Vol III: Dissent of the Faithful: Roman Catholic Disobedience to Vatican Policy on Contraception

Between the proclamation of Human Vitae in 1968 and Benedict’s remarks in 2010, the position of the reigning popes has been characterized by consistent conservatism; there has been no divergence from the opinions of Paul VI on the use of condoms among either popes or the Vatican more generally. In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, the generally conservative John Paul II noted that it is “morally unacceptable to encourage, let alone impose, the use of methods such as contraception, sterilization and abortion in order to regulate births” (Pope John Paul II, 1995). In December of that same year, the Pontifical Council for the Family, led by President Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, issued a statement claiming that “parents must also reject the promotion of so-called ‘safe sex’ a dangerous and immoral policy based on the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against AIDS” (The Pontifical Council for the Family, 1995).

The Vatican has made no secret of its controversial policies, even in light of a global health crisis. During the adoption of a joint United Nations declaration on HIV/AIDS in 2001, a Vatican representative noted that “The Holy See wishes to emphasize that, with regard to the use of condoms as a means of preventing HIV infection, it has in no way changed its moral position” (The Holy See, 2001). Similarly, in June of 2011, the United Nations held a convention on the international AIDS epidemic, where a Vatican representative declared that “the Holy See does not endorse the use of condoms…as part of HIV and AIDS prevention programmes” (Chullikatt, 2011).

In 2009, John Paul II’s successor Pope Benedict XVI gave an extended interview to a journalist on a number of topics. As Benedict was travelling to Angola and Cameroon, the interviewer questioned him on the Vatican’s position on condoms, asking “the position of the Catholic Church on the way to fight [AIDS] is often considered unrealistic and ineffective. Will you address this theme during the journey?” (The Vatican, 2009). Benedict replied that “if Africans do not help [by responsible behaviour], the problem cannot be overcome by the distribution of prophylactics: on the contrary, they increase it” (The Vatican, 2009). Thus by 2009, the papacy maintained an absolutely uncompromising position on the use of condoms, even for the prevention of infection. The following year, something happened that seemed to destabilize forty years of consistent conservatism.

In 2010, journalist Peter Seewald conducted a series of interviews with Pope Benedict XVI that he later published in a book titled Light of the World. When questioned on the issue of condoms by Seewald, Benedict claimed that “there may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality” (Seewald, 2010). A puzzled Seewald inquired “Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?”(Seewald, 2010). The cautious Benedict replied “She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality” (Seewald, 2010). The international media exploded with controversy; one article went so far as to claim that Benedict had “reversed” the Church’s policy on condoms, (Deutsche Welle, 2006) as if to say that its entire body of thought had been unceremoniously discarded with one statement. Nothing was further from the truth.

In response to what it considered a stream of inaccurate interpretations, the Vatican published a Note on the Banalization of Sexuality Regarding Certain Interpretations of “Light of the World.” Therein, The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith claimed that “the Holy Father was talking neither about conjugal morality nor about the moral norm concerning contraception. This norm belongs to the tradition of the Church and was summarized succinctly by Pope Paul VI in paragraph 14 of his Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae (sic)” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2010). The note went on to encourage the continuation of “abstinence before and fidelity within marriage” as a means of combating the spread of AIDS (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2010). With this, Vatican traditionalists quickly aligned Benedict’s statements with the conservative thought of Paul VI. Even without such interventions, it is exceedingly obvious that Benedict’s statements did not amount to a “reversal” of the Vatican’s condom policy. His statement refers only to a highly specific circumstance and does not suggest that condoms are either a “moral” or “real” solution, only that they amount to a “first step in the direction of moralization.”

It seems further that the ambiguity of Benedict’s statement was intentional, perhaps because the Church condemns all sexual activity which is not vaginal intercourse between husband and wife. It seems that Benedict spoke in a benign way because he did not want his perceived endorsement of homosexual activity to appear as an endorsement of homosexuality more generally. On the other hand, since male homosexual sex does not contain the potential to create life, there was no reason to insist on the use of condoms during homosexual interaction per se. The pope thus skirted a fine line by suggesting that while homosexual sex is not moral, its moral character can at least be improved by the use of condoms so as to prevent the spread of disease.

Since the outbreak of HIV, the Vatican has not only refused to compromise on the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, but in some cases has actually propagated pseudo-scientific myths in an attempt to curb the influence of governments, institutions, and NGOs which promote the use of condoms to prevent infection. Thus, far from dissenting, many traditionalist elements of the Roman Catholic Church under direct influence of the Vatican and Pope have actually resorted to trickery to stem the tide of condom use especially in the “developing world.”

In 1997, a coalition of NGOs, intellectuals, and politicians in Mexico launched an advertising campaign to encourage the use of condoms (Hernandez & Luna, 1997). In response, the Catholic Church launched its own campaign featuring ads on billboards, public transport, TV and radio which claimed that condoms have a 40% failure rate. (Hernandez & Luna, 1997) In 2003, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo said on a BBC television programme that “The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the ‘net’ that is formed by the condom” (Bradshaw, 2003).

It seems that these claims have had a tangible impact on the beliefs of the global Catholic populations and may have even exaggerated superstition is some cases. Recently, an AIDS programme director in Kenya reported that “some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids” (Bradshaw, 2003). In 2003, BBC journalists found that Catholic populations in both Latin America and Asia believed the myth of permeable condoms (Bradshaw, 2003). A series of studies conducted on Congolese youth between 2004 and 2005 yielded similar results. When questioned on the effectiveness of condoms, some replied that “AIDS can pass through the condom and enter” and “it can have little holes” (Bosmans, Cikuru, Claeys, & Temmerman, 2006). Because the Church administered all AIDS treatment and care facilities in the area, they insisted solely on abstinence and fidelity while rejecting the use of condoms. In some cases, the C of the A(bstinence) B(e faithful) C(Condoms) campaign was simply removed from t shirts, posters, and calendars (Bosmans, et al., 2006). Perhaps most importantly, the facilities were clear in stating that their policies always conformed to those of the Church (Bosmans et al., 2006). In short, several conservative elements of the Church, including bishops and Councils allegiant to Rome, have not only opposed dissent but have actually attempted to reverse the ground gained by actors who have promoted condom use as a means of fighting HIV/AIDS.

In 1989, the Bishop of Evreux claimed that the Vatican’s failure to recommend the use of condoms in the fight against AIDS amounted to a violation of the commandment that “thou shalt not kill” (Catholics for Choice [CFC], 2013). This statement seems to have set off a general domino effect among bishops throughout the Church, some of whom began to speak publicly in support of condom use as a means of preventing transmission. In 1993, Archbishop André Collini of Toulouse claimed that an infected person engaging in sexual activity “does not have the right not to use a condom” or else becomes “an agent of death” (CFC, 2013). The Social Commission of the French Hierarchy, the Church’s highest social authority in France issued a report on AIDS in 1996 which stated that “many competent doctors affirm that a condom of trustworthy quality is presently the only means of prevention. For this reason the use of a condom may be necessary” (CFC, 2013). Stating their justification, the President of the Catholic Committee of French Doctors maintained, “The Church cannot be against contraceptives, a means of preventing the transmission of death” (Dorozynski, 1996). Kevin Dowling, the controversial and outspoken Bishop of Rustenberg (South Africa) began his trend of dissent in 2001 when he claimed that infected people who did not follow Church teachings on chastity “should use a condom in order to prevent the transmission of potential death to another” (CFC, 2013).

While most dissenting bishops have remained unspecific on who may acceptably use condoms, some have focused their desire to preserve life on the institution of marriage. In 2003, the Archbishop of Glasgow, Mario Conti, deemed condoms acceptable for married couples with one infected partner (CFC, 2013). In 2006, a Cameroonian Bishop, Christian Tumi, remarked that “if a partner in a marriage is infected with HIV, the use of condoms makes sense.” In 2006, former Milanese Archbishop Carlo Martini similarly claimed that condoms were acceptable in “the particular situation of spouses, one of whom is infected with AIDS. The infected one is obligated to protect the other partner” (Sandro, 2006). Though these restrictions to married couples are conservative in nature, they nonetheless represent dissenting views by sanctioning condom use when the conception of life would otherwise be possible, thus differentiating them from the 2010 statements of Benedict.