Sexual abstinence the only answer to Aids

THE Catholic Church’s prohibition on contraception is irreversible despite Cardinal Carlo Martini’s recent claim that condoms are the lesser evil in combating the spread of Aids.

According to Catholic teaching, it is never right to place a barrier between the unitive and procreative dimensions of marital love.

Some theologians argue that total abstinence would deprive the couple of the marital relations to which they have a strict right according to what is called the ‘marriage debt’.