Pope Benedict says that condoms can be used to stop the spread of HIV

In a break with his traditional teaching, Pope Benedict XVI has said the use of condoms is acceptable "in certain cases", in an extended interview to be published this week.

After holding firm during his papacy to the Vatican's blanket ban on the use of contraceptives, Benedict's surprise comments will shock conservatives in the Catholic church while finding favour with senior Vatican figures who are pushing for a new line on the issue as HIV ravages Africa.

The Guardian seems to recognise that it's a brand new teaching and they mention his controversial comments in recent years:

The pope's comments follow his controversial assertion in 2009 that the rising tide of HIV in Africa could be made worse, not better, by the distribution of condoms. He was speaking to journalists as he visited Africa, where the majority of HIV fatalities occur.At the time, Aids campaigners and European governments expressed outrage. Belgium's health minister said the pope's comments "could demolish years of prevention and education and endanger many human lives".

However, towards the end of the article they seem to suggest that accepting the use of condoms has really been Benedict's postion all along:

In 2006, the Pontifical Council for the Health Care Pastoral, led by Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, was asked by Benedict to report on the use of condoms as a way of combating HIV.

"The pope is saying that if you can prevent disease, the use of condoms could be permissible," said John Allen, senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. "But this has been in the mix for a while," he argued. "I think Benedict has been thinking this way since 2006, which is why he asked for the commission to look into it.
"The problem was not Benedict, it was others in the Vatican who argued that if you said using condoms was OK in certain situations, it would send out the message that they were approved. This was a PR problem."

Saying the opposite of what you believe is not a PR problem. This has not "been in the mix for a while", it is a complete U-turn!

Naturally some people are, quite rightly, saying that this is a step in the right direction:

Christina Odone, another leading Catholic journalist and commentator in the UK, described the Pope's comments as a "hugely important moment" which Catholics had spent decades waiting for. "It allows Catholics, when we defend our church, to be able to say that this is a not a church that condemns people to Aids and that this is not a church that wilfully ignores the consequences of having unprotected sex," she said.

Let's not rewrite history thankyouverymuch. I believe the phrase you are looking for is "this is not a church that condemns people to AIDS anymore." It's been quite happily condemning people to AIDS for decades prior to this statement.

In fact, we have yet to see what this new position from the Pope means for the practical work of the Church in the long term. If Benedict can do one U-turn, he can just as easily do another one. The Pope could quite easily end up backpeddling on this.

 
And let's face it, the Pope is still condemning:

In the case of a male prostitute, says Benedict, using a condom to reduce the risk of HIV infection "can be a first step in the direction of moralisation, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants".

Sorry, but since when is a male prostitute simply doing whatever they want? Don't most prostitutes do it mainly because they need the money?


And, in other articles, we can see that he still hates condoms:

He says that the "sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalisation of sexuality" where sexuality is no longer an expression of love, "but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves".

Condoms are like drugs, eh? Whatever...

x-posted to atheism