Catholic Church endorses needle exchange

A Catholic Bishop has caused controversy by going against traditional Catholic values and endorsing needle exchange as an efficient way to combat the Aids/HIV epidemic.

Bishop Hubbard of the Albany Diocese who serves as the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace has approved a proposal to distribute clean needles to heroin addicts in two urban areas of Albany, New York.

The proposal was made by a group of Catholic charities that are taking a new stance on such issues. Traditionally, the Catholic Church has opposed aspects of harm reduction such as needle exchange to combat the prevalence of blood borne diseases amongst intravenous drug users arguing that people should be encouraged to abstain from drug use instead. According to state Health Department studies, 50 percent of new AIDS cases were due to IV drug use in 1990. By 2004, after needle exchange programs were introduced, that statistic had dropped to 7 percent of new AIDS cases due to IV drug use. "This is a proven method used around the country, but there has been a huge gap in this area that nobody was stepping up to fill," said Angela Keller, executive director of AIDS services for Catholic Charities. She came to the agency after working five years at the AIDS Council. Last year, the Vatican stated that harm reduction is anti-life and that “so-called harm reduction leads to liberalisation of the use of drugs”. However, what has been happening in the US demonstrates that in some places Catholic morals are evolving to confront modern societal problems.

Organisers of the program, called Project Safe Point, have met with neighbourhood association, drug users, police and Aids activists. The Social Services wing of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has been vetting the program for the last five years and now it has received approval from the trustees and the board chairman Bishop Hubbard. 

"I understand there will be questions, but this is common sense," said Sister Maureen Joyce, CEO of Catholic Charities. "I strongly believe in this. It will save lives." Needle exchange is becoming a more and more accepted response to the Aids crisis and last year the Obama administration lifted a federal ban on funding for needle exchange, which had previously only received funding from local and state funding. Although some people still regard needle exchange as an incentive for drug addicts to continue use, the number of needle exchanges continues to rise and the North American Syringe Exchange Network says that it distributed more than 30 million clean needles last year. 

Many view the Catholic Church’s moral objection to issues such as drug use as a frequent obstacle to curbing the HIV/Aids epidemic. The National Institute of Health estimates that in the United States, between fifteen and twenty percent of injection drug users have HIV and at least seventy percent have hepatitis. The Vatican states that the church globally provides nearly 27% of HIV/AIDS services or Catholic-based organisations; a more liberal view on needle exchanges would increase this figure. Sister Joyce also states “from a theological standpoint, we're not being faithful to our mission if we don't reach out to people addicted to drugs, too,”

Several members of the clergy and Catholic health professionals have also endorsed condom use as a method of HIV prevention despite the Vatican's objections. Rev. Jon Fuller, a Jesuit priest and HIV/AIDS physician at The Boston Medical Centre said, “a change in the Roman Catholic Church's views on contraception could significantly impact the spread of HIV. "