The Church, Condoms, and Aids

Thank your Richard, Michael P, and Eduardo for your discussion on the Church, Condoms and AIDS, here, here, and here.  A year ago I blogged on the subject here.  I struggled for years to understand and accept Humanae Vitae, but for the past several years I have viewed it as a prophetic encylical.  Denver's Archbishop Chaput wrote a beautiful pastoral letter on the 30th anniversary of HV, putting the teachings of HV into more readable language.  In short, I fully accept the Church's teaching in HV.

At present, I too, fall on the side of thinking that the Church could, without changing its teaching on human sexuality, approve the use of condoms in the AIDS situation where the subjective purpose of the condom use is to prevent the spread of the disease and not pregnancy prevention.  One of the marital goods is the unitive aspect of marriage, which but for the disease would and should include sexual intercourse.  Whether the Church should, as a matter of prudential judgment, approve the use of condoms in this situation is a different question altogether and one that I am not competent to answer.

I am interested in hearing from our readers, particularly theologians and philosophers, on the question of whether the Church could, consistent with HV, approve the use of condoms to prevent the spread of disease (in or outside of marriage).  I look forward to learning.

Michael S.