After Condom Remarks, Vatican Confirms Shift

[Jeffersons Ghost]

After Condom Remarks, Vatican Confirms Shift

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments about the use of condoms in select cases apply to women as well as men, the Vatican said Tuesday, a surprising first acknowledgment from the church that condom use can be part of a broader effort at AIDS prevention.

The clarification did not represent a change in church teaching on birth control, which remains forbidden, but it appeared to be a significant first response to critics who have long seen the church’s ban on condoms as a moral failing in light of the AIDS crisis.

In a book of interviews with Benedict published Tuesday, Benedict said that in some instances, using a condom might be a step toward a “moralization” of sexuality that could help reduce infection, specifying use by a “male prostitute” in the original German of the interview and in the English translation. In referring to homosexual sex, Benedict was citing a case where condoms would not be a form of contraception...

At a news conference on Tuesday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope had specifically told him on Monday that the issue was not procreation but disease prevention — regardless of the gender of the prostitute.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/europe/24pope.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

[rfranklin]

1. New Pope-approved condoms....

The Pope's Hat brand featuring

The Tighter Miter for those of less than average girth.

The Lighter Miter for greater sensistivity.

The Gawd Almighty Model for those blessed in abundance,

[rucky]

8. Free rosary beads in every box.

[spin]

2. Out of curiousity, does this mean God changed his mind?

I understand that the pope communicates with God through prayer.

Having studied the Old Testament, I would prefer a God who can change his mind.

Ezekiel 9:5-7 (New International Version, ©2010)

" 5 As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. 6 Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple.

7 Then he said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city."

[Zoeisright]

3. Barn door open. Horses out.

Sorry, the Vatican has already done too much damage with their Iron Age thinking. Just STFU, old man.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. So much for infallibility.

:eyes:

[Sal Minella]

12. I think he's infallible only when speaking directly of church matters.

When discussing prostitution and appurtenances thereof, apparently there's a lot more wiggle room. So to speak.

[Festivito]

16. He must issue from a certain chair to invoke infallibility.

I think no one has done that since the 1956 veneration of Mary, and that did not involve condom use.

[Sal Minella]

20. Isn't it odd -- such adoration and veneration for **ONE** woman

and such blatant contempt for all other women (most of all, those who wish to become priests, followed by those who do not wish to bear a baby every 10-12 months, followed by nuns who are trying to remedy societal problems which Holy Mother Church refuses to acknowledge at all.)

The Vatican wants to investigate American nuns whose social outreach with the poor goes beyond what the Vatican considers permissible, and Republicans want to investigate climate scientists.

At least Teh Stuopid is not confined to one continent.

[Festivito]

22. Odd? Perhaps just the stark contrast between reality and the absolute.

A contrast so stark, the view becomes washed and the reality ... left to rot. It is done for self-importance. Is self-importance taken so far, stupid? I suppose.

But, then we're the nation that chooses newscasters by looks and good looks of young Miss American girls by their political views.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. to think that it took them over 20 years to get to "condoms are ok for sex workers"

day late. dollar short.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. 20 x 100

[Liquorice]

10. It's only ok for male sex workers, however. nt

[PeaceNikki]

7. Can we please get more press on his statements regarding health care being a human right?

[marmar]

9. The Vatican has pulled itself into the mid-20th century.

nt

[WinkyDink]

11. Pope Benedict sanctions gay sex, and this is not a HUGE STORY?!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. Err I hardly think he sanctioned it

[WinkyDink]

15. This is THE POPE, whose every syllable is pored over. His comment is WAY OUTSIDE traditional

Church condemnation of homosexual sex, the use of condoms AT ALL, and sex outside marriage.

IOW: The Pope has just stated that gay sex with condoms has his imprimatur, but that MARRIED HETEROsexuals, because they can reproduce, ARE STILL FORBIDDEN to use condoms.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

19. that's basically what he's saying

[Sal Minella]

21. So faithful, married women/mothers are still sentenced by church

doctrine to die of AIDS, whereas the church allows men visiting male prostitutes to protect themselves from such a fate.

I think he's not approving gay sex with condoms so much as disapproving of priests dying of AIDS, ackshully.

[grahamhgreen]

14. HUGE!

[BolivarianHero]

17. How does this change everything?

Basically, they're saying that condom use is technically okay for non-procreative sexual activities that are ALREADY AGAINST CHURCH TEACHINGS. It's about as relevant or as logically consistent as the DEA telling us that certain ways of consuming drugs is safer than others.

[Mr Generic Other]

18. it seems though, that the pope has only

agreed that it can be appropriate to use condoms to stem the spread of disease and might be used by prostitutes of either gender.
he has not changed the rules for those catholics who are not prostitutes.