By Suzanne Haugh

MARIETTA—St. Ann’s AIDS Ministry has served as a lifeline in the Atlanta area for many living with HIV/AIDS since the ministry’s start a little over 10 years ago.

Responding to the late Archbishop Eugene A. Marino’s call to unconditional love of those affected by HIV/AIDS and to their own internal prompting, parishioners gathered in the spring of 1990 to begin the process of fashioning an AIDS ministry that has evolved over the years.

“The power of the Holy Spirit urges us to be directly involved in combating this modern health disaster and its devastating effects on the individual, the family, and the community at large,” Archbishop Marino wrote in March 1990. “Salvation rests in our prayers to a compassionate God, and in our response to the trials of the helpless.”

Recently back from sabbatical at that time, Father Gene Barrette, MS, now parochial vicar at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Smyrna, was assigned to St. Ann’s and heeded the archbishop’s call. Knowing personally some of those who had died AIDS-related deaths, Father Barrette understood that there was a “big, big need” to respond to the AIDS epidemic.

“It was an issue very loaded with all kinds of other issues,” Father Barrette said. “The great thing was that the archdiocese was taking the initiative and saying that we needed to have some kind of ministry.”

Father Barrette invited those interested in forming an AIDS ministry to a parish-wide meeting. Sharon Collins, who has served as coordinator of the AIDS ministry since its beginning, recalled her desire to work in this area.

“It kept nagging at me, ‘there’s something I should do,’” said Collins, who had a friend diagnosed with HIV. “I went to the first meeting and was very drawn.”

At the meeting people were encouraged to become educated about the virus if they weren’t already. Some attended AID Atlanta 101, a workshop on the basics of HIV/AIDS still in existence.

Around 30 people gathered for the initial meetings and formulated about 20 goals the ministry would strive to achieve. “Father Gene was the person who really led us,” Collins said. “He is so compassionate and just inspires you to do something.”

The group looked at possible ways to help. “We tried to get a realistic view of what we wanted to become,” Collins said. “The main thing was that we wanted people to know that the Catholic Church, that St. Ann’s, was a place where they didn’t have to feel uncomfortable.”

Within a few months the ministry was thrown into the lives of one particular family, all HIV positive, that helped to further define areas of need for those affected by the virus.

“It seemed things came about quickly. We were forced to get our act together because of those like the Whalen family. It speeded us up.”

Four general areas emerged early on as primary points of service for those with HIV/AIDS: providing for their basic needs, professional and spiritual counseling, support groups and educating the community.

Collins credits the priests at St. Ann’s for providing continued support and encouragement to sustain the ministry over the years. Father Bob Susann, MS, pastor of St. Ann’s, described how the AIDS ministry fits into the mission of LaSalette priests.

“The basic thrust is a theme of reconciliation and to also point out and deal with the problems of our day,” he said. “We deal with the alienated, the marginalized.”

Father Susann came as pastor to St. Ann’s in June 1991 and has offered the ministry his support. “The ministry is very giving, not judgmental. They are being Christ-like to those who need Christ at that point in time, to minister to them in different ways. That may mean sitting with them, providing meals. We’ve offered healing services to all those afflicted by HIV ... It’s a beautifully established ministry.”

He described the ministry as quietly present, and while volunteers are on the frontline in the effort to help those with HIV/AIDS, they remain in the background in a peaceful sort of way.

A battalion of about 275 volunteers has served the ministry, with a core group that numbers about 60 today. Stewardship weekends at the parish draw in about 20 new volunteers each year who will then receive a packet of information with a form that breaks down areas of service within the ministry. Volunteers are asked to send in the form and then their names are entered into the ministry’s database. “We try not to let them fall through the cracks,” Collins said.

As coordinator, Collins tries to remember that parishioners with the ministry are volunteers; they aren’t paid. But volunteers often willingly sacrifice to meet the needs of those they serve. She could easily characterize volunteers to the ministry. “I can really say that the people who are called to this ministry are the most compassionate, not judgmental, people. I’ve never heard anyone say how someone got (HIV). They don’t care; they don’t think about it.”

For volunteer Michelle Harbord, who coordinates two AIDS Masses each year, there can be “no flinching” when volunteering to help those afflicted with HIV/AIDS. “They must have the heart of compassion and love to go out and use the gifts God has given them. People not in the ministry might say, ‘What about the gay issue?’ It’s a non-issue. We’re not judging someone’s sexual orientation. It has nothing to do with it. All we’re doing is answering God’s call to help,” Harbord said. “What is returned I can’t put into words. I can’t imagine Jesus doing anything less, especially when it was hot and heavy.”

She referred to the early to mid-90s in the ministry when the need for hands-on care and assistance was great. Harbord was serving as organizer for the ministry’s basic needs program along with Jeannie Feichtner.

“About eight years ago it was an epidemic at an unbelievable height,” Harbord said. “People were just desperately in need and there was a lot of work to be done.”

A hotline was started since the parish office could no longer handle the volume of calls. While calls came from “every facet of the population,” their needs were specific and varied. Volunteers drove people to doctor’s appointments, brought meals, babysat, served as personal caregivers and even spent nights with people who would otherwise be alone.

“People were there to pick up the needs,” Harbord said. “They made the sacrifices and began to respond on various levels.”

These people, being “the salt of the earth,” she said, also witnessed the AIDS-related deaths of 11 people in one year alone.

One of those served by the St. Ann’s ministry at this time was Susan, diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in her early twenties only months after she was married. For Feichtner, this was one case among others where she relied upon abilities she had only discovered through the ministry. Susan died at the age of 29 on Good Friday in 1995.

“Whenever I had left Susan (during visits before she died), I would kiss her forehead and say goodbye,” Feichtner said. “The day she died, Good Friday, I went to church and during the Veneration of the Cross, I kissed the crucifix on the forehead. Through Susan, I was able to see the face of God.”

Collins also recalled her close relationship with Susan. “When she died I was called that night. I was kneeling over her bed, terrified. I told my husband that I was scared because I really felt that she was my connection to God. I wondered if my closeness to God would also go.”

To be invited into moments surrounding another’s death is an intense spiritual experience for many volunteers.

“Definitely, I really feel as though Jesus is there. When I looked at Susan, and Tom Whalen when he died, I honestly could see the face of Jesus.”

Collins described her journey with the ministry as “a whole awakening of spiritual growth.”

“I really already had a close relationship with God, but it has changed,” she said. “I feel without question that I was called to be a part of this.”

She also came to another understanding. “I didn’t realize I have as many abilities as I do. I’ve learned a lot about myself, not all good, but a lot of it is. This work brings out the best in people. For some families, who felt fragmented before, the illness brings them together—something as horrible as this disease.”

Volunteer Jean Terpstra knows firsthand the effects of the virus on family life. She started in the ministry helping with transportation and meals, sharing responsibilities with Collins as assistant coordinator, and has aided in helping others move within the system to find needed resources. Striking a balance in becoming part of a person’s life without becoming too emotionally attached can be difficult.

“People think that when we’re involved with AIDS that we’re doing something special, but in reality, we’re just doing basic acts of kindness,” Terpstra said. “It’s not any different than (caring for someone with) cancer or leukemia. People just need to be there.”

She now sees simple moments as a gift. Discovering that a loved one has HIV, as Terpstra did, is devastating. “It does affect the way you deal with the person. You tend to treasure them and enjoy everything you can ... Normally you don’t think about things like that but when someone has AIDS you do.”

Terpstra will be moving to South Carolina soon and Mikey Mills will assume her role in the ministry as a “buffer” for Collins. In 1987 Mills’ brother died of AIDS, which was the impetus for her involvement in the ministry and a chance to work through her grief. Her contribution to the ministry includes efforts to educate the community on the virus and work the hotline. She has also provided compassionate care to someone in the final stages of AIDS.

“I have given back through the people (here) as a thank you to the people who took care of my brother,” said Mills, who lived apart from her brother when he died.

Education is a primary concern for Mills, which is why she helps to put on a play every other year to seventh- and eighth-graders that addresses HIV/AIDS. “The youth need to be made aware and understand the consequences—what’s true, what’s not true—about this disease. It’s a great lead into the practice of abstinence.”

Mills has a 17-year-old daughter. “These kids think they’re invincible,” she said. “(HIV) is a death sentence even in this day and age when we have things to control it; it shortens one’s life. It’s scary.”

Mills won’t soon forget the period of time before the introduction of medications, which some refer to as “cocktails,” to control the virus. Calls came in regularly on the hotline for babysitting, meals and other basic needs requests. “Cocktails have really calmed things down,” she said, and she added that fewer requests are made for babysitting or caregivers. But the virus is still out there, she said, and the quietness of it is deceptive.

Collins acknowledged changes in how the ministry now functions. “One of the goals when we started was not to have to do all things. We’re so connected now with other agencies and it’s definitely worked out to be that way.”

St. Ann’s ministry works primarily with the Cobb County Health Department and Absolutely Positive +, Inc., a nonprofit organization serving the needs of those living with HIV/AIDS in the north metro area. Through API, those in need can join support groups, participate in social events, sign up for a buddy and receive counseling. St. Ann’s also provides a meal for API participants on the first Wednesday of each month. The ministry is also part of an informal network of churches that connects those in need with people who can help, whether it be someone to help with housecleaning or meal deliveries. “We have to work together,” she said.

Even though those in St. Ann’s ministry may refer callers to other agencies, their soundness and large capacity to serve the HIV/AIDS population that seeks them out, many of whom are not Catholic, is evident. Still, Collins said, individual parishes should not feel their efforts need to be as broad as St. Ann’s.

“We have been successful and I believe it has been God’s will for us to be successful. But maybe other (parishes) aren’t working in all the areas ours is. You don’t have to do it all to still do a good job. We’re not the only one out there.”

Financial support for the ministry comes from a few annual fund-raisers and the donations of those within the community. Recently volunteers with the ministry organized a fund-raising weekend around Saturday and Sunday Masses to offset the loss of income usually made from a summer basketball clinic run by Bobby Cremins, who no longer coaches at Georgia Tech. At each Mass, a volunteer made a brief presentation and asked parishioners, if they wished, to use envelopes provided to deposit or mail in their contributions. “The support of the people was overwhelming,” Collins said. “It blew us away.”

While each phone call to the ministry receives a response, Collins said that current efforts are still not enough churchwide and beyond. “I don’t know if we could ever do enough,” she said. Among other things, “people still make judgments or (those with HIV/AIDS) may feel the church judges them.”

She also pointed to a need for more leadership within the Catholic Church and encouraged the re-establishment of an archdiocesan task force to address the issue of AIDS. Such a task force could “coordinate efforts (on an archdiocesan level) or spearhead efforts instead of relying on one church to spearhead them.”

In response to whether he felt enough was being done to help those with the virus, Father Barrette said that parishes often develop ministries that correspond to their community’s needs and the sensitivities of the parish’s pastoral team. “Maybe they have more experience in a particular area and maybe some are more hesitant (to establish an AIDS ministry).”

The issue of AIDS is complex and, with medications to control it, is not as obvious to many as it has been in the past. He acknowledged the efforts within the archdiocese. “I don’t sense discouragement,” he said, “as much as a sense of less energy.”

He posed this challenge on the personal level. “One day I’ll have to stand before the Lord and he’ll ask me, ‘I was hungry’ and all of that. And he might say, ‘I had AIDS and you ignored me or were afraid of me or afraid of what others would think.’”

He added the importance of challenging people’s fears and prejudices. That has been done in ways throughout the United States within Catholic churches and Catholic institutions. “I see wonderful work,” he said of efforts nationwide. “You can look at the reactions of other denominations and religions and at how judgmental they are ... What kind of face of Jesus is being revealed?”

He reiterated the challenge to look at one’s own life for hidden prejudices and to work through those by seeking opportunities to be loving and compassionate.

“Get to know Jesus,” he said, “by what it means to live the Gospel and by being disciples of the Lord Jesus.”