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May 8 , 2006 • VOL. 44, NO. 9 • Oakland, CA
Vatican officials
say use of condoms
as AIDS protection is under study
VATICAN CITY
(CNS) -- Vatican officials said a study on condoms and AIDS protection
was still in the consultation stage and that Pope Benedict XVI had yet
to decide whether a document would be issued on the topic.
The sources said there were strong arguments for allowing married couples
in which one spouse is infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, to use condoms
as a disease-preventing measure, when it overrides any contraceptive intent.
On the other hand, the sources said, the Vatican is hesitant to make any
move that would be seen as an endorsement of condoms as a method of disease
prevention, because condoms do not offer 100 percent protection from AIDS
and could encourage sexual promiscuity.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to Catholic News Service
April 26, after several days of speculative reports on what the Vatican
planned to say on the subject.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the head of the Pontifical Council for
Health Care Ministry, prompted the reports when he said in a newspaper
interview April 23 that the pope had asked a commission of scientific
and theological experts to prepare a document on condom use and AIDS prevention.
He said the document would be made public soon.
Speaking to Vatican Radio April 25, the cardinal clarified his remarks,
saying his council had undertaken a study that would find its way through
usual Vatican channels to the pope, who would decide how to use it.
The Vatican sources said Cardinal Lozano’s office had been asked
to study one aspect of the wider question of condoms and AIDS.
“No document has been prepared yet. Cardinal (Lozano) Barragan was
asked to respond to a particular question concerning use of condoms to
prevent transmission of the disease between a husband and wife,”
one source said.
“(Cardinal Lozano) gave his input. Now we have to hear what the
competent Vatican agencies have to say,” he said.
“From this consultation of officials of Vatican departments that
are directly involved in the question, the Holy Father will draw material
for his own decision,” the source said.
The pope will probably have one of the Vatican agencies issue a document
of some type, the source said. There are two possibilities: a broad document
on condoms and disease prevention, or a more limited pastoral note that
focuses on the situation of married couples in which one partner is infected.
Both have potential problems, in the eyes of the Vatican.
“A broad document risks becoming a source of polemics. The briefer
response risks being incomprehensible without a lot of explanation,”
the source said.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been examining the
doctrinal issues related to condom use for many years. It has done so
quietly, the sources said, because the subject is sensitive and because,
in the Vatican’s view, the media often fail to report the nuances
involved in the discussion.
One source said there was considerable agreement among theological experts
that, from a moral point of view, the use of condoms to avoid contracting
or transmitting a deadly disease is not the same as contraception and
would therefore not fall under the church’s teaching against contraceptive
methods in marriage.
There are two different intentions involved, and that makes all the difference,
a doctrinal expert said. He said it was not a question of a “lesser
evil” that can be tolerated, but of a completely different use of
an essentially neutral device.
“There’s not much to say on a doctrinal level. The problem
is that, on the other hand, the church cannot really declare, ‘Go
ahead and use condoms,’ when condoms don’t offer real protection,”
the source said.
“If the church does that, it would be an accomplice to a lie that
is killing people,” he said. It would also tend to overshadow the
church’s own emphasis on what it considers the only true protection
against AIDS: chastity and marital fidelity.
Another Vatican official said that was the central dilemma, not the birth
control question.
