Below are some of the best and most interesting comments, quotes and responses on the recent Pope’s statements on condoms
By Oregon Faith News Note:
“Benedict stepped where no pope has gone since Paul VI’s famous 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae” barred Catholics from using condoms and other artificial contraception…Benedict did not address such cases in his interview, and he reaffirmed church teaching against artificial contraception. But he said, “There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility.” Asked if that meant that the church wasn’t opposed in principle to condoms, the pope replied: The church “of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but in this or that case, there can be nonetheless in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality,” according to an English translation of the book obtained by The Associated Press.”
By Victor Simpson,
Associated Press
“This is admittedly a difficult distinction to grasp,” and the message from the Pontiff is “that someone determined to do something wrong may be showing a glimmer of moral common sense by not doing that wrong thing in the worst possible way — which is not an endorsement of anything.”
George Weigel,
Conservative Catholic writer
“More awkward still, a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, Edward C. Green, came forward with an inconvenient truth. “Current empirical evidence,” he wrote, supports the pope.Mr. Green went on to make clear he is “not anti-condom.” Condoms, he pointed out, have worked in places like Thailand, where the transmission of AIDS is largely through the sex industry. In Africa, by contrast, the main reason for the spread of AIDS is that people have too many partners, and are in too many sexual relationships at the same time.Even more interesting, in a 2005 article for the Weekly Standard, Mr. Green alluded to a larger issue for liberals like himself. It has to do with an attitude. “Condoms,” he wrote, “have been regarded as the first line of defense for everyone, everywhere, and anyone who disagrees with this orthodoxy has been dismissed as a religious fanatic with ‘an agenda.'”
William MCgurn,
Wall Street Journal
11-23-2010
“In the past, the Catholic church’s position on the use of condoms divided the thinking of people about AIDS and its spread worldwide. The Pope’s change of mind is good for mainly young people.”
Winston Kerkula
Liberian rights adovcate
Washington Times 11-21-10
“While the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on artificial contraception was not in question, Benedict’s stunning remarks could re-ignite debate on contraceptive use in places like the Philippines, where the issue has recently pitted the new president against the influential Catholic church. Philippines President Benigno Aquino III recently expressed support for the right to contraception. A church official has threatened to launch civil disobedience protests.”If a condom is used as a contraceptive, certainly it will be condemned by the church,” the Rev. Deogracias Yniguez of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines told the AP. “But to use it to avoid a disease in specific circumstances, the church can take another mindset.”
Chicago Sun Times
11-21-10
“Good news and a good beginning for us”
Margaret Chan
World Health Organization Director-General
IN addition to the Condom comments the Pope also made these statements as highlighetd by USA Today,
• If a pope is no longer physically, psychologically or spiritually capable of doing his job, then he has the “right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign.”
• On Islam, in Europe, he declined to endorse such moves as France’s banning the burqa or Switzerland’s citizen referendum to forbid topping mosques with minarets.
“Christians are tolerant, and in that respect they also allow others to have their self-image,” Benedict replied when asked if Christians should be “glad” about such initiatives. “As for the burqa, I can see no reason for a general ban.”
• He was surprised by the scale of clerical sex abuse in his native Germany and acknowledged that the Vatican could have better communicated its response. “One can always wonder whether the pope should not speak more often.”
USA Today, Associated Press
11-24-2010
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