the 07/16/2008

Faith falters on condom issue

Legend has it that rubbish collectors in Rome made a startlingdiscovery at the end of World Youth Day 2000. Hundreds of thousandsof young Catholics had flocked to the Italian capital to attendcelebrations culminating in a Mass presided over by Pope John PaulII.

When it was all over, the collectors sifted through debris leftbehind on a field transformed by participants into a giganticcampsite during the week-long duration of the religious fest. Theirfind: thousands of used condoms.

Critics of the Vatican's doctrinal stance against birth control andextra-marital sex _ which holds that it is a sin to use a condom _held up the discovery in triumph. It amounted to proof, the criticssaid, that many young Catholics were dispensing with those aspectsof their faith they considered reactionary, just as easily as theywere rolling on condoms.

Officials of the Diocese of Rome, whose bishop is the Pope, angrilydismissed the reports. They described them as an ''urban myth'' andaccused TV media of ''fabricating evidence'' when imagespurportedly backing up the reports were broadcast.

Aspects of the controversy linger on in Italy. Emma Bonino, aformer cabinet minister and leader of the ultra-secular RadicalParty, has repeatedly referred to it when campaigning, so farunsuccessfully, that recognition be granted in terms of Italian lawto same-sex and unmarried couples.

Catholic politicians who oppose such legislation, on the groundsthat it would run counter to the country's ''religious heritage'',are guilty of hypocrisy as much as those who choose to ignore thecondoms ''carpeting'' the Tor Vergata field, Ms Bonino says. Yetthe contradiction highlighted by Ms Bonino and others is perhapsnot entirely surprising in Italy, where over 90% of the populationdescribes itself as Roman Catholic.

Nudity dominated Renaissance art at a time when a large swathe ofthe country was ruled directly by popes who were also responsiblefor commissioning many of the paintings and sculptures. Today,skimpily dressed showgirls routinely appear on TV political talkshows together with Christian Democrat politicians.

It seems that Roman Catholicism can, in its heartland, co-existwith overt sexuality, at least on a surface level. More to do withsubstance is the fact that Italians have one of the lowest birthrates in the world, indicating that for the majority, sex is an actseparated from the strict procreation-within-marriage purposes asdefined by the Vatican.

This is despite the fact that Pope Paul VI had, through a 1968encyclical, branded contraception as a grave sin, a positionreiterated by Pope John Paul II.

Still, modern developments such as Aids have posed new challengesto the Church's ban on condoms, especially in cases where HIVinfection threatens people who would otherwise be following theVatican's directives on keeping sex within the context of marriage.

An example frequently cited is when one spouse, infected with HIVthrough a blood transfusion, runs the risk of passing on thedisease to the other through unprotected sex. John Paul remainedunswayed, seemingly applying to such couples the same restrictionsprescribed by the Vatican to sex outside marriage: that of totalabstinence.

Surprisingly, given his conservative reputation, Pope Benedict XVIcommissioned a study on the use of condoms to combat Aids early in2006, raising the hopes of many, including health agenciesoperating in badly affected areas in Africa, that the Catholic banwould be lifted.

Two years on, there is little sign this is about to happen. It is asituation which has prompted activists to protest by organising thefree distribution of condoms to participants of the 2008 edition ofWorld Youth Day running from July 15-20 in Sydney.

Even more sacrilegious, for some Catholic observers, is thedecision of some Sydney brothels which have reportedly recruitedextra staff in anticipation of brisk business during the event.

Pope Benedict has referred to Aids in recent meetings with Africanambassadors to the Holy See, but has not dropped any hints on achange in doctrine on condoms.

He told them that ''the Church would continue to assist those whosuffer from Aids and to support their families''.

But the pontiff also said that while medicine and education have apart in combatting the disease, ''promiscuous sexual conduct is aroot cause of many moral and physical ills and must be overcome bypromoting a culture of marital faithfulness and moral integrity''.dp