±«Óătv

My suggestion that Pope Benedict might revise the Catholic Church’s guidance on the use of condoms in the fight against HIV and Aids has been challenged by a couple of you. Ambrose asks:

How can you predict that the current pope will change the policy on condoms when he has already ruled out the use of condoms in Africa?

Ambrose is right to note that the pope, when addressing African bishops at the Vatican last June, as a general health strategy in favour of “abstinence and fidelity”. My suggestion, however, relates not to this general strategy but to a specific scenario – where one or both partners in a marriage has been infected with HIV. In fact, I think the “lesser of two evils” principle could consistently be extended to shape a general strategy (and many involved in HIV prevention and response across africa will be praying for a change in the church's general strategy). But any change in policy, in the first instance, would, I think, emerge from a response to the marital scenario I’ve outlined.

On a separate point, Allen takes issue with my claim that a condom is important in a marriage even when both partners ate HIV-positive:

I don't understand the case when the couple both are HIV+ . Surely then it doesn’t matter if they have sex without a condom...

It may seem counter-intuitive to suggest that HIV-positive couples also need to be concerned about safe sex, but that is . HIV-positive couples need to protect themselves against infection from additional strains of HIV, particularly a drug-resistant strain. This is another scenario the Catholic Church’s moral theologians need to consider very carefully.