Pope's Comments Set Off Firestorm; Vatican Rushes to Clarify Comments

The pope made the comments in a book-length interview over the summer with the German writer Peter Seewald that will be officially released this week. Mr. Seewald asked the pope about criticism of the Vatican's perceived opposition to condom use to fight the spread of HIV-AIDS in Africa.

The pope's response, while carefully couched, has ricocheted around the globe, reigniting one of the most tensely debated issues facing the Roman Catholic Church. To some, the interview signaled a radical shift in the Church's approach to combating the spread of AIDS as well as an unprecedented departure from the Church's long-time practice of condemning any form of condom use.

"This is a significant and positive step forward taken by the Vatican," said Michel Sidibé, executive director executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations' AIDS relief agency based in Geneva. "This move recognizes that responsible sexual behavior and the use of condoms have important roles in HIV prevention."

The Vatican, however, played down the potential impact the remarks might have on church teaching. "The pope's thinking certainly can't be defined as a revolutionary shift," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a lengthy statement issued on Sunday.

In the interview, the pope said condom use had become a "fixation" for some people, according to the English-language edition of the book viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The pope then added: "There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants."

In the interview, the pope noted that even in extreme scenarios such as male prostitution, condom use "is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality." The pope added that the church remained opposed to any widespread use of condoms that "implies a banalization of sexuality."