http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1121962,00.htmlSuggested role in preventing Aids breaks Catholic taboo
John Hooper in Rome and Andrew Osborn in Brussels
Tuesday January 13, 2004
The Guardian
A Belgian cardinal who is among the leading candidates to succeed Pope John Paul yesterday broke the Roman Catholic church's taboo on the use of condoms, declaring that, in certain circumstances, they should be used to prevent the spread of Aids.
Godfried Danneels, one of the few moderate cardinals in the church after more than a quarter of a century of conservative rule by the current pontiff, was careful to say he preferred abstinence as a means of prevention.
But he added that if someone who was HIV-positive did have sex, failing to use a condom would be sinful - a contravention of the sixth commandment: thou shalt not kill.
His comments were a further sign that the ailing pope may be losing some grip on the more liberal wing of his immense church. Shortly after being named a "prince of the church" last September, Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland said that the ban on contraception should be debated, along with such issues as priestly celibacy and homosexual clergy.
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