Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

ITALY:MORE THAN 50 dissident Catholic groups chose to mark yesterday's 40th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which effectively introduced the Catholic Church's ban on contraception, by taking out a half-page advertisement in Italian daily Corriere Della Sera claiming that the church's teachings on sexuality had been catastrophic for the world's poor, had left millions at risk of HIV and had been an "utter failure", writes Paddy Agnew.

Calling on Pope Benedict XVI to lift "the Vatican's dangerous ban on contraception", the dissident groups argued that the teachings of Humanae Vitae had proved to be a source of conflict and division within the church and had had a devastating impact on the developing world.