World AIDS Day Draws Support From Churches

By PATRICIA ZAPOR, CNS

Published: December 11, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNS)—From Washington to Dakar, Senegal, Catholic bishops joined in marking World AIDS Day Dec. 1 with promises of support for those with HIV/AIDS and encouragement to change behaviors that lead to the spread of the disease.

In Rome, Pope John Paul II and the head of the Vatican office for health care encouraged Catholics to join them in praying for people with HIV/AIDS and to care for those with the disease.

And across Asia, Catholic organizations worked on AIDS prevention in China, India, Myanmar and Nepal.

In Dakar, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, which represents the bishops in Africa, issued its first collective statement on the topic of HIV/AIDS. It proposes a plan of action that involves work with parishes, other faiths, medical institutions and religious formation programs. It focuses on changing behavior and accepting responsibility for tackling the complexities of the problems brought on by HIV and AIDS.

“We have also come to realize that poverty goes hand in hand with HIV and AIDS,” they said. “It concerns us that our already fragile economies should be further weakened with much of the trained labor force lost to HIV and AIDS. Poverty facilitates the transmission of HIV, makes adequate treatment unaffordable, accelerates death from HIV-related illness and multiplies the social impact of the epidemic.”

More than 11 million children in Africa under age 15 have been orphaned by AIDS, according to UNICEF. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, as many as 28 million people have HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS.

In Washington, two committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a joint letter urging their fellow bishops to help mobilize the Catholic community and the general public to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Gordon D. Bennett, chairman of the Committee on African-American Catholics, and Bishop James A. Tamayo of Laredo, Texas, chairman of the Committee on Hispanic Affairs, said more than half of all new HIV/AIDS cases in the United States are among African-Americans, with 61 percent of those cases among teens. Hispanics account for 20 percent of the total reported AIDS cases, they said. And 78 percent of all cases of women with HIV/AIDS are either African-American or Hispanic.

African-Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population. Hispanics account for 14 percent.

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates between 700,000 and 800,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV or have AIDS.

The letter from the two committee chairmen accompanied a packet of material sent to parishes nationwide encouraging priests to preach on the topic, suggesting that prayers address HIV/AIDS and asking Catholic communities and individuals to become active in organizations that care for people with AIDS.

In Memphis, Tenn., Bishop J. Terry Steib released a statement talking about his recent trip to visit five African nations where he “learned firsthand about the extent, severity and impact of the AIDS pandemic.”

He told of meeting a young man and his grandmother who had been ostracized because of AIDS and of his visits to clinics where Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, helps provide medical care for people with HIV/AIDS.

“AIDS requires us to open our eyes and not to dismiss this disease as ‘someone else’s issue,’” Bishop Steib said. “How can we as church allow a sister or brother to suffer alone because of the stigma and discrimination associated with this disease? Only by confronting the stigma and the discrimination will the fight against HIV/AIDS be won.”

CRS planned its first event to mark World AIDS Day with a program aimed at raising awareness planned for Baltimore’s Walters Arts Museum. Among the guests expected for the event were actor Wendell Pierce of the HBO series “The Wire,” who recently visited CRS-supported HIV/AIDS programs in Zimbabwe.

A group of religious leaders in Washington held a prayer vigil outside the U.S. Treasury building to link the spread of HIV/AIDS with crushing debt in some poor nations. Leaders scheduled to participate were to include Oblate Father Seamus Finn, vice chair of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, representatives of Jewish, Baptist and Methodist churches and the National Council of Churches.

An exhibit “Signs of Hope, Steps for Change,” featuring artwork from more than 23 countries about the stigma and discrimination felt by people with HIV or AIDS opened in the visitors lobby of the United Nations in New York. It was co-sponsored by U.N. agencies as well as various church organizations.

Father Robert J. Vitillo, president of the National Catholic AIDS Network and head of the bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development, was to be among speakers addressing how faith groups are challenged to speak out against AIDS-related discrimination and stigma.

In Rome, the pope used his midday Angelus address Nov. 30 to “pray for those struck by this plague,” and to “encourage all those in the church who provide a priceless service of welcome, care and spiritual accompaniment to these brothers and sisters of ours.”

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, issued a special message Dec. 1 expressing the church’s love for people with AIDS and their families and suggesting ways to fight the disease.

He also called for wider access to generic medicines to fight the opportunistic diseases that kill patients weakened by AIDS and to medicines that help control the disease.

“The scandalous death rate in poor countries,” where AIDS drugs are priced beyond the reach of most governments and patients, “cries to God for vengeance,” he said.

UCA News, an Asian Catholic news agency based in Thailand, reported a series of stories about work being done by church organizations to fight HIV/AIDS in Asia.

—In northwestern China, a team of five nuns works on AIDS prevention in Xi’an, capital of the Shaanxi province. Sister Wu Gaiqin, superior of the Sacred Heart of Jesus convent in Xi’an, said AIDS is not a serious problem in the region, but “it is important to prevent its spread.”

The Chinese Ministry of Health estimated in September that 840,000 people in the country were infected with HIV. However unofficial estimates are much higher. In China, the disease is primarily transmitted through intravenous drug use, or among people who sell their blood, UCA News said.

—The Catholic Church in India now runs at least 32 centers to care for and support those infected with HIV. They range from hospices to care for those who are dying to drop-in centers for medicine and counseling.

Indian news media say the majority of AIDS cases in India are the result of sexual transmission. The Indian government estimated there were 600,000 new cases in 2002, added to a 2001 total of just under 4 million cases. The U.N. estimates India has between 7 million and 8 million infected people.

—The Multan Diocese in Pakistan has continued to run an AIDS awareness program for women, working around cultural barriers about discussing sex, UCA News said.

AIDS seminars held around the diocese have reached more than 4,000 people. The Pakistani government estimates the country has about 1,700 cases of HIV and 231 of AIDS, in a nation with a population of 150 million. Activists estimate that as many as 70,000 people are infected in Pakistan.

—Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon in Myanmar, the head of the nation’s Catholic bishops’ conference, released a pastoral letter calling for compassion toward those afflicted with HIV/AIDS. He said the church must unconditionally care for those who are infected, and work to make sure they are not ostracized. He instructed priests, bishops and religious to learn more about HIV/AIDS.

UNAIDS estimates that 500,000 of Myanmar’s 48.3 million people are infected with HIV and 46,000 have developed AIDS.

—In Katmandu, Nepal, the Adoration sisters share their home with nine women and four children who are infected with HIV. The three Indian nuns operate an HIV/AIDS awareness program in the area. The World Health Organization estimates Nepal has about 60,000 people with HIV or AIDS.