The Vatican has clarified
recent comments by Pope Benedict XVI on condoms, saying he did not mean
they could be used to avoid pregnancy.
The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith said some
analysts had misunderstood the remarks, made by the Pope in recently
published interviews.
He said condoms could reduce the risk of HIV infection in certain cases, such as for a male prostitute.
The interviews were published in a book entitled Light of the World.
The Church's hard-line stance over contraception has led to
the Vatican being heavily criticised for its position on the global Aids
crisis.
Some commentators suggested the comments represented a
softening of this stance.
'Taking responsibility'
The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) is the
Vatican's moral watchdog, which Cardinal Josef Ratzinger led before he
was elected Pope in 2005.
It stressed the Pope's logic was "in full conformity with the moral theological tradition of the church".
In a statement, the CDF said that he had not been talking
about sex between a married couple or using condoms as a form of
contraception.
"The idea that anyone could deduce from the words of Benedict
XVI that it is somehow legitimate, in certain situations, to use condoms
to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is completely arbitrary and is in no way
justified either by his words or in his thought," said the statement.
It confirmed that the Pope's attitude towards homosexuality
and artificial contraception had not shifted; other passages in the book
reaffirm the Vatican's opposition to both, the CDF said.
Reaffirming that the Church considered prostitution "gravely
immoral", the statement continued: "However, those involved in
prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of
contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in
respecting the life of another even if the evil of prostitution remains
in all its gravity."
In Light of the World, when asked whether the Catholic Church
was not opposed in principle to the use of condoms, the Pope had
replied: "She [the Catholic Church] of course does not regard it as a
real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be
nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first
step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living
sexuality."
He cited the example of the use of condoms by male
prostitutes as "a first step towards moralisation", even though condoms
are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection".
Translation confusion
The Pope's meaning had originally been questioned because the
Italian translation of the book used the feminine form of the word for
prostitute, whereas the original German used the masculine.
There was further confusion when Vatican spokesman Father
Federico Lombardi said he had personally asked the Pope if there was a
serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the
feminine.
"He told me 'No'," Fr Lombardi
said. "The problem is this... It's the first step of taking
responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of
another with whom you have a relationship."
"This is if you're a woman, a man, or a transsexual," he added.
Veteran Vatican analyst John Allen said what was at issue was
not abstract moral teaching, but rather concrete pastoral application
to a specific set of facts.
"If someone were to ask a Catholic priest, 'Is it okay to use
a condom?' the answer is still supposed to be 'No'," said Mr Allen, a
senior correspondent for the US-based National Catholic Reporter.
"Catholic teaching holds that to be fully consistent with
God's plan, sexuality should occur only inside marriage and should be
open to new life.
"If the question, however, is, 'I'm HIV positive and will
have sex regardless of what the Church thinks, so is it better to use a
condom to try to save lives?' the Pope has implied that a pastor might
legitimately say 'Yes,' while still stressing that condoms ultimately
are not, as Benedict says in his interview, a 'real or moral solution.'"
The book - Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the
Signs of the Times - is based on interviews that the Pope gave the
German Catholic journalist, Peter Seewald, earlier this year.
SIC: BBC/INT'L