With the hour of salvation nearing, the reading from the Letter to the Romans this Sunday suggests we should “make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” An excerpt from a book-length interview with Pope Benedict XVI has created a stir this week with publication of comments that appeared to nuance, if not shift, the Vatican’s blanket opposition to condom use.

On Saturday the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano published excerpts of Light of the World, a lengthy interview between Benedict and German journalist Peter Seewald. In one excerpt Benedict says that there may be certain situations in which the use of a condom might be appropriate to lessen the risk of transmission of HIV infection.

Benedict's comments have drawn tremendous attention, in part because he's received criticism in the past for upholding the Catholic Church's anti-condom stance even in the face of the worldwide AIDS epidemic. On his way to hard-hit Africa last year, for example, the pope said that condom use did not prevent the spread of AIDS; only fidelity and abstinence did.

In the excerpt from Light of the World, Benedict is quoted saying that condoms were not a "real or moral solution” to the AIDS epidemic, adding that that “can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.” But he added that “there may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility.” The pope also referred the need to reduce “the risk of infection” as a factor to be considered.

AIDS activists called the pope’s comments a breakthrough, while some members of the church hierarchy and Catholic commentators said the pope's remarks have been misconstrued. The Vatican played down Benedict’s words, or at least contextualized them, noting that the pope was not changing church doctrine banning contraception or justifying condom use but only acknowledging it as a lesser evil than spreading a life-threatening illness.

Source: Articles by Alex Eichler for The Atlantic Wire, Jeannine Nuss for Associated Press, Rachel Donadio
and Laurie Goodstein for the New York Times, Father Raymond J. de Souza for NationalPost.com (Canada), the USCCB Media Blog, and Telegraph.co.uk