Several newspapers published editorials and opinion pieces responding to Pope Benedict XVI's recent comments that condom use can be justified in some cases to prevent the spread of HIV. Summaries appear below.~ Boston Globe: Benedict's comments "should begin a discussion within the church focused more on humane ways to limit the spread of diseases like AIDS and less on an instrument -- the condom -- that the church has in the past vilified," a Globeeditorial states. It adds, "Benedict's acknowledgment that an across-the-board rejection of condoms could make the church a barrier to effective disease-fighting strategies is a welcome sign that the Vatican is not deaf to appeals from both inside and outside its walls" (Boston Globe, 11/23).
~ Los Angeles Times: It is "peculiar" that the pope used the example of a male sex worker when discussing condom use, when in fact, "in sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is widely transmitted through heterosexual intercourse, including sex inside marriage," the Times writes in an editorial. Nonetheless, "Benedict has acknowledged the applicability to AIDS of the traditional Catholic doctrine of the 'double effect,'" which "holds that an action with an immoral effect can be permissible if it also has a good effect," according to the editorial (Los Angeles Times, 11/23).
~ Michael Gerson, Washington Post: The pope's condom remarks are "a welcome and necessary shift," columnist Gerson writes, adding that African Catholic leaders he knows "have long understood that a complete prohibition of condom use is unrealistic," especially for married couples and couples in which one partner is HIV-positive. Gerson continues, "The best AIDS prevention programs are idealistic about human potential and realistic about human nature. This seems to be where the pope is heading" (Gerson, Washington Post, 11/23).
~ Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times: "It's a common trope among church critics to glibly suggest that the Vatican has the blood of millions on its hands because it doesn't back condom distribution, particularly in Africa," but this "is as absurd as it is unprovable," columnist Goldberg writes. He notes, "The church's opposition to corruption, ethnic violence and murder are just as pronounced and resolute, and yet such maladies persist in Africa as well." Goldberg continues that the "church's position is that the truest notes are those that not only celebrate life and love but cut through the ... racket of devouring time," suggesting that as "those notes become harder to hear, the answer isn't to stop playing them but to turn up the volume" (Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 11/23).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of theNational Partnership for Women & Families.
© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.
~ Los Angeles Times: It is "peculiar" that the pope used the example of a male sex worker when discussing condom use, when in fact, "in sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is widely transmitted through heterosexual intercourse, including sex inside marriage," the Times writes in an editorial. Nonetheless, "Benedict has acknowledged the applicability to AIDS of the traditional Catholic doctrine of the 'double effect,'" which "holds that an action with an immoral effect can be permissible if it also has a good effect," according to the editorial (Los Angeles Times, 11/23).
~ Michael Gerson, Washington Post: The pope's condom remarks are "a welcome and necessary shift," columnist Gerson writes, adding that African Catholic leaders he knows "have long understood that a complete prohibition of condom use is unrealistic," especially for married couples and couples in which one partner is HIV-positive. Gerson continues, "The best AIDS prevention programs are idealistic about human potential and realistic about human nature. This seems to be where the pope is heading" (Gerson, Washington Post, 11/23).
~ Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times: "It's a common trope among church critics to glibly suggest that the Vatican has the blood of millions on its hands because it doesn't back condom distribution, particularly in Africa," but this "is as absurd as it is unprovable," columnist Goldberg writes. He notes, "The church's opposition to corruption, ethnic violence and murder are just as pronounced and resolute, and yet such maladies persist in Africa as well." Goldberg continues that the "church's position is that the truest notes are those that not only celebrate life and love but cut through the ... racket of devouring time," suggesting that as "those notes become harder to hear, the answer isn't to stop playing them but to turn up the volume" (Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 11/23).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of theNational Partnership for Women & Families.
© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.
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