Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

A Vatican spokesman has clarified that Pope Francis was speaking about the possible use of contraception to avoid pregnancy during the Zika outbreak, but was only saying that it could be possible “in particular cases of emergency or gravity and could be the object of discernment in a serious case of conscience.”

LifeSiteNews  is reporting on the conversation which took place on the plane during the pope’s return flight from Mexico on Thursday. Francis was asked by a reporter if the Church can “take into consideration the concept of ‘the lesser of two evils?’” in regard to efforts to prevent pregnancy to avoid transmission of the virus.

The pope responded by calling abortion “an absolute evil” and a “crime”.

“It is to kill someone in order to save another. This is what the Mafia does,” Francis said. “On the other hand, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil.”

He went on to say that “we are speaking in terms of the conflict between the fifth and sixth commandment. . . the great Paul VI in a difficult situation in Africa permitted sisters to use contraception for cases of rape,” he told reporters.

“In certain cases, as in this one, such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear.”

This answer led to widespread speculation that the pope was approving the use of contraception in regard to the Zika virus.

However, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio that “the contraceptive or condom, in particular cases of emergency or gravity, could be the object of discernment in a serious case of conscience. This is what the Pope said.”

Fr. Lombardi went on to say that the pope spoke of “the possibility of taking recourse to contraception or condoms in cases of emergency or special situations. He is not saying that this possibility is accepted without discernment, indeed, he said clearly that it can be considered in cases of special urgency.”

Lombardi reiterated the example that Pope Francis made of Pope Paul VI’s supposed “authorization of the use of the pill for the religious who were at very serious risk” of rape. This, said Lombardi, “makes us understand that it is not that it was a normal situation in which this was taken into account.”

In other words, the Pope did not say that he would allow couples to use contraception to avoid pregnancy during the Zika virus outbreak, just that it could be allowed under certain circumstances.

But before rushing to conclusions,the press, which can hardly be relied upon for an accurate interpretation of the Church’s rather complex rules regarding contraception, could have looked at the bigger picture and clearly seen that the Pope was not making a pronouncement about allowing women in Zika-infested areas to take the pill to avoid becoming pregnant.

First of all, the connection between Zika and serious birth defects such as microcephaly, is not yet definitive – something the Vatican would definitely consider before relaxing any rules.

According to this Feb. 18 article appearing in MedScape, Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told reporters in a conference call that it could be the larvicide used to kill mosquitos in Brazil that is causing the uptick in microcephaly.

This possible connection between the pesticide and the virus was made by an Argentinian group known as Physicians in Crop-Sprayed Villages who issued a paper naming larvicide as the likely cause of the increase in the birth defects.

“It’s a theory that’s difficult to disprove at this time,” said Dr Fauci. But, he added, “you still have to explain the mounting evidence of virus in the brains of stillborn babies.”

Even Tom Frieden, M.D., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), admits that federal officials “don’t yet consider [Zika] a definitive causal link” to microcephaly, but that epidemiological and laboratory data “strongly suggest” that there could be a link between the two.

Scientists are in the process of performing careful case-controlled studies in Brazil to determine if there is a connection between the virus and the birth defects and, if so, what the magnitude of the connection is. The results of these studies are not expected for another few months.

Had the press done a little homework, they also might have seen that just two days before Pope Francis made his remarks, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Bernardito Auza – who speaks for the Vatican – was telling the international community not to panic about the virus.

“Because of the scarcity of conclusive scientific evidence [about the link between the virus and birth defects] up to this point, and the dramatic consequences for human life, it follows that the way forward should not be dictated by panic but due vigilance.”

Auza went on to advise that “given the potential implications for pregnancy and for the spread of the disease, it is clear that part of an effective response should involve the promotion of abstinence.”

He continued: “Not only is increased access to abortion and abortifacients an illegitimate response to this crisis, but since it terminates the life of a child it is fundamentally not preventative. Instead, the promotion of such a radical policy is the confirmation of a failure of the international community to stop the spread of the disease and to develop and provide the medical treatment pregnant women and their children need, to avoid the development of birth defects or to mitigate their effects and carry the pregnancy to term.”

Pope Francis frequently makes off-the-cuff remarks that the press is only too happy to take out-of-context, which it does over and over again. It’s a shame that the rush to publish a sensational headline once again outweighed common sense reporting. Had they hit the pause button at least long enough to determine the full context of the situation, they would have seen that the Pope was NOT relaxing any rules, only saying that in the past, they have been relaxed for extraordinary situations.

Few outlets will walk back their misleading headlines, however, which will only add confusion to the fear that is already being experienced by so many faithful in Zika-ridden areas of the world.