Well, Alex posted while I was posting, so I'd like to re-state his restatement of the Catholic position on condoms:

"We want to uphold the ideal of fidelity and love in lifelong marriage, and of the sacredness of children, life, and procreation. These are absolute, unquestionable ideals that all should strive for. We cannot make general statements about individual situations where the absolute ideal is impossible to attain - God gave us our consciences to guide us in such matters, combined with the assistance of wise and faithful counselors."

Churches exist to preserve the ideals - it's up to us to apply those ideals to the reality of our lives. And if you view life strictly from a legalistic perspective, you will not even be able to understand this statement. Our modern culture has deified law, and expects law to be comprehensive and perfect. Law can never be all-encompassing, so it can never live up to our expectations of perfection.

-Joe-

P.S. And from a personal standpoint, I have to say that it's really difficult to have good sex with a condom. Having a vasectomy was a much better solution - but as my long-dead pastor said years and years ago, "It's permanent."