AIDS, Sexual Health, and the Catholic Church in 1980s Ireland: A Public Health Paradox?

Our aim was to explore the paradoxical role of the Catholic Church during the early AIDS era in establishing a policy network committed to the principles of public health, even in instances in which these principles contradicted Catholic moral teaching. This article is rooted in a study that explored the transformational effects of AIDS on Irish sexual health policy during the initial decade of the epidemic; that is, as it unfolded in Ireland between 1982 and 1992. Our source material, consisting of 20 documents that had been unexplored for more than 25 years, was obtained from the Dublin AIDS Alliance Ltd., an Irish civil society organization that supports HIV-positive people. Our archival research was supported by 18 semistructured key informant interviews with contemporaneous politicians, representatives of the Catholic Church, clinical personnel, and AIDS activists. We examined the critical role of a Catholic priest in developing a coherent national policy response that reflected the public health principles advocated by the World Health Organization at a time when the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church had a significant influence on successive Irish governments. (Am J Public Health. 2018;108:908-913.).