“Light of the World”: The Pope, condoms and media inaccuracy

Regrettably, the media seems to be up to their old tricks and this time L'Osservatore Romano seems to be among them, even going so far as to break the embargo and publish mistranslated extracts on 20 November, 3 days before the book, Light of the World, was due out, thereby virtually ensuring that a misrepresentation of the Pope's words was what hit the world's headlines.

The media are reporting that the Pope said this in his interview with Peter Seewald, in the book Licht der Welt, "Light of the World":
"Es mag begründete Einzelfälle geben, etwa wenn ein Prostituierter ein Kondom verwendet, wo dies ein erster Schritt zu einer Moralisierung sein kann."

Which translates:
"It may be justified in individual cases, as when a (male) prostitute uses a condom, where this is a first step towards morality"

However, he, the Pope never uses the word "begründete" or "giustificato" or "justified", neither does he say that "individual cases" of condom use may be justified. Yet this appears in L'OR and even, some say, the Italian translation of the book.
Sandro Magister gives extracts from the book and includes the original German of the controversial passage but then he goes on to mistranslate it himself. See here:

Here's Sandro Magister's extract from the book (assuming Magister has not got that wrong, too). It reads:

"Die bloße Fixierung auf das Kondom bedeutet eine Banalisierung der Sexualität, und die ist ja gerade die gefährliche Quelle dafür, dass die Menschen in der Sexualität nicht mehr den Ausdruck ihrer Liebe finden, sondern nur noch eine Art von Droge, die sie sich selbst verabreichen. Deshalb ist auch der Kampf gegen die Banalisierung der Sexualität ein Teil des Ringens darum, dass Sexualität positiv gewertet wird und ihre positive Wirkung im Ganzen des Menschseins entfalten kann. Ich würde sagen, wenn ein Prostituierter ein Kondom verwendet, kann das ein erster Akt zu einer Moralisierung sein, ein erstes Stück Verantwortung, um wieder ein Bewusstsein dafür zu entwickeln, dass nicht alles gestattet ist und man nicht alles tun kann, was man will. Aber es ist nicht die eigentliche Art, dem Übel beizukommen. Diese muss wirklich in der Vermenschlichung der Sexualität liegen".

Magister makes this translation:
"Concentrating only on the condom means trivializing sexuality, and this trivialization represents precisely the dangerous reason why so many people no longer see sexuality as an expression of their love, but only as a sort of drug, which one administers on one's own. This is why the struggle against the trivialization of sexuality is also part of the great effort so that sexuality may be valued positively, and may exercise its positive effect on the human being in his totality. There can be individual cases that are justified, for example when a [male] prostitute [ein Prostituierter] uses a condom, and this can be the first step toward a moral sensitization, a first act of responsibility to develop once again the understanding of the fact that not everything is permitted, and that one cannot do whatever one wishes. Nonetheless, this is not the real and proper way to overcome HIV infection. What is truly needed is a humanization of sexuality."
That is not an accurate translation.

Neither is that used by the BBC here:
The BBC version reads as follows:
"This means that the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality, which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of the attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves. This is why the fight against the banalization of sexuality is also a part of the struggle to ensure that sexuality is treated as a positive value and to enable it to have a positive effect on the whole of man's being.
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. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality."

The extract actually translates thus:
"I would say, if a (male) prostitute uses a condom, that can be the first act towards a moralisation, a first step to responsibility, toward developing a consciousness that not everything is permitted and that one cannot simply do what one wants, when one wants it. But this does not get to the root of the evil. That must really lie in humanising sexuality."

Thus, it appears that the Pope never actually said what is attributed to him by L'Osservatore Romano and other media.
Moreover, Magister seriously misrepresents Catholic teaching on the condom use in his article when he writes:
"...Benedict XVI justifies the use of a condom by a prostitute (in the masculine form in the original German of the book: "ein Prostituierter"). A use that Catholic moral doctrine already acknowledges – on a par with recourse to condoms by spouses when one of them is infected with HIV – but is publicly approved of by a pope for the first time here".
This is simply misreporting and a journalist of Magister's seniority ought to know better.

James Bogle Chairman The Catholic Union of Great Britain. Catholic teaching on the immorality of the use of condoms has not changed, Cardinal Raymond Burke said in an interview with the National Catholic Register. The prefect of the Apostolic Signatura stated:
I don’t see any change in the Church’s teaching. What [Pope Benedict] is commenting on — in fact, he makes the statement very clearly that the Church does not regard the use of condoms as a real or a moral solution — but what he’s talking about in the point he makes about the male prostitute is about a certain conversion process taking place in an individual’s life. He’s simply making the comment that if a person who is given to prostitution at least considers using a condom to prevent giving the disease to another person — even though the effectiveness of this is very questionable — this could be a sign of someone who is having a certain moral awakening. But in no way does it mean that prostitution is morally acceptable, nor does it mean that the use of condoms is morally acceptable. The point the Pope is making is about a certain growth in freedom, an overcoming of an enslavement to a sexual activity that is morally repugnant [unacceptable] so that this concern to use a condom in order not to infect a sexual partner could at least be a sign of some moral awakening in the individual, which one hopes would lead the individual to understand that his activity is a trivialization of human sexuality and needs to be changed … The text itself makes it very clear that he says the Church does not regard it as a real or moral solution. And when he says that it could be a first step in a movement toward a different, more human way of living sexuality, that doesn’t mean in any sense that he’s saying the use of condoms is a good thing.