{"id":142,"date":"2010-12-22T17:46:56","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html"},"modified":"2010-12-22T17:46:56","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:46:56","slug":"the-vaticans-official-condom-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html","title":{"rendered":"The Vatican’s official condom comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

So now we have the official word<\/a>
\nfrom the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Condoms are a
\nlesser evil, when used by prostitutes infected with HIV. Ultra
\ntheologians who have claimed the the use of condoms in such
\ncircumstances only add crime to crime…are wrong. Pope Benedict meant
\nwhat he said. <\/p>\n

Naturally, some of the usual suspects on the right (Matt Bowman<\/a>, Thomas Peters<\/a>)
\nare claiming that they had it right all along, that all those who said
\nthat Benedict had laid down something new were wrong. That’s just
\nblowing smoke. Austen Invereigh points out what’s really happened:<\/p>\n

So now Catholic agencies reaching out to Aids sufferers in all parts of
\nAfrica are free to continue to do what they have been doing–without
\nfear of campaigns, boycotts (especially from US pro-life groups) or
\nprohibitions by bishops. So now we have the official word<\/a>
\nfrom the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Condoms are a
\nlesser evil, when used by prostitutes infected with HIV. Ultra
\ntheologians who have claimed the the use of condoms in such
\ncircumstances only add crime to crime…are wrong. Pope Benedict meant
\nwhat he said. <\/p>\n

Naturally, some of the usual suspects on the right (Matt Bowman<\/a>, Thomas Peters<\/a>)
\nare claiming that they had it right all along, that all those who said
\nthat Benedict had laid down something new were wrong. That’s just
\nblowing smoke. Austen Invereigh points out what’s really happened:<\/p>\n

So now Catholic agencies reaching out to Aids sufferers in all parts of
\nAfrica are free to continue to do what they have been doing–without
\nfear of campaigns, boycotts (especially from US pro-life groups) or
\nprohibitions by bishops. \n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ultra bullying has been stopped in its tracks, and waiting in the wings
\nis magisterial teaching on conjugal use of condoms to prevent disease
\nwhere husband or wife is HIV-positive.<\/p>\n

I do, however, wish Invereigh hadn’t cast this conflict as Jesus
\n(Benedict and the CDF) prevailing over the Pharisees (the Ultras).
\nChristians have long tended to pose such an issue as love v. law in
\nthese terms. But the Pharisees were the real-life progenitors of
\nrabbinic Judaism, and in case after case, it was the humane work of
\nrabbinic law to soften some of the absolutist legal decrees of
\nScripture. <\/p>\n

By relying on the good old traditions of Catholic moral theology,
\nBenedict and the CDF are really in continuity with the kind of analysis
\nthat the Pharisees pioneered. Whatever troubles Jesus may have had with
\nthe Pharisees of his day, in this respect the were on the side of the
\nangels.<\/p>\n

Ultra bullying has been stopped in its tracks, and waiting in the wings
\nis magisterial teaching on conjugal use of condoms to prevent disease
\nwhere husband or wife is HIV-positive.<\/p>\n

I do, however, wish Invereigh hadn’t cast this conflict as Jesus
\n(Benedict and the CDF) prevailing over the Pharisees (the Ultras).
\nChristians have long tended to pose such an issue as love v. law in
\nthese terms. But the Pharisees were the real-life progenitors of
\nrabbinic Judaism, and in case after case, it was the humane work of
\nrabbinic law to soften some of the absolutist legal decrees of
\nScripture. <\/p>\n

By relying on the good old traditions of Catholic moral theology,
\nBenedict and the CDF are really in continuity with the kind of analysis
\nthat the Pharisees pioneered. Whatever troubles Jesus may have had with
\nthe Pharisees of his day, in this respect the were on the side of the
\nangels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So now we have the official word from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Condoms are a lesser evil, when used by prostitutes infected with HIV. Ultra theologians who have claimed the the use of condoms in such circumstances only add crime to crime…are wrong. Pope Benedict meant what he said. Naturally, some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Vatican's official condom comment - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Vatican's official condom comment - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So now we have the official word from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Condoms are a lesser evil, when used by prostitutes infected with HIV. Ultra theologians who have claimed the the use of condoms in such circumstances only add crime to crime…are wrong. Pope Benedict meant what he said. Naturally, some…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-22T17:46:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Vatican's official condom comment - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Vatican's official condom comment - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","og_description":"So now we have the official word from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Condoms are a lesser evil, when used by prostitutes infected with HIV. Ultra theologians who have claimed the the use of condoms in such circumstances only add crime to crime…are wrong. Pope Benedict meant what he said. Naturally, some…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html","og_site_name":"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","article_published_time":"2010-12-22T17:46:56+00:00","author":"Mark Silk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html","name":"The Vatican's official condom comment - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-22T17:46:56+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-22T17:46:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/927f8b0a579506efe527e8e0967f519d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/the-vaticans-official-condom-comment.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Vatican’s official condom comment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/","name":"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/927f8b0a579506efe527e8e0967f519d","name":"Mark Silk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c82\/c82eec82562775fad85f4a47e1a5fc4ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c82\/c82eec82562775fad85f4a47e1a5fc4ax96.jpg","caption":"Mark Silk"},"description":"Mark Silk graduated from Harvard College in 1972 and earned his Ph.D. in medieval history from Harvard University in 1982. After teaching at Harvard in the Department of History and Literature for three years, he became editor of the Boston Review. In 1987 he joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked variously as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist. In 1996 he became the founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and in 1998 founding editor of Religion in the News, a magazine published by the Center that examines how the news media handle religious subject matter. In 2005, he was named director of the Trinity College Program on Public Values, comprising both the Greenberg Center and a new Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture directed by Barry Kosmin. In 2007, he became Professor of Religion in Public Life at the College. Professor Silk is the author of Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II and Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. He is co-editor of Religion by Region, an eight-volume series on religion and public life in the United States, and co-author of The American Establishment, Making Capitalism Work, and One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. In 2007 he inaugurated Spiritual Politics, a blog on religion and American political culture.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/author\/msilk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}