The following statements are a selection taken from signatories who appended their personal accounts of how the ban on condoms has affected them and their communities. More statements will be added throughout the petition effort.

Your Holiness,
There is a strong possibility that if my four uncles and three Aunts had used condoms they would be alive today. They all succumbed to AIDS and died. Those who were married have had their spouses follow them to the grave. We are now stranded with orphans and memories.

Your Holiness I know of at least 10 Catholic Priests in Mbarara Arch-Diocese who were my friends and have also died of AIDS over the last 15 years.
I pray help to save the World from the ignorance.

Yours Sincerely,
Tumushabe Joseph
Mbarara Arch-Diocese
Uganda

***

Dear Pope Benedict,

I am asking you that in the compassion of Jesus you lift the Roman Catholic Church's ban on the use of condoms to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. I ask that you do this UNIVERSALLY and not just for married couples where one spouse is already infected with HIV or has full blown AIDS.

You can do this by applying the Principle of Proportionality that is central to Catholic moral theology. The greater moral evil than the use of condoms that MAY prevent pregnancy is that denial of the use of condoms is a sure death sentence - a horrible and lingering death - to people with HIV/AIDS.

Additionally, there are now hundreds of thousands of orphaned children because not only their parents but their entire extended family is either too debilitated from HIV/AIDS to care for them or are already dead.

Surely, if Jesus were here he would tell you to UNIVERSALLY lift the ban on condoms.

In nomine Christi,
Monsignor John W. Sweeley, Th.D.
Baltimore, MD

***

I have decided to abandon the Catholic faith and became a Protestant because of this issue. I believe that the ban on the use of condoms is contributing to many HIV infections and eventually deaths. I became ashamed to belong to a faith which considered principles to be more important than human health and life. I deeply hope that this decision could be reversed.

Izabela Walters
Pt Cook

***

As a young person given the benefit of Catholic education, I am a strong believer in the right to life. The ban on condoms neglects a huge population of people, mostly youth, who have the right to live a full and happy life. Condoms, used to protect against the transmission of HIV/AIDS, helps these young people reach their full potential.

Mia Chung
Vancouver, BC Canada

***

As an undergraduate at the Catholic University of America, your holiness, I understand the church's current position on the use of contraceptives but when Africa is slowly dying and many are infected by this vicious disease each day something needs to be done.

The alteration of the church's position on condom use in order to reduce the amount of HIV/AIDS outbreak would be amazingly beneficial to countless people.

Father, it would save lives.

Matthew Beaver
Washington, DC

Your Holiness,

I am a loyal and devoted Catholic and it gravely saddens me that my conscience cannot concur with traditional Catholic teaching on this issue. While I utterly reject that theological teaching should be secondary to social policy, I believe that there are important theological arguments in favour of the promotion of condom use to preserve families and lives in the developing world. It should never be promoted instead of abstinence and fidelity, but the arguments in favour of condom use as a regrettable supplement to these are compelling. I hope that you will support continued consideration of this matter as it is a question of life or death for many loyal sons and daughters of the Church.

Miss Clare Barlow
London, England

***

Please, think of future generations, of children with HIV, and allow science to progress for everyone’s good health. We cannot deny that safe sexual relationships are the only way to stop this massive infection. Withdraw the ban on condoms: it would be an act of LOVE.

Ma. Laura Montenovi
Gral. Pacheco