Pope shifts position on condoms

The Pope is lauded for permitting condoms in certain situations, but Catholics protest that this is a distortion of a more regressive view.

It sounds like the Pope maintains that condoms are intrinsically evil, but in certain situations (his example was a male prostitute), it is less evil than spreading infection.

Well, whatever.  It seems at least one AIDS activist in Africa is grateful for what they can get.

From that last interview:

KEYES: I ran across a 2003 study and an article from 2008 that suggests that the use of condoms doesn't help all that much as a primary HIV prevention in Africa, partly because not enough people are using them and partly because a lot of the people in Africa that are being infected are in steady relationships already and people don't use them as much in steady relationships. Is that true?

Mr. MWANZA: Yeah.

The pope said that condoms are not a "real or moral solution" to infection, and that a better solution is "a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality."  Meanwhile, condoms could help people even in steady relationships.