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Gay News: In an apparent U-turn Pope Benedict XVI has said that condoms may be used - but only to fight AIDS
By: Nigel Robinson
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope condones condoms to prevent infection
22 November 2010
The Pontiff’s views are expressed in an interview in a book to come out this week. They seem to contradict the statement he made in Africa in 2009, that condoms did nothing to halt the course of AIDS.
The Catholic Church opposes the use of condoms as a means of artificial contraception, believing that sex is meant only for the act of procreation between a man and a woman.
In the interview the Pope does not address the issue of contraception, but implies that the use of condoms to prevent infection may be the lesser of two evils.
“There may be a basis in the case of some individuals – as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom – where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralisation, a first assumption off responsibility, on the way towards recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants,” he said.
“But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can only really lie in a humanisation of sexuality.”
The Vatican has stressed that the Pope was expressing his own personal view, and that it did not reflect the doctrine of the Church
Father Federico Lombardi, Director if the Vatican Press Office, said that the Pope was of the view that AIDS cannot be solved just by the use of condoms.
“At the same time, the Pope considered an exceptional situation in which the issue of sexuality represents a real risk to the lives of others,” he said in a statement.
“In this case, the Pope does not morally justify the exercise of disordered sexuality, but believes that the risk of infection is a ‘first step on the road to a more human sexuality’, rather than not to use it and risking the lives of others.”
The Pope’s statement was welcomed by AIDS and HIV activists, with the United Nations programme on HIV AIDS calling it a “significant and positive step forward”.
Its Executive Director Michel Sidibe said: “This move recognises that responsible sexual behaviour and the use of condoms have important roles in HIV prevention.
Gay and rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, who helped to organise the Protest the Pope campaign during Benedict’s state visit to the UK earlier this year, said:
“The Pope's concession that condoms may be morally justified to prevent the spread of HIV is a significant modification of the Vatican's traditional, hardline stance against all condom use.
“He seems to be admitting, for the first time, that using condoms can be morally responsible if they help save lives…
“This new stance shows that the Vatican now realises that its earlier policy was untenable and unsustainable.”
