VATICAN CITY — Vatican officials insist it is nothing “revolutionary,” but to many other people Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments regarding condom use mark an important moment in the battle against AIDS and an effort by the pontiff to burnish his image and legacy.
Just a year after he said condoms could be making the AIDS crisis worse, Benedict said that for some people, such as male prostitutes, using them could represent a first step in assuming moral responsibility “in the intention of reducing the risk of infection.”
The Vatican’s ban on contraception remains, but Alberto Melloni, an Italian church historian, said Benedict “opened without a doubt a crack that cannot help but have consequences.”
Benedict stepped where no pope has gone since Paul VI’s famous 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae” barred Catholics from using condoms and other artificial contraception.
Pressure to lift the ban has grown with the spread of the HIV virus, which has infected about 60 million people worldwide and led to 25 million AIDS-related deaths over three decades.
The pope made the remark in an interview with German journalist Peter Seewald for his book “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times,” coming out this week.
The Holy See’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a statement stressing that the pope’s comments are neither “reforms or changes” church teaching.
The U.N. agency tasked with combating AIDS said the pope’s comments were “a significant and positive step” but noted that while more than 80 percent of HIV infections are caused through sexual transmission, only 4 percent to 10 percent result from sex between men.
