By Thea Jarvis

Father Al Dillmann stepped unknowingly into a ministry with AIDS victims nearly two years ago. The open, outgoing pastor of Holy Spirit Church in Atlanta was making normal chaplaincy rounds at West Paces Ferry Hospital when he met two young men who had been diagnosed with AIDS at about the same time. One was Catholic; the other was interested in becoming a Catholic. Both men died in the late summer of 1986, but not before one had entered the Church under the emergency rite of initiation and the other had acted as his sponsor.

"When you meet people it is just so natural," Father Dillmann says, to become involved with them on a personal level. Reflecting on his initial encounter with an AIDS patient, he recalls that, although he knew "in general" about the disease, "I hadn't had time to steep myself in myths" that promote panic in the general population about the spreading of the illness and unnecessarily isolate persons with AIDS.

"I didn't feel uncomfortable or feel a need to wear a mask," he says, adding that hospital personnel did not advise or require protective covering.

As the number of AIDS patients in his hospital ministry grew and his knowledge of the disease increased through reading and research, Father Dillmann "discovered in short order what I felt naturally." His instinctive rejection of a distant, hands-off approach to AIDS patients was bolstered by medical information indicating that the illness was not spread by casual contact.

For Father Dillmann, and others like him who find themselves ministering to persons with AIDS, the response is direct, personal and affirming.

"You meet (AIDS) in flesh and blood people -- wonderful, warm, loving individuals. Many are deeply religious, committed to their faith," Father Dillmann observes, and judgement of these individuals is not an issue."

"There is homophobia," he admits, acknowledging voices that speak of AIDS as spiritual vengeance and wrath directed at homosexuals. From his vantage point, however, "God is not punishing. None of us can sit in judgement. The issue of ministry is rooted in the needs and presence of the people" he serves.

Father Henry Gracz, pastor of Transfiguration Church in Marietta, confirms this viewpoint. "Someone is hurting, in pain. The best I can offer is the compassion of Christ."

Father Gracz, who met his first AIDS victim four years ago at Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta, points out that reconciliation of all people to Christ is a vital concern of the contemporary Church. "We're not the judges," he says without hesitation.

Ministering to persons with AIDS, both priests agree, involves more than just a one-on-one patient-counselor relationship. A wide circle of family, friends, co-workers and even hospital staff becomes part of an enlarged, intensified ministry. Although the AIDS virus is not limited to the homosexual community, male homosexuals make up the largest percentage of AIDS victims nationally. Parents are often devastated when news of the illness is coupled with the first report of their child's gay lifestyle. Some ask if God is punishing their son or daughter for a way of life they themselves have never sanctioned, Father Gracz explains.

The frequently nontraditional network of friends that surrounds an AIDS patient likewise requires special care. Ministers are counseling people who face the suffering and death of a friend and the possibility that they, too, may undergo the same suffering.

Those who care for victims of AIDS are often cast in the role of witness as well as counselor. The way in which they approach a person with AIDS is an example and encouragement to those around them.

Julie Flegal, a Transfiguration parishioner and hospital nurse, says that AIDS is a subject she and her fellow nurses "have talked a lot about. A few still say there is no way they will care for a person with AIDS, but the majority feel that AIDS patients deserve care that is as good as anyone else would receive."

Mrs. Flegal, the mother of two children, remembers that only a few years ago the lack of adequate medical information kept some hospital personnel at a distance where AIDS patients were concerned. One AIDS victim underwent "the most horrible death I've ever seen," she says, totally isolated from family and friends and suffering acutely as the disease ravaged his body. When the neurological stages of the disease set in, the patient lost total control of bodily functions and lay helplessly in a soiled hospital bed. While others held back, Mrs. Flegal and another nurse tended the man, bathing and cleaning him.

"They have the right to die with dignity," she feels, and is encouraged by the fact that education is reducing unfounded fears about AIDS. When visiting an AIDS patient in the hospital, consult the nurses' station to learn what, if any precautions to follow, she advised, emphasizing that AIDS is not spread by casual contact. "You can be so afraid of the unknown that you can't comprehend (this) reality."

Fear of the unknown is perhaps the chief reason behind the "leper" status that often dogs the AIDS victim.

"People are scared of suffering, frightened about it. The AIDS person is the leper of today's society, the leper for today's believers," Father Gracz says. Believers are called to reject the leper label and deal with the AIDS victim as a person, those in ministry say.

"You affirm the person as they are. This is the whole ministry of the Church. The call is to be there for the patient in a non-judgmental way," Father Dillmann emphasizes. "Sometimes they have been rejected by their family. This is the time they need the Church. Maybe they have been alienated from the church in the past. Whatever healing and understanding we can bring is crucial."

Ministry to AIDS victims is expanding. As the need grows, so does the response. Father Dillmann, who attends a weekly AID Atlanta support group for family and friends of persons with AIDS at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta, is now involved in establishing a pastoral care program for the AID Atlanta organization. He is joined in this effort by fellow priests, rabbis and ministers, as well as health care professionals. When in place, it will be the first of its kind in the country.

"We need so many more" to minister to persons with AIDS, Father Gracz is convinced, because it is a ministry "that's not going to go away." The work tenderizes your heart: and we need a lot of tender hearts in ministry."

Those who answer this challenge will meet courage. God knows there's courage, both in the sick person and the supporting group," says Father Dillmann, who is currently working with about a dozen AIDS patients. He cites as an example a young man who faced his death with a sense of excitement, of wonder and openness. "This is what I'd like myself," he says candidly, "how I'd like to face my own death."

The rules for his ministry are simple and clear-cut. He offers them to others who will eventually meet AIDS in a person with a name and face and personality.

"Be sensitive, be compassionate. Get down and deal with the person, with the people. This is where we'll make the impact. If you deal in theory," says Father Dillmann, "forget it. You're dealing with living, breathing people who are sick and suffering and with those who are suffering along with them."