Catholic group calls for lift on condom ban

Catholics for a Free Choice, a group promoting reproductive rights within the Catholic Church, on Tuesday called on the church to lift its ban on the use of condoms for HIV prevention. The group ran an advertisement in The Washington Post and the National Catholic Reporter condemning recent claims by Catholic officials that condoms do not prevent HIV transmissions and calling on the church to allow its members, particularly those in developing countries, to use condoms. The church opposes any form of artificial birth control, including condoms. In October, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, said in a BBC television documentary that HIV can pass through condoms, making the prophylactics useless in HIV prevention. The Catholics for a Free Choice ad included comments from several leading scientists blasting Trujillo's claims. "It's time for [Catholic bishops] to reject bad science and bad religion" and to "lift the ban on condoms," the ad reads. The ad is part of a larger public education campaign titled "Good Catholics Use Condoms."