Pope's condom feedback welcomed by marketing campaign teams

Catholic reformers and groups working to overcome HIV have welcomed remarks by Pope Benedict that the use of condoms might not usually be improper.

The Pope explained their use may very well be justified on a case by case foundation to stop the unfold of HIV/Aids.

The remarks, as a result of be printed inside a e-book next week, mark a softening of his previously very difficult line against condoms inside battle against HIV, analysts say.

The Vatican has long opposed condoms as an artificial kind of contraception.

This has drawn heavy criticism, notably from Aids campaigners, who say condoms are one of the few techniques verified to stop the unfold of HIV.
'Significant shift'

Pope Benedict explained during a pay a visit to to Cameroon final year that handing out condoms could possibly essentially make HIV infection worse, drawing criticism from several EU states.

In his latest feedback, nevertheless, he explained the use of condoms may very well be justified in exceptional circumstances.

He gave the instance of male prostitutes where by, he explained, utilizing condoms to stop the unfold of AIDS could possibly be noticed as an act of ethical responsibility, though condoms have been "not really the way in which to take care of the evil of HIV infection".

This marks a substantial shift in his previously implacable opposition on the use of condoms, says the BBC's religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott.

UNAIDS, the United Nations programme on HIV/Aids, welcomed the feedback as a "significant and beneficial step forward".

"This transfer recognises that responsible sexual behaviour as well as use of condoms have essential roles in HIV prevention," explained UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe.

The Kenya Therapy Entry Motion (KETAM), which works to overcome the unfold of HIV, welcomed what it explained was the Pope's acceptance of reality that abstinence did not usually work.

"It's accepting the reality on the floor," explained David Kamau, head of the KETAM. "If the Church has didn't get people to follow its ethical values and apply abstinence, they will need to get the next most effective step and encourage condom use."

The Catholic reform group We are Church explained the feedback showed the Pope was ready to find out from encounter.

The British gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, informed the BBC the Pope's feedback have been substantial but wanted "clarification".
'Not a ethical solution'

The new e-book - Light of the Earth: The Pope, the Church as well as Signs of the Times - is dependent on a series of interview the Pope gave the German Catholic journalist, Peter Seewald, earlier this year.

When asked irrespective of whether the Catholic Church was not opposed in principle on the use of condoms, the Pope replied: "She naturally isn't going to regard it as a true or ethical answer, but, in this or that case, there is often nonetheless, inside intention of lowering the risk of infection, a primary step inside a motion toward a distinctive way, a far more human way, of dwelling sexuality."

Pope Benedict explained the "sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalisation of sexuality" where by sexuality was not an expression of really like, "but only a sort of drug that individuals administer to themselves".

Whilst Pope Benedict reiterated the Church's elementary opposition to contraception, and repeated his view that condoms weren't the answer to curbing HIV, he extra that there was very much inside location of sexual ethics that wanted to be pondered and expressed in new means.