Pope Benedict's statement
on the use of condoms appears to be a relaxation of a hitherto
uncompromising Vatican ban on the use of artificial contraception.
A crack has opened in the Church's ban on contraception because of the Aids epidemic, particularly in Africa.
Catholic moral theologians have been discussing for years the
theory of what the Pope has now openly expressed in terms of accepting
the lesser of two evils.
This means accepting the fact that condom use by prostitutes does lessen the risk of infection for both men and women.
There is some confusion about whether the Pope was referring
to female or male prostitutes in his remarks - the word he used in the
Italian version is ambiguous, but in English he talks about male
prostitutes.
Unexpected
News of Pope Benedict's headline-grabbing remarks, first
published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, on the
acceptability of condom use in certain cases dropped at a completely
unexpected moment at the Vatican on Saturday evening.
The Pope's remarks caught everyone by surprise.
Several thousand people were milling around reception rooms
inside and outside the apostolic palace greeting 24 new cardinals to
whom Pope Benedict had given their red hats earlier in the day.
It is an ancient tradition that the Pope throws open part of
his palace inside the Vatican for two hours during the afternoon
following a consistory to enable relatives and friends of the new
princes of the Roman Catholic Church to exchange a few words with them
as they stand proudly in their brand new red robes of office.
The news was so unexpected that
seasoned Vatican observers are asking themselves whether there has not
been yet another gaffe by Pope Benedict's public relations advisers.
The words of the Pope were published in the form of selected
extracts without any special fanfare in an expanded weekend edition of
the Vatican newspaper.
Almost the entire newspaper was devoted to the consistory and
to the gathering of old and new cardinals of the Church from around the
world who had been summoned to Rome for a closed door meeting the
previous day.
The brief papal reference to condoms was down column on the back page of the newspaper.
Accident or design?
The cardinals are still here in Rome.
Many of them are reading
the extensive Italian newspaper coverage of the Pope's remarks with
some surprise.
It had been agreed with the publishers of the new book of
intimate thoughts of Pope Benedict entitled The Light of the World: the
Pope, The Church and Signs of The Times by the German Catholic
journalist Peter Seewald, that the text would be released only at a book
launch scheduled to be held at the Vatican Press Office on Tuesday.
Was the breaking of the embargo of the text on the very day
when the headquarters of the Catholic Church was in festive mood in the
middle of celebrating the consistory a deliberate act, or was it a
mistake on the part of Vatican?
Andrea Torielli, a well-informed Italian blogger on the Vatican has no doubt that it was the latter.
"Yesterday," he writes, "was not an ordinary day at the
Vatican. It was the day on which Benedict XVI celebrated his third
consistory. He gave a beautiful, extraordinary homily, drawing attention
once more to the fact that the ministry of the Church is one of
service, not of power, and that authority is given in order that
cardinals may serve, not as a prize, or to enable them to satisfy their
ambitions... The Osservatore Romano is not a tabloid, nor a newspaper
that seeks scoops. In my opinion someone on the other side of the Tiber
has made a big error."
Among other interesting topics that Pope Benedict touches on
in the extracts of his long interview with Peter Seewald, are papal
infallibility - he says he cannot continue to produce "infallible
statements"; his attitude towards resignation - he would resign if he
felt he lacked the physical and psychological strength to continue in
office; and his "enormous shock" at the extent of the paedophile priest
crisis which has shaken the Church in recent years.
But it is the Pope's completely unprecedented remarks on
condoms and prostitutes that have set tongues wagging not only inside
the Vatican, but all over the world.
SIC: BBC/UK