A top Vatican cardinal said he was surprised by the reaction over his contention that condoms don't adequately protect against transmitting the virus which causes AIDS.
Last week, the United Nations' health agency strongly contested Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo's claim, which came in an interview he gave in September.
The Vatican opposes condoms as a way to fight AIDS, saying chastity is the best way to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.
``I imagined the subject was better known. Instead, I am surprised with some of the reactions,'' the cardinal said in comments to The Associated Press Monday.
The prelate, who heads the Pontifical Council for the Family, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the HIV virus is small enough to pass through a condom.
``Among my concerns was my intention not to mislead people, especially the youth, by making them think there is safety, where in fact safety is not even proven,'' the cardinal told The AP. ``How many youths have taken the way toward promiscuity, pushed by false hypotheses, and have fallen victims of this pandemic?''
A World Health Organization spokeswoman, Fadela Chaib, said last week that any claim that condoms don't protect against HIV is ``totally wrong.''
``It is quite dangerous to claim the contrary when you realize that today we are facing an epidemic which has already killed 20 million people and 42 million people are infected today,'' Chaib said.
Said Lopez Trujillo Monday: ``I simply wished to remind the public, seconding the opinion of a good number of experts, that when the condom is employed as a contraceptive, it is not totally dependable, and that the cases of pregnancy are not rare. In the case of the AIDS virus, which is around 450 times smaller than the sperm cell, the condom's latex material obviously gives much less security.''
He added that ``to talk of condom as `safe sex' is a form of Russian roulette.''
HIV experts have said several scientific studies show that the virus cannot pass through condoms.
Asked about these assertions, the cardinal contended that ``there are many published studies that give rise to well-founded doubts'' regarding the safety of condom use.''