The Vatican is again clarifying the clarifications of Pope Benedict XVI’s position on condom use and—as best as we can tell—using condoms to prevent pregnancy is NOT OK with the Catholic Church. Using condoms to prevent disease might be understandable for prostitutes, according to the Vatican, but that does NOT mean that it’s really OK.

This all can be gleaned from a statement issued today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, considered the most powerful of Vatican offices. The statement is titled “Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Trivialization of Sexuality Regarding Certain Interpretations of ‘Light of the World.’ ” Light of the World is the book that came out last month in which the pope makes comments that have been widely interpreted as heralding a possible change in the Church’s position on condom use.

An article in The New York Times calls the statement “a masterpiece of Vatican nuance,” which we're thinking might not be as much of a compliment as it sounds like.

The statement said that condom use by a prostitute for disease prevention could not be considered a “lesser evil” because prostitution is “gravely immoral,” and that “an action which is objectively evil, even if a lesser evil, can never be licitly willed.” But, later, it says that “those involved in prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity.”

We’re so glad that’s cleared up, aren’t you?