From The Australian:
THE Pope has backed away slightly from his claim made in Africa that the distribution of condoms exacerbates the spread of AIDS.
Amid pointed attacks on the Pope’s comments by the French Government, angry aid groups and much of the Western media, the Vatican yesterday released a text that watered down his assertion.
The Catholic Church has long opposed the use of condoms to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS but on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) the Pope went further by asserting for the first time that the use of condoms could actually increase the epidemic, which has infected some 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Pope initially told reporters flying with him to Cameroon that AIDS was “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.
But yesterday the Vatican website published an edited text changing his words to say that the use of condoms “risks” aggravating the problem.
Reporters who taped the Italian-language interview said the Pope, who speaks fluent Italian, did not say the word “risks” on Tuesday and he was unequivocal in saying that condoms aggravate the epidemic.
Editing? What happened to papal infallibility?