Catholics, Aids And Condoms

In their first comprehensive statement on the AIDS crisis, the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops last week announced a considerable concession to the disease's grim reality. Despite the church's continued opposition to the use of condoms by married and unmarried persons alike, the bishops will now reluctantly accept the publicizing of information on the devices in public- education campaigns and school classes. Some people simply "will not refrain from the type of sexual or drug-abuse behavior which can transmit AIDS," the bishops acknowledged. But, they stated, AIDS education must emphasize that to stem the disease, "abstinence outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage, as well as the avoidance of intravenous drug abuse, are the only morally correct and medically sure ways."