Condoms. A Lesser Evil?

Well, it’s never dull. At the press conference to release the new book Light of the World, Fr. Lombardi made some “clarifications.” [I’ve posted a link and excerpt below.]

I’m not sure why Fr. Lombardi chose to jump into the fray with this. There’s much more in the book that deserves comment besides the Pope’s reiteration of the Church’s teaching on condoms. Yes, he give the example of a male prostitute who uses a condom as a form of “moral awakening” but that’s not saying that it’s a lesser evil. Ethics and morality in the Catholic Church are not about “well, if you must do it, then….” In the example of the male prostitute, the Pope is saying that if the prostitute recognizes the implicit danger in the risk of getting or spreading HIV/AIDS, then maybe he’ll begin to realize that there are other things that are at odds with being a prostitute, male or otherwise.

Admittedly, the Catholic Church struggles with PR, communications, messaging, etc. But the content remains the same, unchanged after 2000 years; not because it’s outdated but because it’s true for the human situation regardless of historical contexts.

Is Church teaching difficult to understand or communicate at times? Yep. Does that change the teaching, no?

Meanwhile, I still think it’s worth looking at Benedict’s thoughts on other topics in the book. And I’d welcome a conversation on the “humanization of sexuality,” his answer to HIV/AIDS and other personal matters. I think we might find that we all have more in common than we realized.

From AP:

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters Tuesday that he asked the pope whether he intended his comments to only apply to male prostitutes. Benedict replied that it really didn’t matter, that the important thing was the person in question took into consideration the life of the other, Lombardi said.

“I personally asked the pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine,” Lombardi said. “He told me no. The problem is this … It’s the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship.”

“This is if you’re a woman, a man, or a transsexual. We’re at the same point,” Lombardi said.

The pope is not justifying or condoning gay sex or heterosexual sex outside of a marriage. Elsewhere in the book he reaffirms the Vatican opposition to homosexual acts and artificial contraception and reaffirms the inviolability of marriage between man and woman.

But by broadening the condom comments to also apply to women, the pope is saying that condom use in heterosexual relations is the lesser evil than passing HIV onto a partner.