A Catholic bishop in South Africa proposes lifting the ban on condoms by his church in a bid to halt the spread of the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Bishop Kevin Dowling said the AIDS crisis in South Africa - where an estimated 1,600 people are infected by HIV daily - required that the Catholic Church challenge people to act responsibly by "not transmitting death".
The condom proposal is likely to spark an outcry in the church, which opposes the use of condoms because it interferes with the creation of life.
The proposal forms part of a draft policy on combating HIV/AIDS to be discussed by bishops in southern Africa on July 24th which would, if accepted, be published as an official pastoral statement.
"I do not expect what we have said in the draft to get universal approval among the bishops. It will be contentious," said Bishop Dowling in an interview in The Sunday Times.
"Every week I am with people dying in their huts and shacks, mothers and emaciated babies. I am with them all the time."
Rather than children being orphaned by AIDS, the "greater good" was that condoms were used to prevent HIV transmission and the "mother continue to live", he said.
South Africa has the world's largest HIV population, with 4.7 million people, about one in nine, infected.
AFP