Vatican: Using condoms lesser evil than transmitting HIV

　　The Vatican said Tuesday that using a condom is a lesser evil than transmitting HIV to a sexual partner - even if that means a woman averting a possible pregnancy, signaling a seismic shift in papal teaching.

　　Pope Benedict XVI said in a book released Tuesday that condom use by people was a lesser evil since it indicated they were moving toward a more moral and responsible sexuality by aiming to protect their partner from a deadly infection.

　　The book, called Light of the World, is a series of interviews with a German journalist and marked the first time a pope had ever publicly applied the theory to condom use as a way to fight HIV transmission.

　　The Vatican has long been criticized for its patent opposition to condom use, particularly in Africa where AIDS is rampant. But the latest interpretation of Benedict's comments about condoms and HIV means the Roman Catholic Church is acknowledging that its anti-birth control stance against condoms doesn't justify putting someone's life at risk.

　　Conservative Catholics have been trying to minimize the scope of what the pope said since the weekend. However, Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau, an expert at the Vatican's bioethics advisory board, said the pope was articulating the idea in church teaching - long practiced by some church officials with regards to condoms that there are degrees of evil.

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