Vatican denies Pope said condoms could be used to avoid pregnancy

Vatican denies Pope said condoms could be used to avoid pregnancy - The Catholic Church has moved to clarify remarks made by the Pope which suggested contraceptives could be used to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The Vatican's moral watchdog, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a statement insisting some commentators had misunderstood and misrepresented the Pope's remarks in a book-length interview released last month entitled Light of the World.

In the book, the pontiff said that condoms were not the real or moral solution to battling HIV and Aids but added that condom use in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, could be a first step in a more moral and responsible human sexuality.

Confusion: An extract from a interview with the Pope suggested he approved the use of condoms as artificial contraception

Since the comments were published in a Vatican newspaper last month, the Holy See has been under pressure from conservative theologians to issue such a clarification after widespread confusion about what Pope Benedict XVI meant and whether he was breaking with church teaching.

A Vatican statement issued today reaffirmed that the church considered prostitution gravely immoral'.

'However, those involved in prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity,' it said.

It stressed the Pope's logic was 'in full conformity with the moral theological tradition of the church'.

Benedict XVI's comments have caused confusion ever since their publication ahead of the official release date of the book in an excerpt in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on November 20.

The official Italian translation of the original German published in L'Osservatore made two errors that fuelled the confusion; it used the word 'justified in the pope's analysis and also used the feminine version of 'prostitute' as opposed to the masculine - an important distinction given that condoms in heterosexual intercourse are a form of artificial contraception, which the church opposes.

Theological traditions: A Vatican statement insisted the Pope had not backed the use of condoms to avoid pregnancy

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi then added to the confusion when he said at the official book presentation on November 23 that he had spoken to the pontiff and asked if it mattered whether the prostitute in question was male or female.

Mr Lombardi said the pope told him no, and that it did not matter if it was a man, woman or transsexual.

In its new statement, the Vatican stuck closely to what the pontiff originally said in the interview and stressed that he was not talking about sex between husband and wife or condom use as a means of contraception.

'The idea that anyone could deduce from the words of Benedict XVI that it is somehow legitimate, in certain situations, to use condoms to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is completely arbitrary and is in no way justified either by his words or in his thought,' the statement said. ( dailymail.co.uk )