In a seismic shift on one of the most profound – and profoundly contentious – Roman Catholic teachings, the Vatican said Tuesday that condoms are the lesser of two evils when used to curb the spread of AIDS, even if their use prevents a pregnancy.

Additional Photos

Pope Benedict XVI blesses the faithful Monday during an audience for newly appointed cardinals and their relatives. On Tuesday, the Vatican expanded on the pope’s recent comments on condoms as a means of fighting HIV by stating that their use is a step toward a more moral sexuality, even if they prevent a pregnancy. The Associated Press

The position was an acknowledgment that the church’s long-held anti-birth control stance against condoms doesn’t justify putting lives at risk.

“This is a game-changer,” declared the Rev. James Martin, a prominent Jesuit writer and editor.

The new stance was staked out as the Vatican explained Pope Benedict XVI’s comments on condoms and HIV in a book that came out Tuesday based on his interview with a German journalist.

The Vatican still holds that condom use is immoral and that church doctrine forbidding artificial birth control is unchanged. Still, the reassessment on condom use to help prevent disease carries great significance, particularly in Africa, where AIDS is rampant.

“acknowledging that condoms help prevent the spread of HIV between people in sexual relationships, the pope has completely changed the Catholic discussion on condoms,” said Martin, a liberal-leaning writer on spirituality and Catholic teaching.

The development came on a day when U.N. AIDS officials announced that the number of new HIV cases has fallen significantly – thanks to condom use – and a U.S. medical journal published a study showing that a daily pill could help prevent spread of the virus among gay men.

“This is a great day in the fight against AIDS a major milestone,” said Mitchell Warren, head of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition.

Theologians have debated for years whether it could be morally acceptable for HIV-infected people to use condoms to avoid infecting their partners. The Vatican years ago was reportedly preparing a document on the subject, but it never came out.

The groundbreaking shift, coming as it does from the deeply conservative pontiff, would appear likely to restrain any public criticism from Catholic conservatives, who insisted Tuesday that the pope was merely reaffirming the church’s moral teaching.

Conservatives have feared that a comment like this would give support to Catholics who want to challenge the church’s ban on artificial contraception, in an environment where the conservatives feel they are under siege from a secular, anti-Catholic culture.

George Weigel, a conservative Catholic writer, told The Associated Press in an e-mail that the Vatican wasn’t endorsing condom use as a method of contraception or of AIDS prevention.

“This is admittedly a difficult distinction to grasp,” he said. What the pontiff is saying is “that someone determined to do something wrong may be showing a glimmer of moral common sense by not doing that wrong thing in the worst possible way – which is not an endorsement of anything.”

Benedict’s comments come at a time when bishops in the United States are intensely focused on upholding the strictest views of Catholic orthodoxy, emphasizing traditional marriage and natural family planning based on a woman’s menstrual cycle and making abortion the most important issue.

In the book, “Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times,” Benedict was quoted as saying that condom use by people such as male prostitutes indicated they were moving toward a more moral, responsible sexuality by aiming to protect their partner from a deadly infection.

His comments implied that he was referring primarily to homosexual sex, when condoms aren’t being used as a form of contraception.

But questions arose immediately about the pope’s intent because the Italian translation of the book used the feminine for prostitute, whereas the original German used the masculine.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters Tuesday that he asked the pope whether he intended his comments to apply only to men. Benedict replied that it really didn’t matter and that the important thing was that the person took into consideration the life of another.

“I personally asked the pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine,” Lombardi said. “He told me no. The problem is this: It’s the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship.”

“This is if you’re a man, a woman, or a transsexual. The point is it’s a first step of taking responsibility, of avoiding passing a grave risk onto another,” Lombardi said, ending the press conference.

The clarification is significant.

UNAIDS estimates that 22.4 million people in Africa are infected with HIV, and that 54 percent– or 12.1 million – are women. Heterosexual transmission of HIV and multiple, heterosexual partners are believed to be the major cause of the high infection rates.

Benedict drew harsh criticism when, en route to Africa in 2009, he told reporters that the AIDS problem couldn’t be resolved by distributing condoms. “On the contrary, it increases the problem,” he said then.

In Africa on Tuesday, AIDS activists, clerics and ordinary Africans applauded the pope’s revised comments.

“I say, hurrah for Pope Benedict,” exclaimed Linda-Gail Bekker, chief executive of South Africa’s Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation. She said the pope’s statement may prompt many people to “adopt a simple lifestyle strategy to protect themselves.”

Lombardi said Benedict knew that his comments would provoke intense debate. Conservative Catholics have been trying to minimize what he said since excerpts were published this weekend in the Vatican newspaper.

The Rev. Tim Finnegan, a conservative British blogger, said he thought the pope’s comments were unwise. “I’m sorry. I love the Holy Father very much; he is a deeply holy man and has done a great deal for the church,” Finnegan said on his blog. “On this particular issue, I disagree with him.”

Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau, an expert on the Vatican’s bioethics advisory board, said the pope was articulating the theological idea that there are degrees of evil.

“Contraception is not the worst evil. The church does not see it as good, but the church does not see it as the worst,” he told the AP. “Abortion is far worse. Passing on HIV is criminal. That is absolute irresponsibility.”

Related Stories