forthcoming Vatican document is set to state that use of condoms by a married couple, where one partner is infected with HIV/AIDS and the other is not, can be acceptable to prevent the transmission of the disease.
Sources say the document will insist that this position does not mark a break with the church’s traditional ban on birth control, expressed in Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. What would be approved is not contraception, they say, but disease prevention.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragàn, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, confirmed in an April 23 interview with the Roman newspaper La Repubblica that his office was asked by Pope Benedict XVI to prepare a document on the subject.
Speaking on background, an official in Lozano Barragàn’s office told NCR that the document will sanction the use of condoms to halt the spread of the disease "inside marriage and the family, not outside of it."
The official said the document has been approved by the consultors of the Council for Health Pastoral Care, and is now awaiting review from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He said it should appear shortly.
Experts caution, however, that until the pope approves a document and orders its publication, anything can happen.
Clarifications from Cardinal Barragan:
"Both commandments must be taken into account," he said. "But these are very general principles. The study is being done reflecting on the different opinions of experts on the application of both principles to the concrete case of the condom in these specific circumstances.
"The theologians give their opinions. We, as a council, cannot say, ‘I adopt this opinion.’ We contribute the existing opinions to the dialogue that, on the other hand, are known."
Cardinal Lozano Barragán added: "The Holy Father will see the results of this dialogue and with the help he has from the Holy Spirit must tell us, if he wishes, where we must go. He might also think that it isn’t the appropriate moment to pronounce himself.
"I repeat: What I think and my commitment is simply to be an echo of what the Pope says. I don’t have a personal opinion as head of this dicastery. My official opinion is to reproduce exactly to the letter what the Pope says."
I would simply add that if it were all so simple as "no" – that’s what we would have. But I maintain, based purely on nothing more than intuition (so you can stop reading now) that the particular situation addressed is probably one of circumstances in which we are far away from the ideals of the Theology of the Body or what have you. Of course, a spouse who truly loves would not even want to take the tiniest risk of exposing his or her spouse to HIV infection. If you were HIV-positive, would you risk infecting your spouse? Probably not. But I suspect the circumstances under discussion are quite different, and are circumstances in which coercion and other factors play a role. Tragically, but true.
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