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[tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Catholic women of course have been ignoring the raving, irrational clot 
for decades----Italian birth rate 1.5, well below replacement 
level---but a Catholic government in a Catholic country telling the Pope 
to go to hell in the birth-control business is wholly without precedent.




Spain's Catholic Church Backs Condoms

Jan 19, 10:03 AM (ET)


MADRID, Spain (AP) - In a substantial shift from

traditional policy, the spokesman for the Catholic Church

in Spain has said it supports the use of condoms to

prevent the spread of AIDS.

"Condoms have a place in the global prevention of AIDS,"

Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish

Bishops Conference, told reporters after a meeting Tuesday

with Health Minister Elena Salgado to discuss ways of

fighting the disease.

The Catholic Church has repeatedly rebuffed campaigns for

it to endorse the use of condoms in the fight against

AIDS. The Vatican states that condoms, because they are a

form of artificial birth control, cannot be used to help

prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Martinez Camino said the church's stance was backed by the

scientific world. He cited a recent study by experts in

the medical magazine Lancet that supported the so-called

"ABC" approach of abstinence, being faithful to partners

and using condoms.

"The Church is very worried and interested by this

problem," he said.

There was no comment from the Vatican to the Spanish

statement.

Martinez Camino met the health minister as a

representative of the church, though it was unclear

whether he was expressing the official view of the church.

The change in view was welcomed by the Spanish Federation

of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals.

"I think it was absolutely inevitable that the Church

would change its stance," said federation president

Beatriz Gimeno.

The leading daily El Pais pointed out that as recently as

November the Spanish Bishops Conference had vehemently

opposed the Health Ministry's campaign to promote the use

of condoms. The paper quoted Martinez Camino as saying

then that it was "gravely false" to maintain that

contraceptives prevented the spread of HIV.

In June, the president of the Pontifical Council for the

Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said condom use

was "a form of Russian roulette" in fighting AIDS, El Pais

said. The remark was roundly condemned by the Spanish

government, the World Health Organization and other

organizations involved in fighting AIDS, the papers said.

The United Left parliamentary coalition described the

change in stance as "a historic advance."