condoms and lesser evils

Meant to link to this on Saturday, but ran out of time. Russell Shaw is discussing the recent news from the Vatican on studies concerning whether married couples can use condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS. The argument for such a permission is a flawed one of course, based on a theory of 'lesser evils' usually in the context of being "pastoral". I liked this line from the article especially:

But what about the pastoral tactic of urging someone bent on doing something very bad — assassination, let's say — to do something not quite so bad — a little knee-capping instead, perhaps? Isn't that a case of choosing the lesser evil?

Indeed!