So let's imagine that the Church did give the big thumb's-up, OK sign to use condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. This would probably mean that Catholic medical providers would be expected to start distributing said contraceptives.
Then, things like this would happen.
As it is, preaching abstinence means teaching that individuals have the ability to choose their actions, and hence have direct responsibility for their actions. This is not to say that we turn our backs on victims of disease. We, as Christians, must have compassion for the suffering.
But distributing contraceptives, however, shifts the responsibility away from the actor and onto a third party...which means people will make poorer choices, and seek to blame someone else when their actions do not yield the desired results. Distributing contraceptives might help reduce statistics of AIDS, but it also makes the distributor liable if there is something defective with the contraceptives...and in this imperfect world, it is only a matter of time before that happens.

Comments