In an interview with a Scottish newspaper, Mario Conti, the Archbishop of Glasgow, pledges his support for the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers' recent decision to conduct and release a study on condom use to fight AIDS and contends that using condoms to stop transmission of the disease from one spouse to another is "common sense." He acknowledges that this position is not in line with church teaching, but asks, "Should we really be saying that it is in the benefit of the couple to refuse one another…and [live] as brother and sister when the whole nature of their marriage pushes them towards sacramentalising their marriage?"

Bishop Kevin Dowling, in an interview in the Chicago Tribune, returns to the issue of condoms. While he says he has "no problem" with abstinence and faithfulness in marriage as the church's answer to the AIDS epidemic, he considers using condoms to be "a pro-life option in the widest sense." "For me, the issue is simply this: How do you preserve and protect life?" In a diocese like his, he says, "The only solution we have at the moment is condoms." He believes that in much of AIDS-afflicted Africa the primary effect of using condoms would not be contraception but "to stop transmission of a death-dealing virus." Under church doctrine, that is "not only allowable, it's a moral imperative," he says. "The principle is to protect life. I'm fighting for the principle here." He concludes that he would like to see a "humble attitude" from the Vatican and a recognition that "we have to develop a theology for the HIV-AIDS pandemic that [recognizes] the poor and the suffering and the marginalized and the vulnerable" and is based on an ethic of "human dignity and justice and human rights instead of just on an ethic of sexuality."

In an address given on May 6, 2005, in Limburg, Germany, Franz Kamphaus, Bishop of Limburg, discusses German Catholic relief agencies' comprehensive and integrative approach to AIDS. He claims that "today, Catholic institutions usually provide information on all paths of infection and possible ways of protection. It is up to individuals to decide whether they use condoms or not. Not referring to condoms would be withholding information."

In an interview with the New York Times, South African bishop Kevin Dowling says: "I believe condoms need to be debated, and I believe theologically their use can be justified, to prevent the transmission of a death-dealing virus…. I see these young women and their babies, and the desperation and the suffering, and I think, 'What would Jesus want?' There's no way he could condemn someone like this."

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, a Mexican who heads the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, says that while he opposes the distribution of condoms, because he believes it institutionalizes promiscuity, he finds the use of condoms acceptable when abstinence is not an option. "If an infected husband wants to have sex with his wife who isn't infected, then she must defend herself by whatever means necessary," he says. This position, Barragán said, is consistent with the tenets of Catholic moral theology, which teaches that acts of self-defense can extend to killing in order to not be killed. "If a wife can defend herself from having sex by whatever means necessary, why not with a condom?"

Senior Vatican official Cardinal Georges Cottier, theologian of the pontifical household, tells news agency Apcom that while condoms cannot be condoned as a contraceptive, "The use of condoms in some situations can be considered morally legitimate" to prevent the spread of HIV. Cardinal Cottier explains that because "the virus is transmitted during a sexual act; so at the same time as (bringing) life there is also a risk of transmitting death. And that is where the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' is valid."

Bishop Boniface Lele of the Kitui Diocese in Kenya says that he maintains the Catholic church's teaching on condoms. "However, emerging circumstances in the life of the living church confront our conscience every time members of our church are under threat," he says. "Faced with the sad prospect of families being wiped out in circumstances where one infected couple infects and/or re-infects the other, and without sanctioning separations of properly constituted matrimonies, the use of condoms to prolong life may seem a useful tool in the long run."

Mexican Bishop Felipe Arizmendi says that condom use to prevent HIV may be a "lesser evil." Arguing that condoms may be appropriate for those who cannot abstain, the bishop says, "They should use whatever is necessary in order not to infect others and not to infect themselves. There is no other alternative."

The Colombian Catholic church announces that, in light of recent statements made by Bishop Martínez Camino of Spain, it would review its position on condom use at the next Episcopal Conference. Monsignor Fabian Marulanda, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, says, "If science has not been able to find a method to defeat this disease (AIDS), then one should think that the condom is one recourse."

The Belgian Bishops Conference spokesman, Father Eric de Beukelaer, says that while the church would never condone sex outside of marriage, if it were to happen, "Better that (wearing a condom) than spreading AIDS."

After meeting with Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado, spokesman Monsignor Juan Antonio Martínez Camino of Spain's conference of bishops says that there is significant scientific evidence that condoms can be used to prevent the spread of HIV. Martínez Camino says that the Catholic church is concerned about the spread of HIV and that "the time has come… for a joint strategy in the prevention of such a tragic pandemic as AIDS, and contraception has a place in a global approach to tackling AIDS." [1]

However, the next day the Spanish conference, in an apparent reversal, states Martínez Camino's comments were taken out of context and that Martínez Camino was referring to abstinence and fidelity as part of the ABC world strategy to combat AIDS. The conference argues that, in accordance with Catholic principles, "it is not possible to recommend the use of condoms, as it is contrary to a person's morals." [2]

In response to the Spanish Bishops Conference's initial indication of condoning the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV, the Catholic church of England issues a statement asserting, "Condoms have a place in the global prevention of AIDS."

In response to the Spanish and British bishops' statements recognizing a place for condoms in HIV/AIDS prevention, an official in Rome states: "The Vatican has always expressed its opposition to the use of condoms. The Vatican believes that the spread of AIDS is due to a breakdown in moral values."  [3]

The Indian Catholic Bishops Conference develops a policy on condoms through its Commission on Health that permits comprehensive HIV prevention education and information. "The church will not be promoting or propagating the use of condoms. We will, however, provide all information about it. In case a couple wants to use it, we would suggest they speak to their pastor and then take a decision based on what their conscience says."

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England, says that he agrees with Archbishop Danneels' position on the use of condoms. "While we can say that, objectively, the use of condoms is wrong, there are places where it might be licit, or allowable, as when there's a danger of intercourse leading to death. It would be wrong to take a special case and make it a universal law."

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán of Mexico tells the Associated Press that condoms can be condoned in certain cases, such as when a woman cannot refuse her HIV-positive husband. Bishop Barragán says that since preserving one's own life is paramount, "You can defend yourself with any means."

Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium says on Dutch public television that he accepts the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. Cardinal Danneels says, "When an HIV-positive person says to his partner, 'I want to have sexual relations,' he must use a condom. Morally, it cannot be judged on the same level as when a condom is used to reduce the number of births."

Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, Scotland, sanctions the use of condoms for married couples where one of the partners is infected with HIV or AIDS. He says that condoms can be used for hygienic reasons, but not as birth control. In an interview, Archbishop Conti says, "It is legitimate to ask whether there are any circumstances in which, not for contraceptive but for hygienic purposes, condoms may be used to prevent the spread of AIDS."

Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenberg, South Africa, condones the use of condoms: "When people for whatever reason choose not to follow the values we promote as church—within and outside of our community—then the bottom line is the real possibility that a person could transmit a death-dealing virus to another through a sexual encounter. Such people, who are living with the virus, must be invited and challenged to take responsibility for their actions and their effect on others. They should use a condom in order to prevent the transmission of potential death to another."

Brazilian Catholic bishops suggest that the use of condoms might help check the spread of AIDS.  Bishop Eugenio Rixen of Goias, president of the Brazilian church's AIDS commission, says, "'We are reflecting whether the use of condoms is more serious, morally speaking, than getting infected or infecting other people with the AIDS virus." While Bishop Rixen maintains that "the ideal is to abstain from sex and have a chaste life," he says those who do not agree with church teaching or could not abstain should have the freedom to choose the "lesser of the two evils."

Father Jacques Suaudeau of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family writes in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, that "the use of prophylactics" in some circumstances "is actually a lesser evil but it cannot be proposed as a model of humanization and development."

Martinus Muskens, Bishop of Breda, The Netherlands, tells Dutch TV that condoms are acceptable. "If, day in day out, month in month out, you watch so many people dying in your arms of AIDS, then you cannot find it in your heart not to give out condoms," Bishop Muskens says.

The German Bishops Conference notes, "HIV/AIDS is mainly transmitted sexually, this is why the questions of a responsible shaping of sexuality cannot be eluded. We must make people understand that sexual intercourse has its legitimate place within the space of lasting partnership that is protected by faithfulness and confidence. According to Catholic understanding this is marriage. However this conviction must not lead to condemning people…in the face of the effective life threat that results from HIV/AIDS, everything needs to be done to avoid an infection. Prevention has clear precedence and must be responsibly shaped. The principles of Catholic ethics need to be taken into consideration in doing so. Only when the medical, psychological, social and ethical aspects of AIDS prevention are approached can the problem of awareness of the ways of transmission and infection risks grow. General principle is that education must be comprehensive and truthful, but measured."

Archbishop Christoph Schönborn of Vienna (a main writer of the Catechism of the Catholic Church), speaking on behalf of Austrian bishops, says that the use of condoms to fight AIDS is morally acceptable. Archbishop Schönborn says it is "solid Catholic doctrine [to use] the lesser evil" when there is the danger of death. The archbishop adds that "love can never bring death."

Peruvian bishop Augusto Beuzeville, president of the Bishops Health Commission, says that the Peruvian church "is not against condoms per se," but adds that the only truly effective AIDS prevention campaigns are ones that promote abstinence and monogamy.

Cardinal Adrianus Simonis in Holland states that condom use within marriage is licit when one person is infected with HIV. In an interview, the cardinal says, "In these precise circumstances, and only in the situation of a marriage and not in other situations, the condom can be viewed as a form of self-defense." However, Cardinal Simonis does not go so far as to say condom use is totally licit.

Father Victor Feytor Pinto, director of the Bishops Health Care Secretariat in Portugal and of the bishops' prolife agency, makes a distinction between sexual behavior and condom use in an interview with a Portuguese news agency. Bishop Feytor says the use of condoms is up to one's conscience and "not the priest, the doctor or the nurse."

Bishop Antonio Monteiro of Viseu, president of the doctrinal commission of the Portuguese Bishops Conference, says that condom use is morally bad. However, the bishop is also quoted in a Lisbon Catholic weekly saying, "If an infected person will de facto have sexual relations, it is recommended that the person use condoms."

Auxiliary bishop Victor Guazzelli of Westminster states that HI- infected people should use condoms to curtail the spread of the disease. Bishop Guazzelli says, "It seems to me that if people are set on intercourse, they at least have the obligation of not passing on the disease and death. Even if the only means possible to them is the use of condoms, this seems to be common sense."

The French Archbishop of Toulouse, André Collini, urges the Catholic church to re-think its ban on condoms to protect against HIV transmission. Citing the Fifth Commandment – thou shalt not kill – the archbishop says that anyone who is HIV-positive and remains sexually active "does not have the right not to use a condom" or they become "an agent of death."

The archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, declares that love and chastity are essential values in sexual maturity, but that, if a person is "HIV-positive" and "cannot live in chastity," such a person "should use the means that have been proposed" to prevent infecting others.

French Bishop Gaillot of Evreux tells the gay magazine Lui that failing to advise people at risk of contracting AIDS to protect themselves with condoms is tantamount to violating the biblical commandment "thou shalt not kill." In 1995, the Vatican removes him from Evreux and gives him the meaningless title of Bishop of Partenia, an inactive diocese in Mauritania, because of his position on condoms and other leftist views.