EU hits out at Vatican condom remarks

The European Union joined anti-AIDS campaigners today in criticising remarks by a top Vatican cardinal that condoms do not protect against the deadly sexually transmitted disease.

“Statements not supported by sound scientific evidence are not plausible,” Philippe Busquin, EU research commissioner said in a statement.

He added there was enough evidence to demonstrate that “condoms are the best way to prevent HIV infection”.

The rebuke from the EU’s head office came after Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, reasserted in an interview last week that the use of a latex condom to prevent the spread of the HIV virus “is not even proven.”

He added that “to talk of condom as ’safe sex’ is a form of Russian roulette,” adding that “there are many published studies that give rise to well-founded doubts” regarding the safety of condom use.

The Vatican has repeatedly opposed condoms as a way to fight AIDS, saying chastity is the best way to prevent the spread of the virus, which kills some three million people each year.

“There is extensive and conclusive scientific evidence that condoms are the best way to stop and prevent AIDS,” said EU spokesman Fabio Fabbi.

“The scientific evidence is there … whatever your beliefs are.”

Fabbi said the European Commission has funded several research projects over the last 15 years to prove that latex condoms was an effective way of fighting the spread of AIDS.