BBC NEWS Bishops against Condoms
Condoms: The science
The Vatican has published a document which says condoms have holes in them, allowing HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - to pass through.
The document, called Family Values versus Safe Sex, is a detailed and passionately argued defence of the Church’s position on condoms.
Its author, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, serves as the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family and is known for his hard line stance against contraception.
It goes so far as to suggest that condoms may even be one of the main reasons for the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The document claims that so-called safe sex using condoms is like playing “Russian Roulette.”
“Leading people to think they are fully protected…” the document says, “is to lead many to their death.”
Vatican opposition to birth control is a time-hallowed moral teaching, but in this document the Cardinal has called science to its aid. His document has 87 footnotes.
Panorama has investigated the topic to find the truth.