Pope: Condoms Acceptable to Stop AIDS

German journalist Peter Seewald is the author of the first book-length interview ever granted by a Pope, in which the pontiff reveals, among other things, that it may be alright to use condoms for the purpose of halting the spread of AIDS.

This is the first Vatican exception to a long-standing policy condemning the use of condoms, reported the New York Times.

The Pope told Seewald that he considered the use of condoms a “last resort,” and not as a means to prevent conception. He sited male prostitutes as an example for when the use of condoms could be permissible.

According to the Times, Benedict also discusses some of the church’s failings in the interview, for example the sexual abuse crisis, which he calls “a volcano of filth.” He also notes a “readiness for aggression” among those who criticized him for revoking the excommunication of a bishop who denied the scope of the Holocaust.

Regarding the use of condoms, the pope stated that “There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants.”

Condoms have remained a point of contention since Pope Paul VI denounced birth control in 1968. More recently, bishops in Africa and elsewhere have been calling on the Vatican to relax its stance to allow for condom use as part of an approach to fight the spread of H.I.V. and AIDS.