THE Catholic church in Australia will not join a rebellion against Rome to allow condom use in the fight against AIDS, senior clergy have said.
The Spanish church this week publicly spoke out against the Vatican's opposition to all artificial contraception, saying condoms had a place in the fight against AIDS.
The secretary-general of the Spanish bishops' conference later backtracked, saying the Spanish church still believed artificial contraception to be immoral.
But the heads of the Catholic church in England and Belgium have also recently suggested that condoms could be morally obligatory in some circumstances.
Self-described Catholic AIDS agency the Australian AIDS Fund yesterday called on the church in Australia to follow the rebels' lead.
"The church has been hung up on condoms as a barrier to life," AAF president Brian Haill said. "But HIV has changed the whole situation and now condoms preserve life."
But Christopher Prowse, Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, yesterday defended the Roman position and said there would be no change in Australia. "The idea of allowing condoms to fight AIDS tends to look at AIDS outside the bigger moral view of fidelity in marriage and chastity in life," he said.
Maverick Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire said in the face of a greater evil such as AIDS sometimes a lesser evil had to be allowed.
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