"Cardinals fail more often than condoms". (The church and AIDS).

CATHOLIC ORGANIZATIONS have raised concerns over yet another statement against condoms by a Catholic leader. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the archbishop of the Washington archdiocese, issued a pastoral letter in May opposing the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and condemning sex outside marriage.

The cardinal's pastoral letter asserted that policies advocating "safe sex" through condom use "are not solutions, but myths," and added, "condoms too often fail in preventing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV ... while giving their users a false sense of security." McCarrick also argued that the use of condoms "contradicts our faith's understanding of sexual union as an expression of spousal love."

Critics included Catholics Speak Out and CFFC president, Frances Kissling, who said, "There is much that is positive in McCarrick's pastoral letter. The cardinal's call for us to love one another and treat each person with dignity and respect, his call for universal access to health care and the insistence that both treatment and prevention be funded are all important goals." "However," she continued, when the "cardinal baldly claims 'condoms often fail,' this is simply not true. Condoms sometimes fail, but far more often, they prevent the spread of AIDS. To tell those at risk that 'condoms often fail' is to give them information that may cause their death. This is simply not acceptable. It is one thing to say that the institutional church is opposed to condoms because they violate the sexual teachings of the church. It's another to give incorrect medical information. Those with HIV/AIDS or at risk from HIV/AIDS deserve more than the cardinal's pastoral letter has offered. Indeed, in the current climate, cardinals, I am afraid, fail more often than condoms."