Green (Harvard): "as a liberal, I say the Pope is right"

Recently, I mentioned an article by Kathryn Jean Lopez, referring to Edward C. Green, the Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, who said that the Pope was right and that the best evidence that we have supports his comments. (See: Support for the Holy Father from Harvard.)

The Italian journal Il Sussidiario has interviewed Edward Green. Green says that as a social liberal it is hard for him to admit it, but the Pope is right. At one point, he says:

People began noticing years ago that the countries in Africa with the highest condom availability and highest condom user rates, also had the highest HIV infection rates. This does not prove a causal relation, but it should have made us look critically at our condom programs years ago.

His comments on "risk compensation" are important in understanding why it is that condom programmes have not reduced HIV infection rates.