Spain's Catholic Church Backs Condoms

Baqui99 · Jan 29, 2005

It's about time they reached a paradigm shift on contraceptives. Hell I even remember "Ovacon" commericials in Bangladesh back in 1992. Good move by the church, and hopefully some of the developing Latin American nations will follow suit.

Spain's Catholic Church Backs Condoms

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Spain's Catholic Church said it supports the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS - a substantial shift from traditional policy.

The Vatican states that condoms, being a form of artificial birth control, cannot be used to help prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

But ``condoms have a place in the global prevention of AIDS,'' Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish Bishops Conference, told reporters after a meeting Tuesday with Health Minister Elena Salgado to discuss ways of fighting the disease.

Martinez Camino said the Spanish Catholic Church's stance is backed by the scientific world. He cited a recent study by experts in the medical magazine Lancet that supported the so-called ``ABC'' approach of fighting AIDS - ``A'' for abstinence, ``B'' for being faithful to partners, and ``C'' for condoms.

``The Church is very worried and interested by this problem,'' he said.

There was no comment from the Vatican to the Spanish statement.

The Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals welcomed the change in policy.

``I think it was absolutely inevitable that the Church would change its stance,'' said the group's president, Beatriz Gimeno.

The daily newspaper El Pais noted that as recently as November, the Spanish Bishops Conference had vehemently opposed the Health Ministry's campaign to promote the use of condoms. The paper quoted Martinez Camino as saying then that it was ``gravely false'' to maintain that contraceptives prevented the spread of HIV.

In June, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said condom use was ``a form of Russian roulette'' in fighting AIDS, El Pais said. The remark was roundly condemned by the Spanish government, the World Health Organization and other organizations involved in fighting AIDS, the papers added.

The United Left parliamentary coalition described the change in stance as ``a historic advance.''
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http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20050119/0943705999.htm

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