|
|
CARDINAL BACKS CONDOM USE AS'LESSER EVIL' TO AIDS
PETER KIEFER, NYTimes World Briefing from the Web, April 22, 2006
VATICAN CITY: Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the retired archbishop of Milan and the head of the Roman Catholic Church's liberal wing, challenged official Vatican policy by saying Catholics could be justified in using condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. In an expansive dialogue with the bio-ethicist Ignazio Marino in the magazine L'Espresso, the 79-year-old cardinal, a contender in the papal election last year, said, "We need to do everything to fight against AIDS. And certainly the use of condoms can, in certain situations, constitute a lesser evil." He also said legalizing abortion was "positive" in so far as it helped to "reduce or eliminate" illegal abortions. "It is difficult for a modern state not to intervene, at least to prevent a brutal, arbitrary situation from developing," he said, but added that it should not constitute a "license to kill." And while he acknowledged the church's opposition to the use of embryos for research, he also called the use of frozen embryos by single women without a partner a "lesser evil." The Vatican has not commented on his statements.
|
Send mail to
email@gaypasg.org with questions or comments about this web site.
|