Church's credibility with minorities called important in AIDS work

Published: 2006-03-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The credibility of the church among minorities makes it an important institution in HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs at the local level, said Catholic officials involved in African-American and Hispanic ministry. This credibility helps break down the taboos, stigmas and misconceptions associated with the disease, said Beverly Carroll, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for African-American Catholics, and Ronaldo Cruz, executive director of the bishops' Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs. In both minority groups, the percentage of people infected with the AIDS virus is much higher than their percentages in the overall U.S. population. In the African-American community people are afraid they will be identified "as someone who is promiscuous, who has had sex outside of marriage or who is a drug abuser," said Carroll. The result is that people are afraid to get tested, she said. Cruz said the Hispanic value system opposes homosexuality and "there is a cultural norm which seems to say that if you have AIDS you're gay." A lack of knowledge means that people do not understand that the disease "can be contracted by innocent people," he said.

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