more on Spain

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jan 19, 2005

La Razón, which I am informed is the major Spanish daily least unsympathetic to the Church, gives a further account of the condom controversy:

The Church does not approve the use of condoms, but it recognizes that "they have their place in the integral and global prevention of AIDS". With this ambiguous affirmation, the Secretary General of the Spanish bishops, Fr. Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, summarized yesterday evening his encounter with Health Minister Elena Salgado. In the meeting, a little more than an hour and a half in length, they spoke "only of AIDS," as the Church "is very worried about and very interested in" this "serious problem". The bishops do not accept the use of condoms, but promote fidelity and abstinence.

OK, if the bishops "do not accept the use of condoms," what does it mean for them to recognize that "they have their place in the global prevention of AIDS"? I suppose the statement could be understood as a purely objective acknowledgment that, de facto, international anti-AIDS campaigns often promote the use of condoms. By the same token, the Geman bishops of 1944 might have admitted that the Final Solution had a place in reducing the length of bus and theatre queues in the Rheinland. Doesn't make for an edifying soundbite, though, and doesn't bolster our confidence that the Church's supernatural mission is to the fore.