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THE MOST RECENT STATISTICS ON THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS make it more urgent than ever for the institutional church to reconsider its stance on condoms. While there are some positive signs of movement beyond the walls of the Vatican, a recent paper by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo (president of the Pontifical Council for the family) has shown that the Vatican remains intransigent and insular on this subject.
This is in contrast to indications of a renewed consideration being given to the "principle of double effect" by some in the church hierarchy. This principle notes that condoms have two functions: to prevent conception and to prevent disease transmission. Although the Vatican has banned the use of the condom as a method of contraception, to use a condom to prevent the transmission of a fatal disease could be seen as a "lesser evil."
Among the recent dissenters from the Vatican's hard-line view, Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels spoke out in early 2004, saying that there are some circumstances in which condoms should be used. Danneels stated that if someone is HIV-positive and does not wish to abstain from sex, they should use a condom to prevent infecting others, otherwise they will be breaking the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." As a recent BBC Panorama program noted, in Uganda it has been suggested that people who refuse to use a condom (on religious grounds) with their husband or wife who they know to be HIV-infected may be regarded as martyrs. ("Can condoms kill?" June 27, 2004.) This is morally unacceptable. More recently, the UK's Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor spoke out in support of Cardinal Danneel's position on the use of condoms and the UK-based Catholic overseas development charity CAFOD also endorsed their use within a broader individual-based risk reduction strategy. (For more on this, see "The Good Shepherds Awards," these pages.)
THE RAGING HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC
When considering the Vatican's position on condoms, it is important to bear in mind the stark reality of the current AIDS epidemic. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) released figures on World AIDS Day estimating that there are between 36 and 44 million people infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide and about 14,000 new infections daily, mostly through heterosexual sex. Just under two-thirds of...