Document on condom may not be under preparation at the Vatican
On April 2006, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, former archbishop of Milan, had called condom "a lesser evil" in certain cases, during an interview granted to the Italian leftist weekly L’Espresso, which has a distribution of approximately 760.000 copies. His words had brought about the reaction of Cardinal Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral, who stated on April 23, in La Repubblica, that, at the pope’s request, he was preparing a document on the use of condom. (See DICI n° 135)
These statements created some uneasiness for the Holy See. The press agency I.MEDIA in Rome, put questions on this subject to Mgr Michel Schooyans, emeritus professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. The interview was related by CIPA. Here are the essentials of his answer.
"I know from a very good source that no such document (on condom, Ed.) was requested from Cardinal Barragan, or from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral of Health. If seven years ago, this dicastery had planned the preparation of a document on similar questions, it never came out, and I believe it never will. On the other hand, the second element which makes me think that this piece of news is a matter of media manipulation, is the fact that this Council is a pastoral and not a doctrinal council.
When it is a matter of doctrinal issues, the competent dicastery is indeed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. If the pope or another high ecclesiastical authority wanted a document concerning condom and the questions tackled by Cardinal Martini, this study would most certainly be assigned to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This would certainly take quite some time, because, out of prudence, this dicastery must work slowly. The congregation would have to find experts from whom it would asked a considerate opinion on the issues presently under discussion, and brought up by Cardinal Martini.
In view of the sometimes divergent statements publicly pronounced by some ecclesiastical personalities, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a study under way at that level or consultations at the level of the doctrine of the faith. This would even seem rather normal. But the Congregation always works discreetly. Nevertheless, as far as I know, we do not have presently any reason for thinking that a specific study (with the publication of a document on the subject in view, Ed.) is being prepared on these issues. The problem of condom especially has already been the subject of a number of declarations, all those on contraception which touch upon these questions".
Christendom will have a dossier on the notion of "lesser evil" in connection with the use of condom.
