Still Running Off at the Keyboard

WILL CONDOMS BE PERMITTED ?

I think most Western Catholics smiled at the liberal Cardinal when the announcement came the other day that Cdl. Martini believed condoms were going to be approved for AIDS in one partner of a marriage. Maybe we shouldn't have smiled.

According to iol the approval will be coming:

Rome - The Vatican is expected to permit the use of condoms for Aids patients, according to an interview with a high-ranking cardinal published Sunday.

The Vatican is currently working on a document on the subject that would be published soon, Vatican "Health Minister" Javier Lozano Baragan said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica.

The Roman Catholic Church has up till now strictly prohibited the use of condoms even in marriage for AIDS patients and HIV-infected people.

Observers in Rome suggest that a Curial cardinal such as Baragan could only make a statement on a such a sensitive theme when it had been first agreed upon with Pope Benedict XVI.

So let me ask my questions once again...

1. Will condoms be permissible when the wife must take medication that potentially causes birth defects?

2. Will they be permissible if the husband has been exposed to chemical weapons while serving in the military?

3. Will they be permissible if the married couple discovers through genetic testing that pregnancy will result in a sick or deformed child?

3. Will they be permissible if the wife works in an occupation that exposes her to substances that can cause birth defects?

All of these circumstances are related to the AIDS question in that all of them concern the transmission of disease from one member of the family to another through the sex act.

Then there is the matter of "emotional" disease that has been the bane of the pro-life movement.

If the answer is "no" to these circumstances, will there then be a hierarchy of illnesses which permit condom use by a married couple who desire to have children but wish to avoid transmitting disease? Will AIDS be the only disease that qualifies, meaning that transmission of AIDS from one adult to another is considered more immoral than transmission of disease to a fetus?

I don't see how a line can be drawn anywhere else except at the marriage bedroom door on the use of condoms, so it will be interesting to see what Rome has up the prelates sleeves, if this report is accurate.

UPDATE

Here's the Reuters spin on the condom story. It presents a somewhat different picture of the intentions of the Vatican.