Condom claim a "flat lie" (United States).

As reported in our November issue (pp. 22-23), the news that the Vatican had abandoned its opposition to condoms is false. The original claim was launched in the September 23 issue of the weekly America, published by American Jesuits. This edition contained an article alleging that the Church was changing its position on condoms.

In a press release before the publication of the article, the editor of the magazine, Father Thomas Reese, went even further, claiming that bishops in Brazil, France, South Africe, and Papua New Guinea had all favoured using condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS.

It had been alleged that Bishop Eugenio Rixen, president of the Brazilian bishops' commission for AIDS ministry, had said that condoms could be regarded as a "lesser evil" in the fight against AIDS, and that the Church was moving towards general acceptance of them.

On October 22, the secretary-general of the Brazilian bishops' conference, Auxiliary Bishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Brasilia, said that the editor of America was guilty of "a flat lie." Bishop Damasceno said, "The truth is that a statement of that kind was never made by Bishop Rixen, but it appeared without his authorization in a leaflet that carried the logo of the bishops conference."

(Zenit, Nat. Cath. Register, Oct. 22)