Spanish bishops defy Vatican by backing condoms

SPANISH Roman Catholic bishops have for the first time accepted the use of condoms to prevent AIDS, re-igniting a moral and religious debate but drawing a sharp response from the Vatican.

A senior prelate insisted the Vatican continued to condemn the use of condoms as “contrary to Catholic morality” while the conservative organisation Opus Dei reacted with astonishment.

The debate follows remarks from Reverend Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, secretary general of the Spanish bishops’ conference, who said the prophylactic “has its place in the context of the integral and global prevention of AIDS”.

He made his statement after a meeting with Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado.

But in Rome, Bishop Jose Luis Redrado Marchite, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Healthcare Workers and also a Spaniard, said condoms were against Catholic teaching.

Bishop Redrado said he had been unable to contact Spanish Church representatives following Rev Martinez’s remarks and Vatican sources said there were unlikely to be further official statements on the Spanish position.

Opus Dei, which is immensely powerful in Spain, said the affair had “aroused astonishment and we have been asked for clarification from several countries”, including Argentina, a spokesman said.

“The Church has a very absolute conception about these questions,” the spokesman said, and any change in that teaching would have to come from the Vatican and not the Spanish bishops.

The daily El Pais newspaper said yesterday that Rev Martinez’s statement was “the first time that a representative of the Spanish Church has come out so clearly in favour of the use of” condoms.

The Vatican forbids condoms because they are a form of contraception, and has openly contradicted scientific evidence of their effectiveness.

Spain’s government in November launched a campaign to promote use of condoms to stem steadily worsening infection rates. In 2003, the national centre for epidemiology recorded 130,000 cases of HIV/AIDS among people aged between 15 and 49.