Vatican City, May 3, 2006 / 22:00 pm
In an exclusive interview with Colombia’s Radio Cadena Nacional (RCN), Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said the Catholic Church would not back down from its long-standing teaching on condoms and the prevention of AIDS.
The cardinal told RCN that the Vatican “maintains unmodified the teaching on condoms” and said the recent statements by Italian Cardinal Maria Martini “are nothing more than his own personal opinions which do not reflect [Church] teaching.”
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said Pope Benedict XVI has not ordered any studies about modifying the prohibition on condom use. “As a dicastery we do not have any instruction or any indication to the contrary, to carry out a study about something new with regards to condoms,” he stated.
The Colombian prelate said Cardinal Martini “should explain how the condom prevents AIDS if it is true he said it is a lesser evil.”
The Church believes the only way to truly combat AIDS, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said, is through fidelity and chastity, which are the only morally acceptable means. Contraception, the Church teaches, damages the integrity of the full gift of self, which is intrinsic to the sexual act.