Pope Not Infallible on Condoms

WASHINGTON - The Vatican has yet again been forced to revise statements made by Pope
Benedict XVI as he embarked on a foreign trip. En route to Cameroon on March
17, the pope claimed that condom use would “aggravate the problem” of HIV.

A transcript of the pope’s comments on the Vatican’s Web site altered the
comment to suggest that condoms “risked” aggravating the problem.

Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, welcomed the change as a
sign that the pope is not infallible on this issue and is willing to
acknowledge his mistakes.

“The pope has admitted that he is unsure whether condoms can help
alleviate the spread of HIV. Where there is doubt there is freedom and
Catholics can make up their own minds whether they use condoms or not.
Indeed, the vast majority of Catholics has already made this call and use
condoms to protect themselves and their partners against STIs, including HIV.

“We call on the pope to revisit the teaching on condoms with a view to
lifting the ban at the earliest possible moment. In his review, he should
include experts who are unequivocal that condoms can help prevent the spread
of HIV, like UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and HIV/AIDS advocacy
organizations around the world.

“Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi noted that the pontiff was
merely continuing the line taken by his predecessors. In 1990, Pope John Paul
II said using condoms was a sin in any circumstances.

“It took the church hierarchy 359 years to stop continuing the line taken
by their predecessors on Galileo. We hope that this error does not take so
long to change.”

Note to editors: This is not the first time that the pope has had to
backtrack after making controversial comments on a plane. During a May 2007
flight to Brazil, Benedict was asked if he supported the excommunication of
Catholic politicians who had voted to change the law in Mexico City to permit
abortion. After the pope stated that the excommunication was final, his
spokesman initially suggested that he meant that the politicians had
excommunicated themselves. However, the final transcript was altered to
change the meaning completely, making it appear as if the comments were more
general and did not refer to any specific incident, removing “Yes, this,” so
that the sentence began, “Excommunication is….”

Source: Catholics for Choice

David Nolan of Catholics for Choice, +1-202-986-6093