Pope Benedict Says Condoms “Justified in Single Cases”

Pope Benedict XVI said the use of condoms can be “justified in single cases, as perhaps when a prostitute uses it, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization,” the Vatican’s Osservatore Romano newspaper reported today, citing excerpts of an interview with the pontiff for a book written by German journalist Peter Seewald.

The Pope also said that the use of condoms is “not the proper way to win against the HIV Infection”. He described it as a necessary “humanization of sexuality,” according to the newspaper.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tommaso Ebhardt in Milan at tebhardt@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.