The Pope and the Condom

„The pope's statement, of course, is rooted in the larger Christian understanding of human sexuality. He made this clear in other parts of his answer, as when, for example, he complained about the sheer fixation on the condom. His full remarks bear out his orthodoxy.

The media excitement over the pope's one sentence favorable to condoms points to another orthodoxy, however. This orthodoxy is not much given to self-examination or tolerance of dissenters. We saw it at work the last time Pope Benedict mentioned the condom, during last year's pastoral visit to Africa, when he said that condoms were no solution for the AIDS crisis—and might even make things worse. Irresponsible, sniffed the New York Times. The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a cartoon of the pope telling dying Africans in an AIDS ward: Blessed are the sick, for they have not used condoms. The gist of the charge was this: Catholic teaching is spreading AIDS in Africa.

It's an interesting proposition. Surely we might start from the most obvious fact: The sexual activity where a condom might be most useful is often that which the church regards as a grievous sin. Do men and women who have no problem rejecting papal teaching on sex really go on to tell their partners before so indulging, Hang on there. I'm afraid a condom is out. The Pope says so.”