ブラジル人歌手、バチカンとコンドーム論争

ブラジル人歌手、バチカンとコンドーム論争
2005年 12月 6日 火曜日 17:49 JST

　［サンパウロ　５日　ロイター］　ブラジルの人気歌手ダニエラ・マーキュリーはバチカンのクリスマスコンサートへの出演を禁止されたことに関して５日、文書で反論した。

　マーキュリーはバチカン主催のチャリティー・クリスマス・コンサートに南アフリカの歌手ミリアム・マケーバらと共に出演することになっていたが、出演が取り消された。

　マーキュリーはユニセフ（国連児童基金）と国連エイズ合同計画の親善大使を務めている。

　バチカンは２日、出演取り消しの理由はマーキュリーが避妊を推奨しているからではなく、コンドームの使用をコンサートで提唱すると述べたからだと発表した。

　これに対しマーキュリーは、「バチカン代表の発言に驚き、怒りを覚える」と反発。「コンドームの使用をバチカンのクリスマスコンサートで呼びかけると言った覚えはない」としている。

　カトリック教会の総本山バチカンは避妊を認めておらず、コンドームは避妊手段だとして反対の立場を取っている。エイズ予防にコンドームの使用を推奨するのは、非道徳的で快楽主義的な生き方を増長させるというのがその論拠。

　一方、世界一のカトリック教徒数を抱えるブラジル政府は先週、エイズ予防のために来年、無料でコンドーム１０億個を配布すると発表した。


Brazilian singer blasts Vatican in condom dispute
Mon Dec 5, 2005 02:59 PM ET
By Angus MacSwan

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury, who was banned from performing in a Vatican Christmas concert, said on Monday she was outraged at a Vatican claim that she had threatened to promote condom use during the show.

"I am surprised and outraged with the declarations made by the Vatican's representative," Mercury, one of Brazil's biggest musical stars, said in a statement.

"I never stated that I would advocate the use of condoms at the Vatican's Christmas concert."

The dispute has shot back and forth across the Atlantic since Mercury first said her offer to take part in the show had been withdrawn. She said last month the Vatican had excluded her because she took part in a campaign promoting the use of condoms to fight AIDS.

Mercury, who is an ambassador for UNICEF and the UN anti-AIDS program, had been invited to sing as part of an international cast that also included South African singer Miriam Makeba.

The concert is a traditional fund-raiser for charities broadcast on Italian television on Christmas Eve. The Pope does not attend but dozens of cardinals and Vatican officials do.

On Friday, the Vatican defended its decision to exclude Mercury. It said the reason was not her convictions about contraceptives but because she had said she would openly promote the use of condoms to prevent AIDS.

"Their allegations are incongruent with the facts," Mercury said in her latest statement.

The church opposes the condoms because they are a form of contraception. It says promoting condoms to stop the spread of AIDS fosters what it sees as immoral and hedonistic lifestyles and behavior that will only contribute to its spread.

Amid all the fuss the government of Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic country, announced last week it planned to distribute 1 billion free condoms next year to fight AIDS.

Mercury is from Bahia in northeast Brazil and burst onto the scene in 1993 with the album "O Canto da Cidade" (Song of the City). Since then she has become one of the country's top entertainers with highly energetic shows and music that mixes "Axe" northeastern percussive music with techno styles.

She appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland last July.