Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, photo via wikipedia.org

Vatican objects to condom vending machines in schools

The Vatican and the mayor of Rome have objected to plans by the Province of Rome to install condom vending machines in schools, reports Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com.

Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying, “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.”

The “ringleader” in the program is the Liceo Scientifico Keplero (Kepler Scientific Institute), a high school in Rome that said yesterday it would go ahead with plans to install six machines in both the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms. The school also plans to bring in a local anti-AIDS organization to teach students about the use of condoms to prevent HIV infection.

The decision was passed unanimously by the school’s council after the motion to allow condom vending machines in schools was passed by the Province of Rome last June.

The headmaster of the school, Antonio Panaccione, dismissed the mayor’s objections, saying, “The mayor gave an assessment of sui generis of our project for health education, without knowing it. We are tired of those who use a serious political problem to fly a party flag.”

He called it “a choice that goes in the direction of greater democracy, education and safety with respect for everyone.”

Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Pope's vicar for the diocese of Rome, also condemned the initiative, expressing “grave concern about the trivialization of sexuality.”

Vallini said in a statement, after approval of the project, that the distribution of condoms in school “cannot find consensus in the ecclesial community of Rome, in Christian homes and among those who are seriously concerned about the education of their children.”

The coordinator of the Federated Group of the Left, Gianluca Peciola, who proposed the motion in the Province of Rome, countered, “The Kepler high school, its headmaster and the school board are showing great courage. My commitment is to support the intervention of institutions and make it possible for other institutions to join this valuable initiative.”

A pro-family group, the Italian Movement of Parents, objected, however, that schools are not the place to sell contraceptives. The group’s president, Maria Rita Munizzi, said the decision will “put educational facilities on the same plan as pharmacies and supermarkets, places where condoms are already easily accessible.”

The head of Italy’s national association of Catholic pharmacists, Piero Uroda, said that giving condoms to students to reduce AIDS was equivalent to giving sugar to a diabetic, and suggested that condoms were responsible for increased rapes and violence.

Liceo Scientifico Keplero is reportedly the second school in Italy to install condom vending machines. Several years ago, a high school in Turin that had installed such machines removed them after they were not being used.

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TAGS: Vatican condom vending machines Rome schools Gianni Alemanno health education

[03/15/2010]

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