Vatican about to approve condoms?

In an 'Only Nixon could go to China' moment, arch conservative Pope Benedict may be about to sign a document permitting married couples where one has a disease such as AIDS to use condoms. Benedict back when he was just Cardinal Ratzinger was known as Pope John Pauls 'enforcer'. As head of the Doctrine of the Faith (Formerly known as the inquisition.), he steadfastly supported the most conservative possible interpretation of all the Church's teachings.

If this small step of admitting an uninfected married woman can protect herself against her husband's infection seems like a rather timid move considering over 40 million people world-wide and 25 million in Africa alone are thought to be infected with HIV, by the standards of the Catholic church and this Pope it's revolutionary. It may also be a response to recent comments from Cardinal Martini, who had been Ratzinger's leading competition from the Vatican's liberal wing in the recent papal succession, and who recently spoke out in favour of condoms to protect against HIV.

With the Laity, particularly in North America, increasingly coming to moral and ethical positions different from the Vatican Hierchy and the harsh portrayal of the hard right laity organization Opus Dei in the media and in a certain popular novel and Tom Hanks movie, the next Pope may come from the Progressive Vatican II tradition of the church.