“Good Catholics Use Condoms” — but not in Madrid

This “Condoms4Life” campaign by Catholics for Choice has been refused placement on Madrid buses during World Youth Day, the church’s annual international rally for young believers.

(Spanish version after the break)

C4C complain that, at the last minute, “the municipal authorities and Publimedia (a local media company) withdrew permission for the campaign messages to appear on billboards, buses and bus shelters in downtown Madrid, claiming that the ads could be ‘offensive.’” They insist that they will instead do face-to-face marketing at World Youth Day with their message of “Good Catholics Use Condoms”. They say they are emboldened by Pope Benedict’s remarkable comments about condoms being a “lesser evil” when used strictly for harm reduction in preventing the spread of AIDS.

“The young people in our coalition came from all over the world to proclaim at Catholic World Youth Day that good Catholics use condoms. HIV and AIDS are realities in the lives of young people and we know that in good conscience Catholics can use condoms to protect those we care about,” said Marissa Valeri, a lead organizer of the coalition. “We welcome that the pope has come out to say that condoms can prevent HIV transmission. We now want him to go further in publicly backing condom use and facing down Vatican conservatives because lives can be saved with a more realistic and compassionate view of condoms and sexuality in our church.”

Founded in 1973, Catholics for Choice claim to be “part of the great majority who believes that Catholic teachings on conscience mean that every individual must follow his or her own conscience—and respect others’ right to do the same. “ They support free individual reproductive choice, including contraception, access to abortion, and new reproductive technologies, which are controversial issues even outside the Vatican.

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