Comments in interview signal break with Vatican's blanket ban on the
use of contraceptives
Tom Kington in Rome and Ben Quinn
Sunday November 21 2010
The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/21/pope-benedict-condoms-hiv-infection
In a break with his traditional teaching, Pope Benedict XVI has said
the use of condoms is acceptable "in certain cases", in an extended
interview to be published this week.
After holding firm during his papacy to the Vatican's blanket ban on
the use of contraceptives, Benedict's surprise comments will shock
conservatives in the Catholic church while finding favour with senior
Vatican figures who are pushing for a new line on the issue as HIV
ravages Africa.
The comments were made in a book-length interview with a German
journalist, Peter Seewald. In the case of a male prostitute, says
Benedict, using a condom to reduce the risk of HIV infection "can be a
first step in the direction of moralisation, a first assumption of
responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not
everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants".
Contraception can be "a first step in a movement toward a different
way, a more human way, of living sexuality," the pope says.
Excerpts from the book, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and
the Signs of the Times, were published yesterday by L'Osservatore
Romano, the official Vatican newspaper. The pope's comments follow his
controversial assertion in 2009 that the rising tide of HIV in Africa
could be made worse, not better, by the distribution of condoms. He
was speaking to journalists as he visited Africa, where the majority
of HIV fatalities occur.
At the time, Aids campaigners and European governments expressed
outrage. Belgium's health minister said the pope's comments "could
demolish years of prevention and education and endanger many human
lives".
Francis X Rocca, a Vatican expert and correspondent for Religion News
Service, said: "This new statement by the pope is very significant, it
is going to shake things up. Even if high-ranking church figures and
theologians have come out and said this, it remains a controversial
subject and no pope has ever said something like this."
Christina Odone, another leading Catholic journalist and commentator
in the UK, described the Pope's comments as a "hugely important
moment" which Catholics had spent decades waiting for. "It allows
Catholics, when we defend our church, to be able to say that this is a
not a church that condemns people to Aids and that this is not a
church that wilfully ignores the consequences of having unprotected
sex," she said.
Peter Stanford, former editor of the Catholic Herald, described the
pope's comments as "very significant. It's a very welcome step if they
are facing up to the real issues faced by real people."
Insiders said that word of Benedict's comment spread like "wildfire"
at the Vatican yesterday, where he was appointing new cardinals. One
said: "People were confused but also excited."
In 2006, the Pontifical Council for the Health Care Pastoral, led by
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barrag?n, was asked by Benedict to report on
the use of condoms as a way of combating HIV.
"The pope is saying that if you can prevent disease, the use of
condoms could be permissible," said John Allen, senior correspondent
for the National Catholic Reporter. "But this has been in the mix for
a while," he argued. "I think Benedict has been thinking this way
since 2006, which is why he asked for the commission to look into it.
"The problem was not Benedict, it was others in the Vatican who argued
that if you said using condoms was OK in certain situations, it would
send out the message that they were approved. This was a PR problem."
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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