of condoms and mistakes

Disclaimer: i love the Roman Catholics, but the doctrine of papal infallibility explicitly goes against the Word of God, whom popes supposedly represent and submit to.


Vatican backtracks over Pope's condom stance
March 19, 2009
complete Times Online article here


Excerpts:

The Vatican backtracked yesterday on the Pope’s rejection of condoms as a means of preventing Aids — a decision interpreted by some as a rare admission of papal fallibility.

On Tuesday he told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Africa that Aids was a “tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. Taken aback by outrage worldwide, the Holy See altered the Pope’s remark yesterday to read that condoms merely “risked” aggravating the problem.

...By introducing the word “risks” the Vatican softened the message. The website at first also altered the Italian word the Pope used for condoms, from “preservativi” to “profilattici”.

...Jon O’Brien, president of the US-based Catholics for Choice, welcomed the change as an admission that the Pope was not infallible on the issue and was willing to acknowledge his mistakes. “The Pope has now admitted that he is unsure as to whether condoms will help alleviate the spread of HIV,” he said. “Where there is doubt there is freedom and Catholics can now make up their own minds as to whether they can use them or not. Indeed, the vast majority of Catholics have already made this call and use condoms to protect themselves and their partners against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

...Mr O’Brien added: “It took the church hierarchy 359 years to stop continuing the line taken by their predecessors on Galileo. We hope that this error does not take so long to change.”