The Vatican is preparing a document about the use of condoms by those with Aids at Pope Benedict XVI's request, a Vatican cardinal has said.
"Soon the Vatican will issue a document about the use of condoms by persons who have grave diseases, starting with Aids," Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who is in charge of the Vatican's health care ministry, was quoted as telling Rome daily newspaper La Repubblica.
"My department is carefully studying it, along with scientists and theologians entrusted with drawing up a document about the subject that will soon be made known," the Mexican cardinal said.
The Vatican opposes the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against contraception and advocates sexual abstinence as the best way to combat the spread of the HIV virus that causes Aids.
Last week, retired Milan Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a one-time papal contender, said in comments published in Italian newsweekly L'Espressothat condoms were the "lesser evil" in combating the spread of Aids.
Asked if he shared Cardinal Martini's idea about condoms, Cardinal Lozano Barragan said: "It is a very difficult and delicate subject which warrants prudence."
AP