And as to the protests at the UN Mission, here is an article from Act Up.

Some excerpts from National Catholic Reporter Online on the controversy:

"Catholic Aid Group Supports Condom Use
In an article written for the Tablet, a UK-based Catholic weekly, the HIV Corporate Strategist for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Ann Smith, elucidated a nuanced approach to
condom-use that is at odds with the church hierarchy's adamant opposition to their use, even in cases where a husband or wife is infected with HIV/AIDS.

Smith wrote, "Sadly, all too often the debate over HIV prevention has involved a contest between 'condom only' or 'abstinence/fidelity only' solutions. These have often been hijacked by political, religious or cultural agendas in turn fueled by mutual distrust and prejudices. A third, middle ground approach known as ABC, "Abstain, Be faithful, Use a Condom," has also emerged. But all three approaches often assume oversimplistic solutions for an idealized world in which all individuals are free to make empowered choices. This is not the reality for most people worldwide affected by HIV. CAFOD' s approach seeks to take into account the complex social, cultural and economic factors that influence behaviors and condition choices, most particularly (but not only) in countries of the South where the impact of AIDS has been disproportionately catastrophic."

The paper, originally presented at the XV World AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, during July 2004, drew criticism from conservative Catholics, but perhaps tellingly, the church hierarchy in the UK had nothing to say on the matter. Days after the article appeared, CAFOD issued a clarification that it did not "fund the supply, distribution or promotion of condoms."

And pardon the long cut and paste, but I could no longer get to this article through NCR Online, so I'm quoting it in it's entirety. It was written by John Allen, the Vatican reporter for NCR who you may have seen reporting for CNN these past few weeks.

Most Catholics I know involved in HIV/AIDS relief are frustrated with the endless public controversy over condoms: Whether they're rock-solid behind the church's traditional ban or think some flexibility is in order, they're virtually unanimous in believing that the condom debate has too often overshadowed the good work done by the Catholic church through its network of clinics, hospices, hospitals and AIDS education centers, above all in Africa.

Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health, is fond of saying that 27 percent of all AIDS relief in the world is run by the Catholic church. Complaints that the church has turned a blind eye to AIDS can't be sustained against this commitment, whether it's Sant'Egidio's DREAM project in Mozambique that gets antiretroviral drugs to the poorest of the poor, or the Nyumbani orphanage in Kenya that provides a loving home for 94 HIV-positive children.

Yet the condom issue shows no signs of going away, and this week brought fresh evidence of the tension it's creating within Roman Catholicism.

One came from Barragan himself, in an interview with Rome-based reporter Stacy Meichtry, who is preparing a story on the church and AIDS for an upcoming issue of NCR.

Barraghn's weariness with the topic was evident.

"I think by now we've said everything that's to be said regarding our position on condoms," he told Meichtry. "What we need to look at are comprehensive practices like those in Uganda which reduced AIDS infections through faithfulness and abstinence."

Yet Barragan opened the door slightly for a reevaluation of the blanket ban. while affirming that he opposes the distribution of condoms, because he believes it institutionalizes promiscuity, he said he finds condoms acceptable in social contexts where abstinence is not an option.

"If an infected husband wants to have sex with his wife who isn't infected, then she must defend herself by whatever means necessary," Barragan said. This position, he said, is consistent with the tenets of traditional Catholic moral theology, which teaches that acts of self-defense can extend to killing in order to not be killed.

"If a wife can defend herself from having sex by whatever means necessary, why not with a condom?" he said.

Barragan says this belief informs his decisions as head of the Council for Pastoral Health, but adds that his views are personal and do not speak for Pope John Paul II. "The Holy Father has never spoken explicitly on the subject," Barragan said.

The second indication of intra-Catholic ferment came from CAFOD, the leading Roman Catholic development agency. In a new position paper published in the Tablet, the agency, which comes under the aegis of the bishops of England and Wales, said anti-AIDS campaigns in the third world should be realistic and employ a range of methods.

"For many in Africa and Asia, sex is often the only commodity people have to exchange for food, school fees, exam results, employment or survival itself in situations-of violence," said the paper by Ann Smith, HIV corporate strategist at CAFOD.

"There are immense social and cultural pressures on poor men and women to conform to accepted stereotypes: There are economic pressures that result from the break-up of families as migrant workers spend months on end far from their spouse and family support, plunged into unbearably harsh working and living conditions by exploitative local or multi-national employers."

In such conditions, the paper suggested, condoms may be the least bad option, especially for social groups such as prostitutes with the highest risk of infection.

"Any strategy that enables a person to move from a higher-risk activity towards the lower end of the continuum, CAFOD believes, is a valid risk reduction strategy," the paper said.

Yet while some voices in the Catholic world are raising questions, others are reaffirming the traditional position.

One such voice belongs to Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, long an unapologetic critic of the use of condoms to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In a paper titled "Family Values versus Safe Sex," released to the press this week, Lopez Trujillo writes: "Permeability and electric tests indicate that latex may allow passage of particles bigger than the HIV."

He even suggests that condoms should carry warnings of their potential dangers, like cigarettes.

[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Rome correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@natcath.org.]

The Word From Rome

In his Web column this week, Allen looks at fallout from clergy sex abuse in Ireland and Austria.

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