The Pope Mulls Proper Use Of Condoms

This assertion opens the door to another problem now being debated in the Roman Catholic community. If taking responsibility to prevent the transmission of a sexually-transmitted disease is a valid reason to use barrier contraception, then does it have an application within the church-condoned sexual relations between spouses when one of the pair has a sexually-transmitted disease? A Pontifical Council spoke on this issue back in 2006, but stopped short of actually endorsing the use of condoms in this particular function. It is believed they did so because such an endorsement could be seen as a blanket endorsement for the use of barrier birth control methods.

This was not the only controversial topic that the pope spoke on during this extensive dialogue. Benedict once again addressed the rash of priest abuse scandals, expressing his personal deep regret that this ongoing crisis was not handled better by the church. In this vein he once again denounced the now infamous Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ and its partner laity group Regnum Christi. While Father Degollado denied any misconduct even up until his death, multiple witnesses have come forward to expose Degollado as a serial child molester and father of several illegitimate children. Pope Benedict called Degollado a “false prophet” who led a “wasted, twisted life.”

He also tackled his move to canonize Pope Pius XII, a man Benedict believes “saved more Jews than anyone else” during the second World War, the possibility of a third Vatican Council in the near future and the controversies surrounding the lifting of several excommunications.