ALBANY, N.Y., DIOCESE DEFENDS NEEDLE EXCHANGE; SOME CATHOLIC SCHOLARS DISAGREE

In launching a needle-exchange program recently, the Catholic Diocese
of Albany, N.Y., said the decision came down to choosing the lesser
evil. Illegal drug use is bad, but the spread of deadly diseases is worse.

The medical evidence is clear, the diocese said when it began Project
Safe Point in two Upstate New York locations through the local branch
of Catholic Charities. Public health studies document that exchanging
used syringes for new ones can reduce the spread of blood-borne
diseases such as AIDS and even lead drug abusers to treatment and recovery.

"To guide us, the church provides us with the principles of licit
cooperation in evil and the counseling of the lesser evil," the
Albany diocese said in a statement. "The sponsorship of Catholic
Charities in Safe Point, then, is based upon the church's standard
moral principles."

In citing the "lesser evil" argument, the diocese is drawing on a
tradition of ethical reasoning that dates to Saint Thomas Aquinas,
the 13th-century theologian, said the Rev. James Bretzke, a professor
of moral theology at Boston College.

"When you cannot reasonably expect a person to avoid the moral evil
itself," as might be the case with some drug addicts, "you can
counsel them at least to lessen or mitigate the potential damage of
their action and can even help them in doing that," Bretzke said.

But some Catholic scholars question the diocese's moral calculus and
say the Church should never be involved -- to any degree -- with the
sin of drug abuse.

"Enabling someone to do an evil act is, in no way, shape or form,
ever to help that person," said Edward Peters, a professor of canon
law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. "This is elemental
moral theology."

"Regardless of your motives (which might be benign, though quite
misguided)," Peters said in an e-mail interview, "you can't engage in
action that you know to be evil, and helping drug addicts to do
illegal drugs is evil."

Needle-exchange programs have become fairly commonplace in Europe and
elsewhere since their inception in Amsterdam in 1983. But in the
United States, they have often been a source of deep controversy.
Even amid mounting medical evidence of the positive effects of such
programs, Congress and successive presidents refused to fund them for
fear of seeming to condone illicit drug use.

But the tide is turning. Last year, Congress voted to allow
needle-exchange programs to receive federal funding, a move that
President Obama echoes in his 2011 budget proposal, according to a
White House official. The Albany program will be financed by $170,000
in grants from New York state.

Catholic scholars who study the morality of needle exchanges say they
know of no other U.S. diocese that offers such a program. Catholic
Charities USA's national headquarters said it did not know whether
any of its 1,700 regional affiliates maintain needle exchanges.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a 1990 statement
reprinted in 1997, questioned the morality and practicality of needle
exchanges, expressing concern that they might lead to an increase of
drug use, contribute to the spread of disease through poorly
monitored programs, and "send the message that intravenous drug use
can be made safe."

The Rev. Jon Fuller, a Jesuit priest and medical doctor, treats AIDS
patients in Boston, many of whom, he said, became infected through
sharing needles. "It's been 20 years since the bishops' statement,"
he said. "It's time to come to a new reflection."

Catholics who oppose needle-exchange programs argue that they could
cause scandal, which in Catholic moral theology essentially means
that the Church is sending a message that might lead to confusion
about its stance on an issue -- in this case, that the Church
sanctions drug use.

"But scandal can cut both ways," said Fuller, an associate professor
of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and a staff
physician at its Center for HIV/AIDS Care and Research. "If we know
programs are scientifically validated to save lives, then condemning
them can be more scandalous than the possibility of being seen to
condone drug use."

Supplying addicts with clean syringes is not necessarily wrong if the
intention is to limit the spread of disease, said Germain Grisez, a
prominent moral theologian and emeritus professor of Christian ethics
at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Md. But, Grisez said,
because of its caretaker role in society, the Catholic Church should
not be involved in needle-exchange programs.

"The question is: What would you do if it was your children? You'd go
all out to get them off drugs. Think of what Jesus would do. I think
the Church should do what Jesus would do."

In 2000, the Rev. James Keenan, a theologian at Boston College,
successfully pushed the Society of Christian Ethics, a
nondenominational association of scholars, to pass a resolution in
support of needle-exchange programs.

"It's about mercy, love of neighbor, the common good, human dignity
and responding to human suffering," Keenan said. "The question is:
What are we doing for the IV drug user? And I think Catholic
Charities just gave an answer."