Fessio: Pope doesn't 'justify' condom use in any circumstance
Why all the headlines saying that Pope Benedict XVI in his new book “approves” or “permits” or “justifies” condom use in certain cases?
The book's U.S. publisher, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio of Ignatius Press, says that description is totally unjustified.
In a guest post on a Reuter's news agency blog, Father Fessio attributes some of the confusion to a mistranslation of the German in the Italian text (published before the embargo by the Vatican newspaper). But he points people back to the pope's own words.
[Pope Benedict says]: “She [the Church] 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” (italics mine).
In the first place a solution which is not “moral” cannot be “justified”. That is a contradiction and would mean that something in itself morally evil could be “justified” to achieve a good end. Note: The concept of the “lesser evil” is inapplicable here. One may tolerate a lesser evil; one cannot do something which is a lesser evil.
And Father Fessio offers up a helpful analogy:
Muggers are using steel pipes to attack people and the injuries are severe. Some muggers use padded pipes to reduce the injuries, while still disabling the victim enough for the mugging. The Pope says that the intention of reducing injury (in the act of mugging) could be a first step toward greater moral responsibility. This would not justify the following headlines: “Pope Approves Padded Pipes for Mugging” “Pope Says Use of Padded Pipes Justified in Some Circumstances”, Pope Permits Use of Padded Pipes in Some Cases."
Of course, one may morally use padded pipes in some circumstances, e.g., as insulated pipes so that hot water flowing through them doesn’t cool as fast. And one may use condoms morally in some cases, e.g. as water balloons. But that also would not justify the headline “Pope Approves Condom Use”, though in this case it could be true. But it would be intentionally misleading.
In sum, the Pope did not “justify” condom use in any circumstances.
Read the entire interview here: http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2010/11/23/guestview-did-the-pope-%E2%80%...
