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Dr. Gerard M. Nadal: Science in Service of the Pro-Life Movement

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Of Cardinals, Cathedrals, Condoms, and Cretins (Part I)

December 23, 2009 by Gerard M. Nadal

John Cardinal O'Connor

A little-known anniversary passed very silently on the tenth of this month, the twentieth anniversary of AIDS activist group ACT-UP’s desecration of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The New York Times reported the incident. It was the culmination of many smaller-scale desecrations at the Cathedral by gay groups, including Dignity. From 1987-88 I was a seminarian for the Archdiocese of New York, and was present at the Cathedral for Sunday Masses with the Cardinal when Dignity would seat themselves in rows midway down the aisle, then stand with their backs turned to the Cardinal as he gave the homily. They hated him as no other because he was pro-life, because he was a faithful son of the Church and would not give his blessing to the use of condoms for any purpose.

Cardinal O’Connor’s famous rejoinder was, “Good morality is good medicine.” For that singular statement he was regarded as little more than a caveman in Cardinal’s robes. From the Times article:

“Protesters said yesterday’s action was prompted by what they said was Cardinal O’Connor’s growing verbal assault on abortion and on the use of ‘safe sex’ with condoms as a precaution against AIDS.

“In October, the Cardinal expressed his admiration for Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group that frequently blocks entrances to abortion clinics. In a speech at the Vatican in November, he re-stated his view that distributing condoms or clean needles was an inappropriate way to combat the spread of the AIDS virus. In a phrase frequently condemned by demonstrators yesterday, he said, ‘Good morality is good medicine.'”

What the Times did not report was that one protester crumbled the Eucharist at Communion time in an act of desecration never before seen in the cathedral. Protesters also threw condoms all over the cathedral. They were right about one thing, people were dying from this disease. AIDS patients were still considered lepers in many quarters. It was a frightening time.

Earlier that autumn 1989, Fr. Bruce Ritter asked me if I would return to Covenant House, a shelter for homeless teens in Times Square, where I had worked for five years prior to entering the seminary. He explained that he had started a Special Needs Unit for adolescents with HIV/AIDS. Some were already dying in end-stage AIDS. I accepted the offer.

Our unit at the time was the ONLY residential facility in the nation for adolescents with HIV/AIDS. Most of the kids were male prostitutes who contracted the virus from their clients. The disease progressed rapidly in some. We buried one young man not long after I began work on the unit. So, I was not without sympathy for the issue felt so keenly by Dignity and ACT-UP.

I contemplated this during the long night shifts when the kids finally went to sleep. What was the objection, really? Why such venomous hatred directed at the Church? Everyone knew that condoms broke during vaginal sex, more-so during anal sex. This wasn’t a state secret. Having just begun my post-baccalaureate curriculum in science at Columbia University, I found the hatred for the Church on campus palpable. Why?

The answer was: Narcissism. Even in the face of a killer sexually transmitted disease, people wanted their sex. Period. The drive toward self-indulgence was so powerful that it blinded people to the reality that condoms had a pretty significant failure rate, for a variety of reasons: improper and inconsistent use, tearing, slipping.

Then there was the issue of promiscuity in the gay community, the orgies in the bath houses that were eventually closed down as a public health measure. People weren’t interested in changing their behavior. They wanted fornication without consequences and expected, demanded the Church play along. In hindsight, they were looking for political cover.

For those old enough to remember the early years of the AIDS pandemic, it was largely considered a ‘gay’ disease. When it started showing up in the heterosexual community, many gays feared (rightly) a backlash based on that perception of AIDS being a gay disease. What better cover than the Catholic Church? The Bishops weren’t falling for it. They knew better about condoms, and sought to teach the faithful.

In the interim, Cardinal O’Connor quietly set about increasing the number of hospital beds in Catholic hospitals of the Archdiocese dedicated to AIDS patients to well above fifteen percent. He effectively turned Saint Clare’s Hospital on W 52nd Street into an AIDS hospice. Unbeknown to his detractors, the Cardinal went to St. Clare’s once a week in simple clerical garb to wash patients, empty bedpans, and perform priestly pastoral ministry to the dying. On his orders, he was introduced simply as Father John.

Next Wednesday, we’ll take a look at the wisdom and strength behind that humility. We’ll consider the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control data that clearly vindicate Cardinal O’Connor, and lay much blame for this ongoing tragedy at the feet of his most bitter detractors. We’ll see the epidemiological data that expose the great lie about condoms and where we have gone these past twenty years. It isn’t pretty.

Part II here.
Part III here.
Part IV here.

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Posted in Bishops, Condoms, Dignity, Health Care, HIV/AIDS, Sex Education, Sexually Transmitted Disease | Tagged ACT-UP, Bishops, Cardinal O'Connor, Condoms, HIV/AIDS | 11 Comments

11 Responses

  1. on December 24, 2009 at 3:24 PM curtjester

    Father Groechell tells a story that a one time head of Act Up who had participated in the desecrations ended up dying of AIDS being cared for in a Catholic Hospital in NY. As I remember the man died in the Catholic faith receiving the sacraments. A testimony to the love and care he received there.


  2. on December 24, 2009 at 5:45 PM Gerard M. Nadal

    That’s what’s so great about Christianity and our Church. It’s never too late. I have no doubt that much of the rage that fueled the desecrations was fear-based, Staring into eternity, being hurtled along by a new and mysterious pathogen associated with how one has expressed love and sexuality is no easy burden to bear.

    As I continue to post new chapters on this topic, I do so with that understanding in mind. Still, the objective truth needs to be told in defense of the Church, and to protect the good names of good men such as Cardinal O’Connor who are no longer with us to defend their own good names. It also needs to be told to protect others from the same fate.


  3. on December 25, 2009 at 8:36 PM Megan

    Well, that’s some curious epidemiology there…AIDS rates have actually dropped among white gay men–populations heavily targeted for comprehensive sex education. Sure, condoms aren’t a panacea for the AIDS epidemic, but they certainly don’t INCREASE AIDS rates. See: http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.htm

    Oh, I but I guess abstinence-until-marriage is really the solution to the perils of sex. That’s a really sound piece of public health advice, considering that a) people are waiting to get married these days until they go to school, get jobs, etc. etc. b) marriage, as an institution, was (and still is) used to ensure purity of the male lineage, hence the significance of “virginity.” Abstinence-only policies further marriage’s ugly, misogynistic, woman-as-property legacy c) regulating sex is a breach of individual liberty and privacy d) According to those ever-loving and tolerant Church teachings, gay people are always already immoral, meaning they’re not even ENTITLED to sex. Gay marriage isn’t universally legal, so, by definition, gay sex is unsanctioned sex.

    But ya know, waving some incense over a dying man’s body (after condemning his kind up and down since oscar wilde first wore a peacock headdress) is truly a magnanimous gesture.


  4. on December 25, 2009 at 10:09 PM Gerard M. Nadal

    Megan,

    Thanks for taking the time to comment. There is obviously a world of difference between our perspectives. Much of that difference will be addressed in the weekly posts I’ll be doing on this topic every Wednesday into January.

    I’m not out to make converts here, and I welcome differing perspectives, perhaps with a little less snarkig.

    When I post on other people’s blogs, I try to picture myself a guest in their living room having coffee. I then conduct myself with that level of decorum, strenuous though my objections may be. I ask and require the same of guests here in my living room.

    I don’t take offense at your bill of indictment against the Church or marriage. I truly welcome such discussion, and truly welcome YOU. Let’s have that discussion in the weeks to come with mutual respect.

    Going forward, much discussion will deal with the document you cite, as well as HLI’s Brian Clowes, Ph.D., who wrote Case Against Condoms. It’s a data-rich document that we’ll take some time to unpack.

    God Bless.


  5. on December 26, 2009 at 1:06 PM Megan

    Gerard,

    Thank you for taking the time to respond, no snark intended. I look forward to your analysis of the “Case Against Condoms.” Might I suggest looking into the HIV Women’s Collaborative of New York’s recent report on growing AIDS rates among low income black and Latina women? It’s truly insightful–and makes a clear case for improving the city’s very broken sex education system.

    -Megan


  6. on December 26, 2009 at 2:02 PM Gerard M. Nadal

    Hi Megan,

    I’ll get on that this weekend.

    All the Best


  7. on May 4, 2010 at 4:20 AM John Cardinal O’Connor 10 Years Later: A Saint ? (Part I) « Coming Home

    […] Part I Part II Part III Part IV […]


  8. on July 29, 2010 at 9:02 PM L.

    Yes, I do remember this!

    And I agree, throwing condoms in a Church is not an effective way to get any message across.

    (I was at Columbia, too, in ’90-’91 — got my masters in journalism.)


  9. on July 29, 2010 at 9:03 PM L.

    …and my grandma used to donate to Covenant House.


  10. on October 25, 2010 at 7:06 PM Of Cardinals, Cathedrals, Condoms and Cretins (Part IV) « Coming Home

    […] has been demonstrated conclusively in Part I,Part II and Part III, these people had it wrong. Terribly wrong. Tragically wrong. In the early days […]


  11. on November 7, 2010 at 2:21 AM Coming Home

    […] the targeting of the Catholic Church by homosexuals continues unabated. I wrote a four part series detailing their desecration of the Eucharist in St Patrick’s Cathedral, their disruptions of […]



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