A spirit of healing and reconciliation has taken place among the bishops,” May said. “Each bishop is free to use the original document as he sees fit, which is always the option he has.”

One prelate who resolved the dilemma last December was Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, who adapted the document for his archdiocese by rewriting five sentences that he said were “ambiguous.”

Mahony said in an interview late Monday that he thinks the new statement will be “much more significant--expanded in areas of compassion and understanding and much more helpful.” He said he did not know how extensively the original statement, as adapted, was being used in his archdiocese.

May said he would soon appoint an ad hoc committee to prepare the new statement. He said he doubted that it would be ready for full discussion at the bishops’ annual November meeting.

Bernardin indicated in answering reporters’ questions that the letter from Cardinal Ratzinger had minimal influence on the decision of the bishops’ conference here. Bernardin said he broached his proposal for a new statement at a March meeting of the U.S. Catholic Conference administrative board.

Bernardin noted to other bishops that when Pope John Paul II was asked by a reporter on his way to Latin America what he thought about the AIDS document, the Pope said that it was up to the U.S. bishops to find the proper language for expressing the church’s teaching.

Nevertheless, Bernardin suggested “strongly” that the committee entrusted with the new document “enter into dialogue with Cardinal Ratzinger” to avoid misunderstandings “of specific issues which have become problematic.”

The compromise reached here saved face for both liberal and conservative bishops, according to Father Thomas Reese, a Jesuit journalist and fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center. “It would have been embarrassing for the bishops to have repudiated the statement or to have made major modifications,” Reese said.