Here is an article from ThinkingFaith, the online journal of the British Jesuits, about Pope Benedict’s comments on condoms and AIDS, written by someone who knows what he’s talking about--Michael Czerny, SJ, director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network. Here’s Father Czerny:
"The Church understands sexual intercourse as part of a moral vision, permitting intercourse only within a married couple and excluding artificial means of contraception. Doing something wrong might be safer with a condom but safety doesn’t make the act right. The Church cannot encourage ‘safer’ without suggesting that it is somehow right. To say, ‘Do not commit adultery but, if you do, use a condom’ is tantamount to saying: ‘The Church has no confidence in you to live the good life.’"
Czerny provides more light than heat in what has become a heated topic.
James Martin, SJ