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Reports of Vatican 'U-Turn' On Condoms Prove False

VATICAN CITY, Sept 19 (LSN.ca) - Over the last few days world news media have been rife with reports suggesting falsely that the Vatican has made "a theological U-turn" with regard to condoms. Quoting an April 19 issue of L'Osservatore Romano out of context and with gross errors in translation, various papers and newswires suggested that the Catholic Church might now accept the use of condoms in AIDS prevention programs. Catholic World News (CWN) reports that the erroneous reporting stems from a flawed report in the current issue of the liberal Jesuit magazine America, which reportedly argued that the article in L'Osservatore Romano had backtracked on recent Vatican pronouncements that condom use can never be advocated.

LifeSite has obtained a copy of the L'Osservatore Romano article in question. Rather than an endorsement of condoms, the article by Msgr. Jacques Suaudeau, a member of the Pontifical Council on the Family, slams the promotion of condoms as a safeguard against AIDS and suggests that condom programs actually put people at greater risk of contracting the AIDS virus.

The media pounced on two sentences in the article. One read, "The prophylactic is one of the ways to 'contain' the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS, that is, to limit its transmission." The statement was made as a matter of fact, not of endorsement, and was couched in the overall condemnation of condoms.

The second sentence in question said, "the use of prophylactics in these circumstances is actually a 'lesser evil,' but it cannot be proposed as a model of humanization and development." Most reports left out the latter part of the sentence and also failed to mention the context. CWN notes that the second part of the sentence means that the use of condoms is not an appropriate response to this crisis. The notion of sanctioning condom use for the goal of limiting the spread of AIDS contravenes the basic Catholic teaching that "One may not do evil so that good may result from it" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no 1756).

Regarding the supposed effectiveness of condoms, Msgr. Suaudeau says, "We are asked to believe that the HIV virus, 450 times smaller than spermatozoa, can almost always be magically blocked by a condom, without taking into account that spermatozoa themselves can pass through the latex barrier in 15 out of 100 completed sexual acts."

Moreover he indicates that indicates that condoms could actually serve to exacerbate the spread of AIDS. "The publicity given to the condom in the fight against HIV/AIDS could have an effect contrary to what is desired inasmuch as such publicity might lead people to riskier sexual behaviour because of the sense of safety they feel when using a prophylactic." In this regard he specifically mentions the harm that comes from proposing condom use to young people. "Merely to ask adolescents to use prophylactics in their sexual experiences means continuing to feed the vicious cycle of sex which is at the root of the serious pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa."

With regard to stopping AIDS Msgr. Suaudeau suggests that "if people really want to prevent AIDS, they must be convinced to change their sexual behaviour," which he stresses, "is the principal cause of the infection's spread." He suggests, "The most radical prevention of HIV/AIDS, the one which is absolutely effective and which no one can deny, is sexual abstinence for adolescents before marriage and conjugal chastity in marriage. This is the Church's message."

(with files from Catholic World News)

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