Vatican criticizes condom machines in Rome school

A Rome high school has decided to install vending machines selling condoms for its students, sparking angry reaction from the Catholic Church which claims the move will only encourage youths to have sex.

Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the pope’s vicar for Rome, criticized the decision as trivializing sex.

L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, said Thursday that sex was being reduced to “mere physical exercise.” The paper lamented that young people these days have no spiritual guidance when it comes to sexuality, and that educators are more concerned with “the health and hygiene consequences of sex” than the moral implications.

Despite the storm, the Keplero high school — with students aged 15 to 19 — said it would push ahead with its plan to install six vending machines as part of broader efforts to educate students in sexuality and HIV protection.

“We don’t want to cause a sensation, this is not about stimulating the use condoms or intercourse,” Antonio Panaccione, the headmaster of the school, told The Associated Press. “On the contrary, it’s about prevention and education.”

Even if some European countries — Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands — have had cases of schools selling condoms, the move was billed as a first in Rome, and one of the first such initiatives in the country.

The ANSA news agency reported that a Turin school tried the experiment over a decade ago but that the machines were eventually removed since they weren’t being used.

“The scandal is that we do it in Rome, because this is the city of the pope and therefore one can’t really talk about sex,” Panaccione said in a phone interview. “They can talk about pedophilia, can’t they?” he said, referring to a sex abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church in several European countries.

The Vatican opposes artificial contraception.

Pope Benedict XVI drew widespread criticism from European governments, international organizations and scientists last year when he said that distributing condoms was not the answer to Africa’s AIDS problem and could make it worse. He said a moral attitude toward sex — abstinence and marital fidelity — would help fight the virus.

The high school, which enrolls about 860 students, plans to install the vending machines in the bathrooms for boys and girls next week, Panaccione said.

The price, euro2 (US$2.70) for a pack of three, is lower than market prices.