A senior Vatican official from Switzerland has stated that condoms could be used to fight AIDS in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia. While keeping with the Vatican’s official stance against using condoms as contraception, Cardinal Georges Cottier stated that there is justification to use condoms under certain circumstances, like fighting AIDS because the AIDS threat is so immediate. According to Cottier, “The virus is transmitted during a sexual act; so at the same time as [bringing] life there is also a risk of transmitting death,” the Guardian reports.
Cardinal Cottier, the theologian of the pontifical household, is the most senior Vatican official who has questioned the Catholic Church’s stance on the condom use, reports The Guardian. In January, Spanish Bishops retracted a statement supporting condoms made by a Spanish spokesperson for the Church.
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