A report by a Georgetown professor criticizing the Catholic Church’s response to the AIDS epidemic has led a conservative health organization to demand its retraction, although university officials have defended the professor’s academic freedom. Raymond Ruddy, president of the Gerald Health Foundation, wrote to University President John J. DeGioia on Jan. 9 requesting that he retract a report co-authored by a professor from the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, entitled, “Faith Communities Engage the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Lessons Learned and Paths Forward.” Ruddy said that the report ignored the role of behavior change and abstinence in AIDS prevention. Ruddy criticized the authors of the report – Katherine Marshall, Senior Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Berkley Center, and retired World Bank officer Lucy Keough – for undervaluing the role of faith-based initiatives in fighting the spread of AIDS. In his letter, Ruddy wrote that the study “castigates the Catholic Church in particular and the faith-based community in general.” Thomas Banchoff, director of the Berkley Center, said that DeGioia has not asked the Berkley Center to withdraw the report, which he added does not represent the views of the university. In their report, Marshall and Keough examined the role of faith-based institutions in addressing AIDS in poverty-stricken countries in Africa. arshall said the aim of the report was simply to present the best and most accurate information in regard to AIDS prevention techniques. “The report’s goal is to outline debates; in doing so the aim is, not to make judgments, but to set out issues and debates in an honest, forthright way,” she said. In order to investigate the Berkley Center’s findings, Ruddy enlisted the help of Edward Green, a senior research scientist on HIV/AIDS prevention at Harvard University. Green criticized the report in his findings. “[The authors] emphasize the role of increasing condom use in bringing down Uganda’s HIV rates and downplay the dramatic increase in the number of people reporting abstinence and faithfulness behaviors,” he said, according to the Catholic News Agency. In addition, Green said that the attitude taken in the report by Marshall and Keough had a religious bias that characterized religious beliefs as “inherently stigmatizing.” Green also said that, while the authors do accurately acknowledge some of the Church’s success with their promotion of abstinence, he disagreed with their findings that the Church’s teachings on condom usage are, in fact, detrimental to the fight against AIDS. Despite the criticism, neither the university nor the Berkley Center have made any move to recall the study. University spokesperson Julie Bataille said that Georgetown finds it paramount that professors be able to freely research and share their findings. “As a leading research university, Georgetown embraces academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. Our scholars engage critical issues of the day and the Berkley Center report is an example of such ongoing efforts,” she said. “The views of these scholars are important to further public debate and discussion on how to address and prevent HIV/AIDS, one of the most significant global public health issues today. The report itself does not imply any institutional endorsement of a particular course of action.” Banchoff also stressed the role of academic freedom for all professors. “[The Berkley Center] published the report, which is an important contribution to our knowledge in a vital area. But it does not officially endorse it any more than an academic department endorses the work of its faculty. The contents of the report reflect the work of its authors,” he said. Bataille said that there has not been any response among the Jesuit community to this complaint. Full text of report: https://www.berkleycenterdata.org/documents/Berkley_Center_HIVAIDS.pdf