Thursday, December 2, 2010

Catholic Standard Botches Teaching On Condoms

In today's edition of the Catholic Standard, we see a Catholic News Service article, written about the Pope's recent remarks, that itself errs regarding contraception within marriage.  Yes, it was written by the CNS, but the Standard should have been responsible enough to edit out the error or decline publishing the piece.  Hence they're just as responsible for this promulgation of error.

The erroneous teaching is encapsulated in this paragraph:
"For years, in fact, Vatican officials and theologians have studied the morality of condom use to reduce the risk of AIDS. The Vatican has never proclaimed a "ban" on condom use in AIDS prevention; on the contrary, some Vatican theologians and officials have argued that for married couples in which one partner is HIV-infected, use of condoms could be a moral responsibility."

That's not correct.  Within the context of marriage, condoms can never be used as they will frustrate the procreative aspect of the marital act, regardless of the intent of the spouses.  What is correct to say is that the Church says nothing about the use of condoms outside of marriage, because outside of marriage between one man and one woman, sexual relations are already immoral.

The above quote is attributed to unnamed "Vatican officials and theologians".  Both CNS and the Standard should have taken the extra step to remind readers that such opinions are at serious variance with the Magisterium.  Perhaps they were merely taking cue from Cardinal McCarrick who, in May 2009, similarly and equally erroneously condoned such condom usage.

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