梵蒂岡解禁避孕套 稱其邪惡性更小

The Vatican said Tuesday that using a condom is a lesser evil than transmitting HIV to a sexual partner - even if that means a woman averting a possible pregnancy, signaling a seismic shift in papal teaching。

Pope Benedict XVI said in a book released Tuesday that condom use by people was a lesser evil since it indicated they were Moving toward a more moral and responsible sexuality by aiming to protect their partner from a deadly infection。

The book, called Light of the World, is a series of interviews with a German journalist and marked the first time a pope had ever publicly applied the theory to condom use as a way to fight HIV transmission。

The Vatican has long been criticized for its patent opposition to condom use, particularly in Africa where AIDS is rampant. But the latest interpretation of Benedict's comments about condoms and HIV means the Roman Catholic church is acknowledging that its anti-birth control stance against condoms doesn't justify putting someone's life at risk。

Conservative Catholics have been trying to minimize the scope of what the pope said since the weekend. However, Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau, an expert at the Vatican's bioethics advisory board, said the pope was articulating the idea in church teaching - long practiced by some church officials with regards to condoms that there are degrees of evil。美聯社24日報道稱，梵蒂岡週二宣稱，儘管避孕套會使女性降低懷孕的可能性(不符合羅馬天主教教義)，但若同將艾滋病傳播給性伴侶這一行爲比起來，其邪惡性還是要小一些。該立場意味着羅馬天主教教義的變化堪比“地震”。

教皇本篤十六世在其週二出版的新書中稱，避孕套的使用表明人們爲了避免伴侶染上致命疾病，讓性行爲更加道德化、更加負責任，因而使用避孕套的邪惡性比較小。

該書名爲《世界之光》，實爲一名德國記者對教皇的採訪稿組成，標誌着史上第一位宣稱避孕套的使用可阻止艾滋病傳播的教皇的誕生。

據瞭解，長期以來，梵蒂岡一直因爲其公開反對使用避孕套(在艾滋氾濫的非洲尤其如此)飽受詬病，但此次教皇對於避孕套和艾滋病理論的闡述意味着，羅馬天主教廷正認識到自己針對避孕套的反節育立場並不是置人命於危險之中的正當理由。

自上週末起，天主教保守人士已經試圖縮小教皇聲明的尺度，而梵蒂岡生物倫理諮詢委員會的專家傑克斯評論稱，教皇只不過是在重申教廷長期以來的道德教義，因爲和其他教會人士一樣，教皇聲明避孕套是邪惡的。