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Pope Benedict endorses condom use — for male prostitutes only

By Associated Press
Saturday, November 20, 2010 14:20 EST
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Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that condoms can be justified for male prostitutes seeking to stop the spread of HIV, a stunning comment for a church criticized for its opposition to condoms and for a pontiff who has blamed them for making the AIDS crisis worse.

The pope made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times,” which is being released Tuesday. The Vaticannewspaper ran excerpts on Saturday.

Church teaching has long opposed condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception, although it has never released an explicit policy about condoms and HIV. The Vatican has been harshly criticized for its opposition.

Benedict said that condoms are not a moral solution. But he said in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, they could be justified “in the intention of reducing the risk of infection.”

Benedict called it “a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way of living sexuality.”

He used as an example male prostitutes, for whom contraception is not an issue, as opposed to married couples where one spouse is infected. The Vatican has come under pressure from even some church officials in Africa to condone condom use for monogamous married couples to protect the uninfected spouse from getting infected.

Benedict drew the wrath of the United Nations, European governments and AIDS activisits when he told reporters en route to Africa in 2009 that the AIDS problem on the continent couldn’t be resolved by distributing condoms.

“On the contrary, it increases the problem,” he said then.

Journalist Peter Seewald, who interviewed Benedict over the course of six days this summer, raised the Africa condom comments and asked Benedict if it wasn’t “madness” for the Vatican to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms.

“There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility,” Benedict said.

But he stressed that it wasn’t the way to deal with the evil of HIV, and elsewhere in the book reaffirmed church teaching on contraception and abortion, saying: “How many children are killed who might one day have been geniuses, who could have given humanity something new, who could have given us a new Mozart or some new technical discovery?”

He reiterated the church’s position that abstinence and marital fidelity is the only sure way to prevent HIV.

Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, the Vatican’s longtime top official on bioethics and sexuality, elaborated on the pontiff’s comments, stressing that it was imperative to “make certain that this is the only way to save a life.” Sgreccia told the Italian news agency ANSAthat that is why the pope on the condom issue “dealt with it in the realm of ecceptionality.”

The condom question was one that “needed an answer for a long time,” Sgreccia was quoted as saying. “If Benedict XVI raised the question of exceptions, this expection must be accepted … and it must be verified that this is the only way to save life. This must be demonstrated,” Sgreccia said.

Christian Weisner, of the pro-reform group We Are Church in the pope’s nativeGermany, said the pope’s comments were “surprising, and if that’s the case one can be happy about the pope’s ability to learn.”

William Portier, a Catholic theologian at the University of Dayton, a Marianist school inOhio, said he had not read the report in the Vatican newspaper, but he said it would be wrong to conclude that the comments mean the pope has made a fundamental, broad change in church teaching on artificial contraception.

“He’s not going to do that in an offhand remark to a journalist in an interview,” Portier said.

In other comments, Benedict said:

_ If a pope is no longer physically, psychologically or spiritually capable of doing his job, then he has the “right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign.”

_ On Islam, in Europe, he declined to endorse such moves as France’s banning the burqa or Switzerland’s citizen referendum to forbid topping mosques with minarets.

“Christians are tolerant, and in that respect they also allow others to have their self-image,” Benedict replied when asked if Christians should be “glad” about such initiatives. “As for the burqa, I can see no reason for a general ban.”

_ He was surprised by the scale of clerical sex abuse in his native Germany and acknowledged that the Vatican could have better communicated its response. “One can always wonder whether the pope should not speak more often.”

_ On Pope Pius XII, the wartime pontiff accused by some Jewish groups of staying publicly silent on the Holocaust: Some historians have asked the Vatican to put Pius’ sainthood process on hold until the Holy See opens up its archives from his papacy. But Benedict said an internal “inspection” of those unpublished documents failed to support “negative” allegations against Pius.

“It is perfectly clear that as soon as he protested publicly, the Germans would have ceased to respect” Vatican extraterritoriality of convents and monasteries who were sheltering Jews from the Nazi occupiers in Rome. “The thousands who had found a safe haven … would have been surely deported,” Benedict argued.

In the book, Benedict also offers insights into his private life, saying he enjoys watching TV at home in the evenings with his secretaries and the four women who take care of his apartment, preferring the evening news and an Italian TV show from decades ago “Don Camillo and Peppone” about a parish priest and his bumbling assistant.

He said he always wears his white cassock, never a sweater, and wears an old Junghans watch that was left to him by his sister when she died. When he prays, he said, he prays to the Lord as well as the saints and considers himself good friends with Sts. Augustine, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alan-Flatt/764419858 Alan Flatt

    that headline cracked me up…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gregory-Martin/100000564476826 Gregory Martin

    What a self-righteous, hypocritical asshole. If he actually believed the church’s policy regarding abortion, he’d order a worldwide program of condom distribution and a campaign encouraging the usage of them. For someone who feels compelled to maintain their celibacy (altar boys aside) to demand that their congregation deny their own natural sexuality and use sex only for the purpose of procreation is repugnant and frankly, immoral.

  • Anonymous

    This ancient Nazi keeps me rolling on the floor in laughter. He’s such an idiot and so full of evil. Christians…Catholics and the borned agin ones in particular…would love to be able to return society to the 14th century.

  • hauksdottir

    Did one of his precious bishops get HIV?

  • Anonymous

    So glad to see the Pope making Catholicism relevant in 2010.

  • Anonymous

    he means only for Bishops and priests. Don’t want any alter-boy kooties on their blessed
    johnsons.

  • Anonymous

    Screw the Pope and screw the Catholic Church.

    I hope they all go down. Damn snake oil salesmen.

  • Anonymous

    Does mean he wants one his victims when he blows ‘em?

  • Benway for the Nova Police

    The man is a self parody. If you made a movie with someone like him as a character, there would be nuns demonstrating outside of the theater.

  • Benway for the Nova Police

    “Blessed johnsons.”

    Interesting concept.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6OSYTHKLFNG5CIA7NYRB7E7KRA Spy

    Makes good sense that the pope wants to protect his gay priests for safe pedophile butt love.

  • Anonymous

    I grew up Italian Catholic in San Francisco with the sometimes silly & bizarre Pope “interpretations” ……

    Always strange & bizarre changes and interpretations in the Catholic church, even for me as a child, did “god” actually spend time debating whether I must eat a tuna fish sandwich on Friday’s?

    Personally, I see the Catholic religion as being so political, more simply – all about producing more more Catholics throughout the world no matter how poor or what the consequences might be…..

    Now, a gay male prostitute certainly in practice, will never never procreate, in so much as they would obviously never produce more Catholics – So it’s a safe bet for the big cheese to tell us god says condoms for them are now indeed okay….

    Religion is an incredible political, profitable & social tool used and demanded that the sheep follow by an extremely wealthy unbelievably rich Catholic “church” (ALL churches)!

    Yes, and the Catholic church truly does good humanitarian work throughout the world (that they pick and choose for reasons only they can tell you) and for the better – But then, how else would the church continue to grow and gain trust if they didn’t….

    We don’t even want to get even into the sexual scandals that has always followed the Catholic church. The Pope of course said the right thing concerning condoms for male prostitutes….But how many more decades will it take for god to answer the Pope condoms for a over populated, diseased filled world of the poor and unwanted children who are innocently used in the Catholic churches out-dated thinking that has caused so much main and suffering for centuries all for political & monetary gain….

    But then, that’s man isn’t it?

    Producing guilt & fear through organized religion meant only to capitalize & control people, sustain power and proselytize with that word, “faith” (just believe my intentions to be honorable and of god and no questions asked)! All for riches and power of this world for a few. – I do not believe in any organized religion only in ones self and their relationship to god if they choose that direction and faith is right for them and them only. Proselytizing is controlling, evil ans always leads to forms of organize religion – and that SUCKS!

  • Anonymous

    … and maybe for catholic priests that have a bit of fun with the boys in the choir?

  • Anonymous

    So it’s OK to be a male prostitute? As long as you use a condom?

  • Anonymous

    So, it he saying its okay for him to use condoms?

  • http://twitter.com/djcinchicago David Cradduck

    …and the house of cards comes crumbling down.

  • Anonymous

    The Vat-i-can needs a new PR firm cause the one they’ve had for the last 2000 years ain’t cuttin it.

  • http://twitter.com/Covert4Liberty Freedom Rings

    So the Church of Pedophilia is not powerful enough to perform a miracle AIDS healing.
    In other words……..Satan prefers safe sex with the boy toys.
    I can’t believe people still take this organization seriously.

  • Kill Bill

    Isnt this basically advocating for male prostitution?

  • Anonymous

    Looks like Vatican just found an excuse to buy up large shares of the condom industry to protect their junk from incriminating evidence playing with boys.

  • Anonymous

    I cannot understand why women put up with catholic drivel or anyone else for that matter.

  • David R Velasquez

    Just imagine the profits to be made by installing condom vending machines throughout the Vatican.
    Not that it hasn’t been thought of before.

  • Anonymous

    Jeez, he said that about condoms for male prostitutes and the world didn’t come to an end!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Mayberry/100000043752171 Curtis Mayberry

    Down with all of them, humans have turned, so called, “god’s word” into violence, fear, corruption and ignorance. No wonder we have been at war with each other since the start of time. We haven’t evolved and aliens haven’t come down to shower us with technical and medical breakthroughs because of the ignorance religion spreads around this world.

    Just as an example I give you Evolution vs Creation while taking to an Alien. You say “Billions of years ago there was a big bang” Alien stops you and says “good you know the truth about how everything came to be, here is every cure for every illness, have a nice day” Or you say, “our planet was created by God 6000 years ago, dinos and people lived together, God created the female of our species by removing a rib from the first male, just amazing, and then they sinned by eating an apple a snake told them to, so they got kicked out of Gods garden, so then they had to wear cloths and by the way all this was created by God in 7 days, again Amazing”. Alien looks at his buddies shakes his three heads, giggles and they all turn run to their ship and it takes off, never to be heard from again. Pretty clear how that all works out!

  • http://womenborntranssexual.com/2010/11/20/pope-benedict-endorses-condom-use-%e2%80%94-for-male-prostitutes-only/ Pope Benedict endorses condom use — for male prostitutes only « Women Born Transsexual
  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/LEUDUVF5EGJZRZETF3KV53P7BQ Thomas

    The only reason as to why the pope says it’s ok for ONLY male prostitutes to use condoms is so that all his new cardinals don’t get aids. It’s much safer if they stick to young boys.

  • Anonymous

    Religion has become what the persons in charge wish it to be, In order for them to keep their parish growing and to keep their money donors to keep their collection plates filled.
    If it is a sin to throw your seed on the ground , what difference does it matter which sex you are attending to when you do it…

  • Anonymous

    Give Pope a break! Give Jesus a break! Remember whether Jesus is truly a beloved god’s son or not, he was born in a real human body with real human brain to learn thing around as people around told him… (OMG, I get trapped here!) Any way, they already tried their best for a better world.

  • Anonymous

    Gee, I remember something about a Vatican male prostitution ring being broken several years ago, you know, male prostitutes servicing all those celibate priests, bishops and cardinals in the Vatican. Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a connection? Nope, nothing to see here, move along, move along.

  • Lodewijk

    What a joke! Millions of men and women who are NOT prostitutes but could benefit from condom use are told NOT to use them, are condemned for using them. Women who ARE prostitutes and could benefit from condom use are told not to use them. But:

    Miss Pope: Totally okay for male prostitutes, which is to say, for gay, bi or DL men who’re going to be having sex with male prostitutes! In other words, women, take a hike, straight men, take a hike, children born to women with HIV, take a hike!

    If people can’t see through this, they are completely blind.

    Miss Pope Girl to her priests and bishops: “don’t have raw sex with male hustlers, wear condoms.”

  • Anonymous

    The Poop is virtually admitting that he AND HIS BOYFRIENDS USE CONDOMS TO SAVE THEIR OWN LIVES FROM DEADLY VIRUSES, but straights are completely expendable since their purpose is to keep reproducing FRESH BOYFRIENDS FOR THE POOP. I’m wondering how the gay-bashing adulterous theocon Deal Hudson will spin this on his web site InsideCatholic.com! I try to challenge the Hudster’s Catholic suck-ups with annoying facts, but his site monitors keep banning me.

  • Anonymous

    I think the ring was busted THIS year — perhaps the ongoing police investigation coughed up the Poop’s name in the client black book?

  • Anonymous

    Don’t forget that DNA testing will also nail straight priests who don’t want their “Father” title to include CHILD SUPPORT!

  • http://twitter.com/shivabeach Shiva

    Quite frankly Mr pope, I dont give a damm what you say. You are about as relevant as a male prostitute.

  • Anonymous

    If the Poop actually believed his own crapola on petri dish specks being “complete humans”, he would demand baptisms, last rites, funerals and police investigations of all women’s used tampons. I tried asking a fetal idolator who staged funerals for abortion clinic medical waste about whether she treated her OWN TAMPONS the same way, and her head exploded! Gets them every time!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rick-Reed/1127269755 Rick Reed

    All I have to say is…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! That’s JUST what I did when I read this story. Guy with the TALLEST hat always has something to say. Guarded by a bunch of guys in goofy tutu’s. Sober up.

  • Anonymous

    Ha ha ha ha ha.

    ….”Pope Benedict endorses condom use”…..and chastity belts for the choir boys.

  • Anonymous

    And, classified as a terrorist group.

  • Anonymous

    What’s black and white, red all over; and has a hard time getting thru a revolving door?

    A nun with a spear stuck in her head.

  • Johnny Warbucks

    But, of course. (Or should I say “butt, of course.) He’s trying to protect the priests from VD.

  • Anonymous

    considers himself good friends with Sts. Augustine, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas.

    Really? Augustine, the fuck rat who abandoned his own son; Bonaventure the election fixer and Thomas Aquinas who was made a saint because he mistook the taste of pilchard for herring.

    Me? I prefer my friends to be living, they can’t buy me beer if they’re dead.

  • Anonymous

    Pretty soon pope is going to show up himself in line with gay people. HOW PATHETIC TO ENDORSE MALE PROSTITUTION!

    I like to ask the pope why so severe a DOUBLE FACEDNESS?
    HAS THE CHURCH BECOME ANTI-CHRIST, IN ITS ENDEVOUR TO BECOME ANTI-ISLAM?
    First endorsing NUDITY and now MALE PROSTITUTION?

    Family planning is lot more logical and humane than what the SO revered pope is saying.

  • Anonymous

    But family planning by the lowly masses will deprive his pedo priests and adulterous Berlusconis of fresh altar boys and trophy mistresses.

  • Anonymous

    And the relevancy will last only a day or two when theothug gay bashers like multiple wife dumper Deal Hudson outpoop the Poop with their holy intolerance. The Poop will be forced to retract this by his antichoicers, pedophiles and holy adulterers.

  • Anonymous

    And she accidently speared herself as she was leading a village of Hutus to genocide a village of Tutsis. Really happened! — not the spear part, just the holy Catholic genocide part!

  • http://underthemountainbunker.com/2010/11/21/pope-benedict-endorses-condom-use-%e2%80%94-for-male-prostitutes-only/ Pope Benedict endorses condom use — for male prostitutes only | Under the Mountain Bunker & Coffee Shop

    [...] rawstory [...]

  • 5by5

    More proof the Nazi Pope is an idiot. John Paul I would never have said anything that daft. John Paul II would have “merely” been disturbingly quiet about it. This guy is just spreading genocide.

  • samhoustonTX

    Pope is reducing financial risk of priests infecting little boys with STDs.

  • http://mysite.verizon.net/vzepr1xp/index.html unsean

    “…evil of HIV?”

    You have got to be kidding me. HIV is a virus. It’s neither good or evil. It bothers me when thing are written in such a manner because it simplifies a very important issue that science–not religion in it’s various guises–needs to deal with in a methodical manner.

  • ProgressiveInNewYork

    once again the man in the white hat shows his only purpose is to protect his priests
    from their prostitutes

  • Anonymous

    the pope is a powerful jokester .. the belief that you could go to HELL for eating meat on fridays or missing church on sundays without going to confession.(growing up in the 50′s/60′s)..leaves me speechless and no longer a catholic…

  • http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/religion-philosophy/16539-pope-benedict-endorses-condom-use-male-prostitutes-only.html#post206466 Anonymous

    [...] humanity something new, who could have given us a new Mozart or some new technical discovery?" Pope Benedict endorses condom use — for male prostitutes only | Raw Story He reiterated the church's position that abstinence and marital fidelity is the only sure way to [...]

  • Anonymous

    “But family planning by the lowly masses will deprive his pedo priests and adulterous Berlusconis of fresh altar boys and trophy mistresses”

    And let’s not forget about the army of crusaders that the pope needs to support his fascist agenda.

  • Anonymous

    It boggles the imagination that anyone would listen to this asshole, never mind follow his instructions. And while on the topic, the same goes for Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, et al. What is it about believing in god that causes otherwise normal people to turn off their brains and to accept a pile of illogical sh*t to guide their daily life?

  • Anonymous

    I know: lets declare a war on evil!

  • Anonymous

    and want to spend eternity in catholic heaven….

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/K2PHXJ2SVTZOHLQFOKQOWVT7MQ ByBull

    He must protect his company and staff from future losses, there is a lot of traning that goes into their sales staff…

    Not a problem when Chicago archdiocese… received $1.09 billion in revenues from its parishes, schools and services in the 2008 fiscal year! – http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/archdiocese-chicago-sexual-abuse.html

  • Anonymous

    Some more ramblings of a cult leader…….a pedophile grand master. It’s too bad so many sheeple still follow the funny hat brigade.

  • NadePaulKuciGravMcKi

    Little babies who die unbaptized go to Limbo, not Heaven?

  • Anonymous

    because maybe not every sperm is sacred, eh?

  • Anonymous

    best post of the thread. ;<[)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=144900717 Stephanie Babin

    It’s hard to understand how, in a society that is supposed to be so “well educated”, we still have so many people who are SO. OBNOXIOUSLY. IGNORANT.

    For examples, see the other comments to this article.

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