THURSDAY UPDATE: John Thavis has a good look at the whole Vatican “redaction temptation” issue as regards the pope’s “official” comments.  It’s called, “There they go again…”

PREVIOUS ENTRY BEGINS HERE: As the pushback against the pope’s statements about condoms worsening the spread of AIDS grows, the Vatican has apparently tweaked the pope’s comments for the official transcript to substitute the word “condoms” with “prophylactics.” Not sure why.  The new version also seems to modify slightly but significantly his words regarding the condoms worsening the problem.

As Corriere della Sera reports, in the original tape-recorded comments to journalists, the pope says:

“…non si può superare con la distribuzione di preservativi che, al contrario, aumentano il problema.”

“One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of condoms, which, on the contrary, increase the problem.”

In the official text (in Italian), he is rendered saying:

“…non si può risolvere il flagello con la distribuzione di profilattici: al contrario, il rischio è di aumentare il problema.”

“One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of prophylactics: on the contrary, that risks increasing the problem.”

(My translation of that last bit.)