Belgium filing complaint over pope comment

ROME, April 3 (UPI) -- The Belgian government says it will file an official complaint with the Vatican regarding Pope Benedict XVI's recent comments about condoms in Africa.

The Belgian Parliament passed a proposal to condemn the pope's contention that comdoms will not solve Africa's AIDS epidemic, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope said during a visit to Africa. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

Belgium's plan to complain to the Vatican has already been opposed by Vatican Spokesman Federico Lombardi, who cited the pope's Democratic right to express his opinions.

"It would appear to be obvious to any democratic country that the holy father and the Catholic Church are free to express their own positions,'' Lombardi said

''It also needs to be asked whether the holy father's position has been considered with sufficient attention and seriousness, or instead through a subjective and unbalanced filter of news items in the Western press,'' Lombardi added.