Vatican may change policy on condom use

The Vatican's office for health care has concluded a study, commissioned by Pope Benedict XVI on the use of condoms to fight AIDS, and a long–awaited report on it is now being examined by the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, a senior cardinal has announced.

"This is something that worries the Pope a lot," said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care. But the prelate gave no indication of the position the study takes or when a final pronouncement might be made.

The Roman Catholic Church opposes the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against contraception. It advocates that fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence are the best ways to stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

According to Cardinal Barragan, the document was drafted with the help of scientists, theologians and other experts.

His department had completed a 200–page study on condoms and passed it on to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which would add its own theological and doctrinal opinons.

"Following the wishes of the Pope Benedict XVI, we have prepared a detailed study on condoms from both the scientific and moral points of view and we have passed our study on to the Congregation for the Faith," Cardinal Barragan said. "Now the dossier is being studied by that office and then it will go before the Pope."

"First, we must consider if there is a need for an answer (on the use of condoms) at the supreme level," he said.

He said his department's study was based on scientific data and "took all points of view" into consideration.

"We hope the theologians and the Holy Father will say what is best regarding this subject ... but no response from the Church can be one that encourages a libertine sexual attitude," he said.

In recent years, several top Church officials have called for a change in Vatican policy on condoms to allow their use by married couples where one partner is affected by HIV or AIDS. Some leading Catholic liberals have advocated a policy change, describing condoms as the lesser evil in situations where there is "widespread misery, promiscuity or use of drugs." These include Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan and once a contender for Pope, Monsignor George Cottier, a papal theologian, and Cardinal Godfried Danneels, of Belgium. Other cardinals, however, have rejected their argument, fearing that it would endorse promiscuity – an indication that the issue is still undecided at the Vatican.

According to the annual UN report on Aids, released recently, ahead of the World Aids Day on December 1, there are almost 40 million people living with HIV. The most alarming increase was in Uganda, which experienced a rise from a 5.6 percent infection rate among men and 6.9 percent among women in 2000 to 6.5 percent and 8.8 percent respectively.

In a speech to African bishops last year Pope Benedict XVI had blamed contraception for a breakdown of sexual morality and said that abstinence and marital fidelity were the only effective way to prevent the spread of HIV.