A leading Catholic cardinal from Switzerland and close ally of the Pope has suggested condoms might have a limited role in fighting AIDS.
Cardinal Georges Cottier, the theologian to the pontifical household, is the highest-ranking church official to broach the possibility that there could be exceptions to the Vatican's ban on contraceptives, the BBC reported Tuesday.
The Catholic church has long taught that God designed heterosexual intercourse as an expression of marital love that is always linked to the possibility of creating new human life.
However, Cottier said it was his personal view that condom use, in limited circumstances, was no longer a question only of allowing the creation of human life. but of also actively preventing the transmission of death to a sexual partner.
That view was voiced last month by Spanish bishops, who quickly ran afoul of papal authorities.
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