The pope's reversal on condom use

The pontiff has softened his stance on condom use in the war against AIDS — but does that mean the Vatican is easing opposition to birth control?

Pope Benedict steps into new papal territory by advocating the use of condoms for male prostitutes to help reduce the risk of HIV infection.
(Image credit: Corbis)

To date, Pope Benedict XVI's stance has been that condoms could be making the AIDS epidemic worse by encouraging casual sex. Now, in a potentially significant shift, the pope has told a German interviewer that condom use by certain people, such as male prostitutes, could be morally justified as a way to reduce the risk of infection. Vatican officials say there's nothing "revolutionary" about the remarks, but church historians disagree. Is the pope really easing Catholic opposition to condom use? (Watch an al Jazeera discussion about the pope's stance)

This is no big deal: "Benedict's so-called condom concession was not a huge one," says Howard Chua-Eoan at Time. He is merely saying that male prostitutes — whose actions the church, of course, condemns — should use condoms to prevent HIV, because making such a conscious choice at least constitutes a step out of darkness and toward morality. But the pope still proscribes using condoms as birth control.

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