From BBCNews:
Cardinal backs limited condom use
One of the Roman Catholic Church’s most distinguished cardinals has publicly backed the use of condoms among married couples to prevent Aids transmission.
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said that in couples where one had HIV/Aids, which could pass to the partner, the use of condoms was “a lesser evil”.
The Vatican says condoms should never be used, even to stop Aids spreading from one married partner to another.
The Church teaches that abstinence is the best way to tackle disease.
10 June 2005:
Pope rejects condoms for Africa
The spread of HIV and Aids in Africa should be tackled through fidelity and abstinence and not by condoms, Pope Benedict XVI has said.
Speaking to African bishops at the Vatican, the Pope described HIV/Aids in Africa as a “cruel epidemic”.
But he told them: “The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids.”
More than 60% of the world’s 40m people with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.
In South Africa alone, 600-1,000 people are thought to die every day because of Aids.
My God is a god of love, of understanding, and of healing. The God of the Catholic Church is a God of rules, laws, and fear.
Jesus the Christ said there are but two main rules to follow. Love your neighbor and love your God. How does not supporting the use of condoms (in a disease racked region) following either one of those?
Doncha just love the tender compassion of the Pope dude and his cronies. They are stuck at about 300 AD. Using what we have learned to stem the spread of and deaths from a deadly disease makes about as much sense as Bush’s posture on stem cell research. Outdated and archaic at best, mean spirited and stupid at worst.
Exactly. Of course, this is also the same Church that knew about all the child molesting priests and did nothing more than transfer the pervert to another church, another set of children.