Vatican stance on contraception may be modified in the light of HIV-AIDS
-26/04/06
A new Vatican study of scientists and theologians may approve the use of condoms in a marriage where one partner is infected with HIV/AIDS, writes Dan Bergin for Independent Catholic News [0].
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, confirmed in a recent interview with La Repubblica that his office had been asked by Pope Benedict XVI to prepare a document on the subject.
A spokesman in the Cardinal's office was quoted by the National Catholic Reporter yesterday as saying that the document would sanction the use of condoms to halt the spread of the disease "inside marriage and the family, not outside of it."
He said the document would stress that what has been approved was not contraception, but disease prevention.
The official said the document has been cleared by the consultors of the Council for Health Pastoral Care, and was now awaiting a review by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Several leading clergy have publicly spoken in favour of condoms, where one partner in a marriage is HIV-positive.
They include Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former archbishop of Milan; Swiss Cardinal George Cottier, theologian of the papal household under John Paul II; Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium; Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England; and Bishop Kevin Dowling of South Africa.
Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, however, has spoken vigorously in favour of a more rigid stance.
In a 2004 interview with the BBC, Cardinal Trujillo, claimed the HIV virus was small enough to "pass through" latex. Lopez also asserted that condoms encourage promiscuity, which he said was one of the root causes of the pandemic.
[Ekklesia adds: Medical experts reject suggestions that condoms allow viruses to pass through and have condemned such claims as irresponsible and unscientific.
Catholic health workers in the developing world have increasingly been speaking out against the Vaticanís hard line opposition to contraception in all circumstances.
Critics say that, far from creating an ethic of life, Catholic teaching as currently applied effectively condemns many people to death.]
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