Pope Welcomes Use of Condoms 'in exceptional cases'

By Eric Sande

In a book titled Light of the World scheduled to be launched tomorrow, Pope Benedict XVI has softened his hard-line stance on the use of condoms. He says that they are not a moral solution to stopping AIDS but in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, their use could represent a first step in assuming moral responsibility "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection."

The 219-page book is based on 20 hours of interviews conducted by German journalist Peter Seewald. The pope also speaks frankly about the possibility that he could resign for health reasons, and defends wartime pontiff  Pius XII against Jewish accusations he turned a blind eye to the Holocaust.

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano published excerpts of the interview on Saturday.

"In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality," said the pope.

The Pope, however, also reiterated the Church's position that abstinence and marital fidelity are the only sure ways of preventing the spread of HIV.

“Sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalisation of sexuality" where this is no longer an expression of love "but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves”, he said.

Until now, the Vatican had prohibited the use of any form of contraception -- other than abstinence -- even as a guard against sexually transmitted diseases.

Critics comment that it took many years for the Church to realise that Aids was not just a disease of the homosexual community, and that many heterosexual women, particularly in Africa, were being killed.

The Church in Kenya could not immediately comment on the move.

"We have not received any official communication from the Vatican on the matter and until that happens we cannot comment," said Episcopal Conference (KEC)  Secretary General Fr Vincent Wambugu .

According to UNAIDS 2009 report, some 60 million people worldwide have been infected by the disease; some 25 million have died, and around 14 million children were orphaned in southern Africa alone since the epidemic began.