The thing here is that the Church commits itself to acting in a Kantian way – by taking a categorical imperative, a moral imperative, and following it to the T. Within Kant, we are faced with this situation: Kant harbors a friend who has a killer chasing him. When the killer comes to the door and inquires about the location of Kant’s friend, Kant, who has placed a moral prohibition on lying, is required to tell the killer the truth – namely that he is sheltering his friend, even if this results in his friend’s death – because of the absolute prohibition on lying. The Church acts in an identical manner when it comes to condoms and homosexual sex.
Now, it’s hard not to see the ‘Killer at the door’ situation and say, “Hey, there’s something not right here.” And that is what the Pope did, with regards to condoms and homosexual, HIV positive sex. The Pope mentioned a case that makes common sense, a case that is so purely obvious – and a case that, under the Church’s guidelines and Kantian-type morality, is still morally wrong.
There is no room for common sense or compassion when it comes to this Church’s moralities. There is no nuance and there are no exceptions. And there are no ‘less evil’ or ‘less immoral’ acts. Things are black and white, either moral or immoral And in my opinion, for the Church to maintain any moral relevancy, it will need to start viewing the world a little more grayly.
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