Message for the World AIDS DAY
1 December 2003
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As the International
Community prepares to celebrate also this year the World AIDS Day, I
as the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care,
wish to join the efforts and initiatives that will take place
around the world in both the area of prevention and assistance to the
sick. On behalf of the Catholic Church I would like to send to the international
organisations and institutions, governments, non-governmental organisations,
as well as to all agencies and catholic associations working in the
field to stem the dreadful scourge, a Message of love and hope for
the families and people who are afflicted by the terrible evil.
On behalf of
the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, I exhort you dear brothers
and sisters in Christ, and all you men and women of good will, not to
let this opportune moment pass in vain; grab the favourable circumstance
to study and search together new ways and ideal means of helping the
people and especially the youth to adopt morals and a style of life
that respects the authentic values of life and love. We have to present this as the main way for
the effective prevention of infection and spread of HIV/AIDS, since
the phenomenon of AIDS is a pathology of the spirit, which besides the
body involves also the whole person, their interpersonal relationships,
their social and family life and is often accompanied by a crisis of
moral values. In this regard the Holy Father, John Paul II therefore
affirms: “certainly not far from the truth is the affirmation that,
parallel to the spread of AIDS, there is a kind of immunodeficiency
in existential values that cannot but be identified as a real pathology
of the spirit. (John Paul II, “Address to the
participants in the IV International Conference: To Live?: Why AIDS,”
13-15 November 1989, in Dolentium
Hominum 13 (1990) n.4, p. 7).
Statistics
reveal a perturbing escalation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic:
At the end
of 2002, according to the official statistics of UNAIDS, there were,
42 million
people (both adults and children) living with HIV/AIDS, of whom 19,2 million women and 3,2 children under 15 years;
5 million new
HIV/AIDS infections of whom 2 million women and 800 thousand children
under 15 years;
3,1 million deaths due to AIDS of whom 1,2 million women and
610 thousand children under 15 years;
In response
to the appeal of the Holy Father, John Paul II, who asked for a major
mobilisation of forces and resources, and a concrete commitment of the
Church both in prevention and assistance in various ways to the AIDS
patients, the Holy See, Episcopal Conferences, Dioceses, Religious Congregations,
Hospitals and social-health Centres, catholic Organisations and Associations
have since the outbreak of this terrible disease, promoted activities,
and incisive and widespread initiatives in order to curb this phenomenon;
above all reminding the Christian community and society in general of
the importance of respecting the religious and moral values of sexuality
and matrimony, namely fidelity, chastity and abstinence, and also offering
through her many structures valuable human, social, medical and spiritual
assistance to the sick people.
The commitment
and action of the Church in the different continents involves prevention,
education and multiform assistance to patients and families.
In Africa
(for example in Angola, Burundi, Cameron, Ivory Cost, Ghana, Guinea,
Mali, Central African Republic, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia), the Church
promotes educational and pastoral programmes of formation for social,
pastoral and heath care workers, prevention and awareness programmes
for the general public, and provides humanitarian aid, hospital and
home based health care for the sick people.
In America
(for example in Canada, United States of America, Mexico, Argentina,
Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela, Brazil), the Church promotes awareness
campaigns, formation programmes with appropriate publications, and offers
treatment and care to the patients and orphans in hospitals and hospices.
In Asia
(for example in India, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia), the Church awakens
public opinion on the phenomenon of HIV/AIDS, its causes and risks,
by using both traditional and modern means of communication, and organising
related courses; besides, it provides treatment and care to the patients
in health centres and hospitals, as well as home based health care and
assistance to orphans.
In Europe
(for example in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland,
England, Wales, Italy Croatia, Ex-Yugoslavia) the Church uses news papers,
radio, television and internet to extend the various programmes of the
national commissions, which aim at prevention, education of the population
as well as offering social, human and pastoral assistance to the sick
people in hospitals and specialised centres for the treatment of AIDS.
In Oceania
(for example in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea), the Church
offers specific formation to the social, pastoral and health care workers
and assists the AIDS patients in hospices and health centres.
There are many
religious institutions and lay associations that collaborate in the
pastoral care for the AIDS patients in the centres of care. Widespread
important projects and activities are being promoted by the Camillians
in Brazil, Italy, Mexico, India, Kenya, Thailand, Haiti, Poland, and
Burkina Faso; by the Brothers of St. John of God in Spain, Poland,
Germany and Austria; by the Association of St. Vincent in India,
Ireland, and Holland; by the Community of St. Egidio
in Mozambique; by the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation
(AVSI) in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria and Romania; by Caritas
in the Philippines, Bolivia and Australia; by the Sisters of Mother
Theresa in Kazakhstan; by the Paediatric Hospital Bambin
Gesù of Rome in Romania; and by the Catholic Pharmacists
in different parts of the world.
The pastoral
action of the Church mainly involves training or formation of
the health care workers, priests, families and the youth; prevention
through health education, publication of Church documents and brochures,
organising conferences, theological reflection and sharing of experiences;
health care and assistance through the help and support of chaplains,
doctors and nurses who with diagnosis, counselling, medication, the
sacrament of reconciliation and charity towards the patients in hospitals
and health centres, contribute to the
improvement of the physical, psychological and spiritual conditions
of the patients; taking care of and pastoral accompanying of
the sick people and their families, which is done through the specific
programmes for psycho-social and health care assistance, caring for
orphans, widows, people in institutions of detention and social reintegration.
If the main
risk behaviours are pan-sexualism and drug
addiction, then poverty, urbanisation, unemployment, mobility, immigration
and mass media are major contributing factors in the spread of the disease.
The teaching
of John Paul II treats the nature of the phenomenon (pathology
of the spirit); prevention based on the sacredness of life and
responsible sexuality, on transcendency and
education to chastity, on the love of God, the conduct of the patient,
the sexual conduct, mother to child transmission, the offering of suffering
in relation to the mystery of the cross and the hope of resurrection.
The teaching of the Holy Father is particularly addressed to: health
professionals, who in the figure of the Good Samaritan find a paradigm
of merciful love that overcomes all human barriers; to civil authorities
who have to provide correct information to the population and aid to
the poor; and to scientists and researchers who are called
to a renewed solidarity with the AIDS patients, doing all they can to
advance their biomedical research on HIV/AIDS, so that they may discover
new effective medications that are capable of stemming the phenomenon.
On the personal
level the Church invites each and every one to step up prevention according
to the doctrine of the Church, to practice the virtue of chastity in
a pan-sexualist society, to revisit the sacrament
of reconciliation, to reawaken in the patients the Christian sense of
life with hope in the resurrection, to offer necessary formation to
health care workers and provide special care and assistance to the terminally
ill patients.
On the community
level, the following actions are suggested: to support the parish activities
or initiatives in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the creation of new centres
and hospices for AIDS patients, the co-ordination both at the diocesan
and national level of all pastoral initiatives and activities concerning
the phenomenon of AIDS, attention to the government policies on AIDS
in order to influence them positively, positive use of the means of
social communication, the diffusion of the pastoral handbook on the
AIDS phenomenon that is about to be published by the Pontifical Council
for Health Pastoral Care, and giving financial support to the initiatives
and projects on AIDS.
On the whole,
the average contribution made by Church bodies on the social level is
12% and by Catholic NGOs is 13%; this totals up to 25%, something that
makes the Church the first partner of the state in the social field.
When it comes to the provision of health care, the Church’s contribution
comes up to 19%, a figure which represents a third of the state contributions
and doubles the contribution of the non-Catholic NGOs (10%) and private
individuals or bodies (11%).
I invite
the international community and all governments as well as the Church
in particular to: promote the campaign for sensitising and educating
the population, one that is based on sure and authentic human and spiritual
values, capable of establishing relevant education in favour of the
culture of life and responsible love, and not one based on policies
that foster immoral and hedonistic lifestyles and behaviour, favouring
the spread of the evil; the virtue of chastity is of paramount importance
for the effective prevention of HIV/AIDS;
- take care
of the humanitarian, social, and health needs of the orphans whose number
progressively increases with the spread of the pandemic;
- commitment
to the globalisation of the universal common good of health:
- avoid
every form of exclusion, discrimination and stigmatisation of people
who are HIV positive or AIDS patients, accepting them fraternally in
the families, society, and the Church community of which they are full
members with rights.
- facilitate
the patients’ access to general medicine for opportunistic diseases
and as much as possible to antiretroviral medicine, so as to stop the
scandalous death rate in poor countries that cries to God for vengeance.
- pastorally
and spiritually assist and accompany those afflicted by HIV/AIDS
and their families, especially those in institutions of forced detention,
so that they do not lack the spiritual support and especially the sacraments
that they need in this particular moment of their life.
- see in the sick people the
face of Christ, doctor of the body and the soul.
10. While
I renew to you all: bishops, priests, religious, social, pastoral
and health care workers, and volunteers the esteem and appreciation
of the Church for your priceless service to our brothers and sisters
who are afflicted both physically and spiritually by the AIDS scourge,
I would like to assure you I will in my prayers entrust your well-deserving
work as well as the suffering of the patients and the families to Our
Lady, Salus Infirmorum,
e Consolatrix Afflictorum.
+Javier Cardinal Lozano Barragán
Vatican
City, 1 December 2003.
[Ref.: Text sent to SEDOS by e-mail].