"Pope Benedict has always made it clear he intends to uphold the traditional Catholic teaching on artificial contraception -- a "clear moral prohibition" -- Allen said. But his remarks Tuesday were among the first times he stated the policy explicitly since he became pope nearly four years ago." -(CNN article)
He has, on the other hand, also "assembled a panel of scientists and theologians" to consider whether or not married couples should be allowed to use condoms. Personally, I believe that there should be no real question as to whether or not people should be given access to condoms. Even if one sees birth control / artificial contraception as flat out wrong, one must still consider the 22 million people infected by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
"More than 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to a 2008 UNAIDS/WHO report. Nine out of 10 children with HIV in the world live in the region, which has 11.4 million orphans because of AIDS, the report said, and 1.5 million people there died of the disease in 2007" -(CNN article)The numbers alone would be enough to convince me.
