Moral theologian Father Juan Jose Perez-Soba recently stated that
abstinence is the choice a married couple must make when one spouse is
infected with AIDS.
The use of the condom in these cases not only poses a moral dilemma,
but also an objective health risk, the priest said in a May 24 article
in L'Osservatore Romano.
Fr. Juan Jose Perez-Soba is a member of the San Damaso Theology
Department in Madrid, Spain and the John Paul II Pontifical Institute
for Studies on Marriage and the Family in Rome.
“It’s worth noting that while the use of the condom in one sexual act
could have some effectiveness in preventing AIDS infection, this does
not guarantee absolute reliability, not even in the act in question, and
much less over the entire sexual life of a couple,” he explained.
Consequently, the priest continued, “it is inappropriate to recommend
the use (of the condom) as an effective means of preventing infection.”
“The numerous campaigns that encourage its indiscriminate use have
fed the false belief that there is no danger, and they have ended up
increasing the chances of infection,” Fr. Perez-Soba said.
For this reason, “Choosing to use it as a habitual practice shows a lack of responsibility towards the other person.”
Fr. Perez-Soba said the use of the condom also poses an ethical
problem. “The sexual act carried out with a condom cannot be considered a
fully conjugal act as it has been voluntarily deprived of its intrinsic
meanings.”
He noted that according to Catholic teaching, all sexual relations
between spouses have two dimensions: the unitive, which makes the
spouses “one flesh,” and the procreative, which enables them to have
children.
“The condom, acting as a barrier, distorts the realization of the
sexual act in every way and deprives it not only of its procreative
meaning, by presenting an impediment to fertilization, but also by
attacking the meaning of being ‘one flesh’ in the sense of the total
gift of self in the spousal union,” he explained.
Fr. Perez-Soba acknowledged the demanding nature of abstinence, but
noted that the marriage vows include “the effort to respond with
generosity: in this difficult situation, they should commit themselves
to the effort they have undertaken and embrace the strength they need to
live the truth of their vocation, trusting in God’s grace and seeking
out the counsel of the Church, which is there to help them throughout
their journey.”