You Get to Live On One Condition. Maybe.

Since it took the Vatican almost 800 years to apologize for the Inquisition, I guess taking a mere 25 years to catch up is an improvement:

Church officials recently confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI had requested a report on whether it might be acceptable for Catholics to use condoms in one narrow circumstance: to protect life inside a marriage when one partner is infected with H.I.V. or is sick with AIDS.

Whatever the pope decides, church officials and other experts broadly agree that it is remarkable that so delicate an issue is being taken up. But they also agree that such an inquiry is logical, and particularly significant from this pope, who was Pope John Paul II's strict enforcer of church doctrine.

Ooowie, remarkable, indeed! As millions died and continue to die from this disease, as the rest of the world rush to find a cure, the Vatican is now ready to do a "report" on whether condom use is acceptable.

But wait:

Cardinal Lozano Barragán was quoted in a daily newspaper, La Repubblica, as saying Benedict made the request two months ago, as part of a broader examination of bioethical issues. "My department is carefully studying it, along with scientists and theologians entrusted with drawing up a document about the subject," he was quoted as saying.

He backtracked slightly a few days later: "We are in the first stage," the cardinal told the Zenit News Agency, which specializes in covering the Catholic Church. Would there be a document? "There might or might not be."

Aw, shucks. I guess the jubilation in the streets for this monumental change of heart is premature.

Then again, it's not much of a change of heart. The Vatican will only make an exception if condoms are used to protect life within a marriage, as if life is less precious outside of marriage.

There's also this:

But there is a deep vein of feeling against any change. Some oppose any perceived erosion of Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical that banned artificial contraception, while other opponents say approving condoms for AIDS prevention might be interpreted as a wider acceptance of their use.

"That will be picked up as 'Church O.K.'s Condoms,' and that would seem to undermine the whole church teaching on sexuality and marriage," said the Rev. Brian V. Johnstone, a moral theologian at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome.

Well, so much for that "report".

When it comes down to it, the Church hates sex more than it values life.

Image from bbsnews.net.

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