Terms of Use: Policies for Site Access and Content

Last updated and overview

Last updated: 12 June 2024.

This page explains the rules for using our site. We publish advocacy and educational material on Catholic perspectives, condom policy, and HIV/AIDS prevention, and these terms set out what you can expect from us and what we ask of you in return. They are written in plain language on purpose. We would rather you actually read them than skim past a wall of legal text.

If anything below is unclear, the Contact page will get you to a person who can answer.

Acceptance of terms

Using this site means you accept these terms. That applies to everyone who visits — casual readers, researchers, journalists, and anyone who submits a message through our forms.

If you don't agree with something here, the answer is simple: don't use the site. There's no account to cancel and no settings to change. Closing the tab is enough.

We treat continued use as ongoing agreement. So if we update these terms later and you keep visiting, you're agreeing to the revised version. More on that further down.

Acceptable use and restrictions

Most of our readers never have to think about this section, because honest use of a website is exactly what you'd expect. But it's worth being clear about the boundaries.

When you send us information — through a contact form, a survey, or any other channel, give us accurate details. Don't impersonate someone else, and don't submit content you know to be false or fraudulent.

What is not permitted

• Interfering with the site's security, hosting, or availability, including attempts to overload, probe, or scan our systems.
• Using automated tools to scrape or harvest content at a scale that disrupts service.
• Posting or transmitting unlawful, abusive, harassing, or deliberately misleading material through any feature we offer.
• Attempting to gain access to areas of the site, data, or accounts that are not meant for you.

These restrictions exist to keep the site usable for the people who depend on it for clear, sourced information on a sensitive subject.

Use license and intellectual property

You're welcome to read our articles, share a link, and use the material for your own personal, non-commercial purposes. That's the whole point of publishing it.

What you can't do is republish or redistribute our content as if it were your own, or fold it into a commercial product, without written permission. A quote with attribution and a link back is fine. Copying an entire article onto another site is not.

The text, design, logos, and other original material on this site remain the property of the site or the licensors who allowed us to use them. Permission to view the content is not a transfer of ownership. If you'd like to reuse something substantial — for a newsletter, a course, a translation, ask us first, and we'll usually find a way to say yes.

No warranties and limitation of liability

We work hard to keep our material accurate and current, drawing on named sources and Catholic voices from a range of regional contexts. We don't, however, guarantee that every page is complete, error-free, or available without interruption. Policy debates move, citations age, and links break.

Health and policy questions deserve care. Nothing here is a substitute for advice from a qualified medical professional, lawyer, or pastoral counsellor, and you should seek independent guidance before acting on anything you read. This is one limitation we want to name plainly: a public advocacy resource can inform a decision, but it cannot replace a conversation with someone who knows your particular situation.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for damages that arise from your use of — or inability to use, this site. That includes indirect, incidental, and consequential losses. Where a jurisdiction doesn't permit certain exclusions, those exclusions simply won't apply to you, and the rest of these terms still stand.

Applicable law, modifications, and contact

Applicable law

These terms are interpreted under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the site operates, and any dispute falls to the competent courts there. If a single provision turns out to be unenforceable, the others remain in full force — one bad clause doesn't void the agreement.

Modifications

We revise these terms from time to time, usually when the law changes or when we add a feature. When we do, we update the revision date at the top of the page. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated terms, so it's worth glancing at the date when you return.

Contact

Questions about these terms are welcome. Reach us through the details on our Contact page. You may also want to read our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, which cover how we handle your information.