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LOZANO-CONDOMS Nov-21-2006 (630 words) xxxi
Study on condom use and AIDS awaits action by doctrinal office, pope
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An "exhaustive" Vatican study requested by Pope Benedict XVI on condom use in HIV prevention is awaiting a response from the church's doctrinal office and the pope, a senior Vatican official said.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, said his office handed in "a large study" of almost 200 pages to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that it is "hoping (the congregation) and the Holy Father say what is (best) concerning this argument."
The cardinal spoke in response to journalists' questions during a Nov. 21 press conference about an upcoming Vatican meeting on the church's pastoral approach to treating infectious diseases.
He said the pope had asked that his council commence "a dialogue with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on condoms."
Cardinal Lozano said his council completed "a thorough study on condoms" covering the latest medical data and the complete spectrum of opinions by moral theologians.
He said the studies used in evaluating the effectiveness of condoms in HIV prevention were conducted by top-notch scientists and involved condoms made of high-quality materials that had been used correctly.
The study also included "an enormous rainbow" of theological and moral positions, from theologians who expressed "very rigorous" opinions against condom use even when used as a disease-preventing measure to those who held a "very understanding" perspective, he said.
There is no official church position on the use of condoms by married couples to prevent transmission of a virus. The church has always taught that sex outside marriage is morally wrong, and it has no position on whether condoms would make it more or less wrong.
The church opposes the use of any artificial means of contraception -- including condoms -- that would interfere with the transmission of life within marriage.
But some moral theologians argue that condoms may be used within marriage to prevent HIV transmission using the Catholic principle of double effect. They say that the reason for this use of condoms -- to preserve life -- is not morally wrong, the wrong effect -- contraception -- may be foreseen but is not intended, the wrong effect is not the means to the right effect, and there is a proportionate reason for allowing the wrong effect.
Cardinal Lozano said his council is awaiting a response from the congregation and the pope and that his council had no authority to take a position.
"Thank God a resolution is not up to us," he said, referring to his council, which deals with the pastoral care of the sick and dying as well as health care workers.
Getting an official church position on condom use is not something "we can demand but rather hope for," he said.
If an official pronouncement by the church is made at all, it will not be one that encourages promiscuous behavior, he said.
The morality of condom use within a marriage where one partner is infected with HIV is a "very important and difficult" question, he said, and any position taken must be to the benefit of all Catholics "and not destroy anyone."
He said church teaching mandates that "every conjugal act must be open to life and as my old teachers used to say, 'intelligenti pauca'" or, few words suffice for those who understand.
Earlier during the press conference, Cardinal Lozano said some 40 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and that 8,000 people die of the disease every day.
"That's six people a minute," he told reporters, adding that in the few minutes since the press conference began, "Thirty more people are dead."
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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