By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A decision by a Rome high school to install vending machines that dispense condoms has set off a firestorm in Italy. The Vatican says it will encourage youth to have sex and the mayor of Rome says it sends the wrong message.
According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), Keplero high school in Rome is planning to install six vending machines as part of an “experiment” aimed at educating students about sexuality and HIV protection. The machines will dispense a three-pack of condoms for 2 Euros (US $2.70).
“This is not about stimulating the use of condoms or intercourse,” the headmaster, Antonio Panaccione, told the AP. “On the contrary, it’s about prevention and education.”
He insisted that the decision was taken because of an increase in HIV cases among Italian youth and to break the taboo still surrounding the use of condoms in Italy.
“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,” he said. “They can talk about pedophilia, can’t they?”
In spite of the fact that increased access to contraceptives does little to encourage sexual responsibility among teens, the machines are popping up in schools across Europe.
L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, said yesterday that sex was being reduced to “mere physical exercise.” It went on to say that teens are receiving no spiritual guidance on sexuality and that educators are more concerned with “the health and hygiene consequences of sex” than its moral implications.
Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar for Rome, said the decision trivialized sex. He said it “cannot be approved by Rome’s ecclesiastical community or by Christian families who are seriously concerned with the education of their children.”
The Church is not alone in her criticism, however.
Rome’s Mayor Gianni Alemanno, told the ANSA news agency that “on the one hand it’s childish to think young people need these vending machines, on the other hand it seems like a bad message to them.”
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