A Lesser Evil: Condoms or Ignorance?

A recent article by women's news examined a cardinal's stance on the use of condoms. It is 2006...when will the Catholic Church get with the times and abandon its dangerous policy on condom use?

Going against Roman Catholic Church doctrine and the pope's official stance prohibiting birth control, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, one of the church's most prominent leaders, has condoned a limited use of condoms for people in relationships with a partner who is suffering from AIDS, Reuters reported April 21.

"Certainly the use of condoms in particular situations can constitute a lesser evil," the retired archbishop of Milan and the church's leading moderate told the Italian newspaper L'Espresso.

While Pope Benedict XVI made no official comment after the cardinal's call to ease the condom ban, the Vatican announced three days later that it will soon publish a statement on using condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. The pope has also commissioned a study on the topic.

The cardinal's comments have come at a time when U.S. Agency for International Development researchers have concluded after 20 years studying HIV-AIDS in Africa that male circumcision and fidelity to one partner are more effective at curbing the spread of the disease than promoting abstinence and condom use, the Chicago Tribune reported April 25. There are almost 1.1 billion Catholics in the world.