Pope says: Condoms OK for male prostitutes .
Pope Benedict XVI blesses the faithful during a consistory inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that the use of condoms can be justified in some cases, such as for male prostitutes seeking to prevent the spread of HIV.
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Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida blog
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to stop the spread of HIV, a stunning comment for a church criticized for its opposition to condoms and for a pontiff who has blamed them for making the AIDS crisis worse.
The pope made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times," which is being released Tuesday. The Vatican newspaper ran excerpts on Saturday.
Church teaching has long opposed condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception, although it has never released an explicit policy about condoms and HIV. The Vatican has been harshly criticized for its opposition.
Benedict said that condoms are not a moral solution. But he said in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, they could be justified "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection."
Benedict called it "a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way of living sexuality."
He used as an example male prostitutes, for whom contraception is not an issue, as opposed to married couples where one spouse is infected. The Vatican has come under pressure from even some church officials in Africa to condone condom use for monogamous married couples to protect the uninfected spouse from getting infected.
HIV/AIDS activists applauded the pope's new position.
"I'm very happy he has finally addressed the issue and, in some sense, has come to his senses," said Terry DeCarlo, public relations and marketing director for Broward House, Broward County's largest HIV/AIDS organization with 6,000 clients. "If he's going to help us and speak up on the AIDS crisis — finally — let's take it a step further: Condoms are needed for everybody, not just male prostitutes. But it's a first step."
"Wow. I think it's definitely progress," said Michael Emanuel Rajner of Fort Lauderdale, who this week was named to POZ magazine's top 100 AIDS/HIV activists. "It sounds like a pope sounding more compassionate and more sensible to the world's issues.
"It could show or be a sign that the Catholic Church — more specifically Pope Benedict — is embracing LGBT individuals with a greater sense of dignity and inclusiveness."
Benedict drew the wrath of the United Nations, European governments and AIDS activisits when he told reporters en route to Africa in 2009 that the AIDS problem on the continent couldn't be resolved by distributing condoms.
"On the contrary, it increases the problem," he said then.
Journalist Peter Seewald, who interviewed Benedict over the course of six days this summer, raised the Africa condom comments and asked Benedict if it wasn't "madness" for the Vatican to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms.
"There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility," Benedict said.
But he stressed that it wasn't the way to deal with the evil of HIV, and elsewhere in the book reaffirmed church teaching on contraception and abortion, saying: "How many children are killed who might one day have been geniuses, who could have given humanity something new, who could have given us a new Mozart or some new technical discovery?"
He reiterated the church's position that abstinence and marital fidelity is the only sure way to prevent HIV.
Read more:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/20/1935390/pope-says-condoms-ok-for-male.html#ixzz15wjvq4rK
Too bad, the Vetican is now try to minimize what the Pope said by saying what he said was perochial. Whatever! Go Bless Sexual Encourters Among Consenting Adults!
