AFRICA: Vatican could revise ban on condoms

JOHANNESBURG, 8 May 2006 (PlusNews) - The Vatican has announced that it is considering the release of a paper on condom use to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, renewing the debate around the Catholic Church's ban using them.

At a recent HIV prevention meeting in Washington, USA, South African Catholic Bishop Kevin Dowling, said he hoped the findings would relax the Vatican's 1968 ban on condoms rather than reinforce it.

"It would, in fact, be an ethical imperative to use condoms in order to preserve and protect life - that's what I hope will come out," Dowling told Religion News Service, a US-based international agency.