Church in the World

Condom row rages despite Spanish retraction

THE SPANISH church official who commented that condoms could be justified in the fight against Aids has said he received no pressure from the Vatican to retract his comments.

Fr Juan Antonio Mart?nez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish bishops' conference, told reporters on 18 January that condoms "have a place in the global prevention of Aids". The comment took members of the bishops' conference by surprise and made headlines all over the world. For nearly 24 hours, there was speculation in the Spanish media that the Spanish Church was signalling a major shift in thinking on contraception.

However, the bishops' conference issued a statement the following day describing the use of condoms as "immoral", even in the context of tackling Aids. "In no way has the Church modified doctrine," they said.

Fr Mart?nez has since denied there was any pressure from the Vatican for the bishops' conference to issue the statement. Nor did he see a contradiction between his own comment on the use of condoms, and the bishops' statement that his own office later released. In a radio interview on 20 January, he said he had originally been speaking in the context of a strategy endorsed by the medical journal, The Lancet. Known as the "ABC" method - abstain, be faithful, use condoms - the journal recommended last autumn that combining these factors has been effective in Aids prevention in countries such as Uganda.
The Church agrees with this strategy "not fully, but substantially", Fr Mart?nez said in his interview with Spanish Church radio.

He admitted his original comments had been "incomplete" by not having emphasised that of the three ABC factors, the Church supports only the first two, abstention and fidelity. He also revealed that, following publication of his controversial comments, he had been called by Cardinal Alfonso L?pez Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Dismissing media reports that the Vatican had sharply criticised him, Fr Martinez said he and Cardinal L?pez Trujillo had "jointly" worked out the best way of responding to the "extreme interpretation" put on his words by the media the day before.

A little while after he spoke to Cardinal L?pez Trujillo, Fr Martinez's office released the bishops' conference statement. The statement explained Fr Martinez's intention had been to emphasise the Church's support for abstention or conjugal fidelity as two major factors in the successful "ABC strategy".

"The views of the experts in public health coincide with the moral doctrine of the Church," the statement said. "However, it is not possible to advise using condoms, as that is contrary to personal morality."

However, Fr Martinez's initial statement has been welcomed in some parts of the world. Bishop Felipe Arizmendi of San Crist?bal de las Casas, Mexico, said he "respected" the use of condoms, and was prepared to tolerate them as a lesser evil. "If somebody is incapable of controlling their instincts, then let them use whatever means is available, just so long as they don't infect anybody else, or themselves," he said. "But it is for people who have no other alternative."

Bishop Emeritus Fabi?n Marulanda of Florencia, secretary-general of the Colombian bishops' conference, took a similar line. While affirming that the Colombian Church followed the precepts of the Vatican, he added "Things have to be looked at in accordance with the prevailing circumstances in every region. If science has been unable to come up with a method of controlling this epidemic, one might conclude that the condom could have its uses."

But Cardinal Wilfred Napier, Archbishop of Durban and president of the South African bishops' conference, said on Wednesday promoting condoms had failed to stem the spread of Aids in Africa and may have increased promiscuity. He said there was no evidence that promoting condoms had worked.
Julius Purcell, Barcelona