Vatican OKs condoms? Suspended book suggests

Copies of a new book on Catholic Church teaching have been pulled off by its Italian publisher after a translation error suggested the Vatican approved of contraception.

Copies of a new book on Catholic Church teaching have been pulled off by its Italian publisher after a translation error suggested the Vatican approved of contraception.

The book YouCat, a Catholic catechism book for young people, is to be presented officially on Wednesday at a Vatican press conference.

But on the eve of the presentation, officials confirmed that Nuova Citta, the Italian publisher of YouCat, had yanked the Italian copies to fix the error, which concerned whether married couples could plan the size of their families, reports Fox News.

The Vatican opposes artificial contraception, holding that life begins at conception. The church does, however, condone Natural Family Planning, in which married couples chart the changes in a woman's menstrual cycle to determine when she might, or might not, conceive.

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It's the second time in a year that translation problems have muddied church teaching on contraception. In November, the Vatican's own publishing house mistranslated the pope's comments about condoms and AIDS, implying that condom use for prostitutes was justified in some cases.