Vatican clarifies Pope Benedict’s comments on condom use, HIV

VATICAN CITY—The Vatican on Tuesday sought to clarify the pope’s controversial comments about condoms and HIV, saying he by no means suggested condom use could be condoned as a means of avoiding pregnancy.

The Vatican’s moral watchdog, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a statement Tuesday saying some commentators had misunderstood and misrepresented the pope’s remarks in a book-length interview released last month entitled Light of the World.

The Vatican has been under pressure from conservative theologians to issue such a clarification amid widespread confusion about what Pope Benedict XVI meant and whether he was breaking with church teaching.

In the book, Benedict said that condoms weren’t the real or moral solution to battling HIV and AIDS. But he said the intention to use condoms in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, could be a first step toward a more moral and responsible human sexuality.

The Vatican statement reaffirmed that the church considered prostitution “gravely immoral.”

“However, those involved in prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity,” the statement said.

It insisted that Benedict’s statement was “in full conformity with the moral theological tradition of the church.”

The pope’s remarks have been mired in confusion ever since they were first published as excerpts in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano on Nov. 20. Tuesday’s statement was the third Vatican clarification since then. AP