God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

10/21/2009 • 6:00 am Comments Off on 21.10.2009 Anglican Catholics…

21.10.2009 Anglican Catholics…

And in between this news:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict on Tuesday took a major step to make it easier for disaffected Anglicans who feel their Church has become too liberal to convert to Roman Catholicism.

The move comes after years of discontent in some sectors of the 77-million-strong worldwide Anglican community over the ordination of women priests and homosexual bishops.

While both sides stressed the step would not affect dialogue between the two Churches, it was clear it was taken because of the growing number of Anglicans who want to leave their Church.

The Vatican said the Pope had approved a document known as an “Apostolic Constitution” to accept Anglicans who want to join Catholicism, either individually or in groups, while maintaining some of their own traditions.

It marks perhaps the clearest and boldest institutional step by the Vatican to welcome disaffected Anglicans into the fold since King Henry VIII broke with Rome and set himself up at the head of the new Church of England in 1534.

The new structure allows for the appointment of leaders, usually bishops who will come from the ranks of unmarried former Anglican priests, to oversee communities of former Anglicans who become Catholics and recognise the pope as their leader.

“In this way, the Apostolic Constitution seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be integrated into the Catholic Church,” the Vatican said. ”
Euronews (Secular; Independent; French), article by Reuters (Secular; Independent; French)

20 / 10 | October / 2009
[read on at article]
http://www.euronews.net/newswires/40473-pope-approves-document-on-anglicans-joining-church/

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10/20/2009 • 10:28 pm Comments Off on 20.10.2009 HOPE Cape Town Newsletter 03/09

20.10.2009 HOPE Cape Town Newsletter 03/09

HOPE Newsletter No. 03/ 2009

hiv outreach program & education

Cape Town

Dear Friends of HOPE Cape Town,

Once again we are happy to get the latest news about our work out to you. Enjoy the read!

1. HOPE Cape Town & Academic Collaboration

For several years now, HOPE Cape Town has been in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch. Not only are our offices at the campus of the Faculty of Health Sciences; as of recently HOPE Cape Town has also been registered as a Community Interaction Project with the University. We are very proud to have been awarded first prize and R 20,000 for a poster presentation at the Academic Year Day and we will reinvest these funds into our community outreach work collaboration with Stellenbosch University Grass Roots Projects.

We were also very pleased to have had Moritz Eßer and Sebastian Leisten with us in August, two students in nutritional science from the HS Niederrhein in Moenchengladbach, Germany. In cooperation with the Department of Nutrition at Stellenbosch University, the two assisted with the initiation of a study about nutritional habits in various low income communities in Cape Town. The “Fruitdays” organized by them in the townships to encourage healthy eating habits were a big success! We thank Sebastian and Moritz for their commitment and enthusiasm and are looking forward to continued collaboration in future.

2. HOPE Cape Town Events

From 18 until 20 August, an e-Learning Workshop took place at Tygerberg Campus, jointly organized by InWent Capacity Building International and HOPE Cape Town. Representatives from various institutions (e.g. University of the Western Cape, Immunopaedia, South African AIDS Foundation, HOPE Cape Town, Walter Sizulu University und University of Stellenbosch) came together to exchange experiences and ideas around e-Learning in the HIV & AIDS field. We would like to thank all participants and especially the facilitators Dr. Klemens Ochel and Alexander Kaufmann from the Medical Mission Institute Wuerzburg for this successful event.

In the beginning of September, the three-day concert tour „African Voices for HOPE” took place in Munich and Nuremberg in cooperation with the German AIDS Foundation and the Cape Town Opera.

A choir of 28 singers from the Cape Town Opera sang a selection of South African Gospel songs, Afro-American spirituals and famous opera pieces, partly translated into African languages. All proceeds of the concerts were donated to the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung as well as to the community and outreach programme of the Cape Town Opera. We thank the companies Process Consulting, “Die Offensive”, the Round Table Germany and the Nuremberg Theatre for their support and cooperation and especially Dr. Susanne Reuther for all her hard work and committed efforts!

For the fourth time, Viola Klein, Saxonia Systems AG and Promovar Unternehmensbeteiligungen AG are organizing a charity gala in Dresden for the benefit of HOPE Cape Town together with many sponsors and supporters. The HOPE Gala will take place on 31 October 2009 at the Schauspielhaus Dresden. As every year, excellent entertainment and a range of popular artists are guaranteed. Please visit the following homepage: www.hopegala.de.

For the first time, Viola Klein will also organize the Ithemba AIDS Symposium 2009, to take place on October 30 in Dresden. HOPE co-founder Rev. Fr. Stefan Hippler will discuss latest developments around HIV & AIDS with high-profile representatives from the scientific and medicial arenas. For more information please go to www.dresdner-aids-symposium.de.

We thank Viola for her outstanding and never-ending creativity, commitment and support for HOPE Cape Town!

3. HOPE Cape Town & Weltwaerts

It has been more than a year that the official cooperation between HOPE and the DED (German Development Service) as part of the Weltwaerts Volunteer Programme was launched. Our first Weltwarts volunteers, Andreas Hagen and Valentin Niebler, have successfully completed their year as “guinea pigs” and are back in Germany to commence their studies. We would like to thank them both for their wonderful work and all their help while they were with HOPE and wish them all the best for their future.

Their successors have already started their orientation with HOPE Cape Town – welcome Nadine Bayer and Malene Hummel. We see forward to another successful year with Weltwaerts.

4. HOPE Cape Town inside

HOPE co-founder Stefan Hippler is going to leave his post as Chaplain of the German-speaking Catholic Community in Cape Town on 30 September 2009 and will commence his work as „Fidei Donum“ priest within the Archdiocese of Cape Town from 1 October 2009. As such he will be working for the Catholic AIDS Network as well as for other projects related to HIV & AIDS.  We are looking forward to Stefan’s further involvement with HOPE Cape Town.

We also welcome Professor Bernd Rosenkranz from the Department of Pharmacology, Stellenbosch University, as new HOPE Management member and look forward to working with him for many years to come!

Please visit our newly revamped website www.hopecapetown.com regularly in order to be up to date about the latest developments of our work.

With warm regards,

Yasmin Smith (previously Buettgen)

Project Supervisor HOPE Cape Town Association

HOPE Cape Town Trust & Association

P.O. Box 19145 – Tygerberg 7505 – Cape Town – South Africa

PBO No 18/11/13/4709   Association – NPO No 031-599-NPO    Association – NPO No 053-417-NPO    Trust

PBO No. 930024843        Trust

Bank Details South Africa:

Standard Bank – Cape Town Branch (Code 020009) – Acc. #: 0706 15551 – Acc. Holder: HOPE Cape Town

Bank Details Germany:

Dresdner Bank Bonn (BLZ 370 800 40) – Acc. #: 211 402 100 – Acc. Holder: Katholisches Auslandssekretariat – Reference: HOPE

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust,

10/20/2009 • 9:02 am Comments Off on 20.10.2009 Hans Kueng – and “Das Lied der Deutschen”

20.10.2009 Hans Kueng – and “Das Lied der Deutschen”

Residing in Fallersleben in the house, where August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote his “Das Lied der Deutschen” which is today the text of the National Anthem of Germany. So a real historic place to be and I like it more and more reading his life story: He studied theology while having interest in the old history, I did study theology also and was actually interested to study archaeology and Egyptology. Prussia kicked him out being suspected to have to democratic thoughts – Nachtigall ick hoer Dir trapsen..:-)) – he had great friends supporting him and backing him up. The nice thing is that his story has a happy end and he is rehabilitated before he is died in 1874.

Thinking of rehabilitation my mind directly recalls Hans Kueng, who wrote me an email after hearing of me terminating the duties as a chaplain of the German speaking Catholic Community. I have learned to know Hans Kueng in 1999 as a visitor to our community and we both participated in the Parliament of the World Religions. At that time we also concelebrated and I must say that I have very very seldom experienced a more pius priest in the best sense of the word as him. And my wish is the same like that of Mr. Erwin Teufel, previous premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg: That Hans Kueng will be rehabilitated within the official Catholic Church. He more than deserves that, the Catholic Church actually owes it to him.  Much more than any of those Pius brothers who think they are owning the truth. Sure, Hans Kueng is critical to many aspects of the church and I am too, but that does not make us less faithful or less part of the Catholic Church. In contrary: I strongly believe that only with honest critics we can find our way through the times. And my experience is that honest criticism brought me personally always a step further in life. There are anyhow too many people only saying what one wants to hear.

What for thoughts while having breakfast in this historic house…

Filed under: Reflection, , , , , , , , ,

10/20/2009 • 12:30 am Comments Off on 20.10.2009 vatican meeting

20.10.2009 vatican meeting

A real experience. Joachim and myself arrived in time at the papal council’s seat close to St. Pieter’s. Last Friday we were told by email that Bishop Jose will be out for another meeting and that Monsignor Jean Marie, undersecretary will be available to discuss the matters with us. After 1 hour of waiting I enquire and find out, that the undersecretary has not arrived yet. When he arrived we quickly discover that we need somebody to translate from English into Italian as he is francophone. To organise that it takes another hour – at 11 we finally are sitting together to discuss matters, not a very good start into good business.

The first point is quickly resolved. The press text to be published in the council’s magazine about the cape2cape is in some points not completely adherent with the teaching of the magisterium, so we are told and I take the text to have a second look and promise to re-submit. I will spend one of the next evenings to do so…
Then we discuss a planed project where we wish the involvement of the Holy Sea, the council and the pope. We agree to submit a written proposal and meet again in May next year.

The last point is the question of HIV positive priests, religious, clergy and I explain our project, our pastoral aims. This is met with a serious discussion and the recognition that there is surely a tricky but important task ahead, which has not been started in the church yet. We discuss possible steps forward, which I will take to our project group and I promise to send a report back to Bishop Jose and again: May would be a good time to discuss this further, maybe even with other departments of the Vatican.

The two hours waiting was a difficult time, specially for Joachim, who is simply not used to be treated like this. In all fairness I must say that both representatives of the council apologised profoundly at the end for letting us wait so long. I attributed the wait rather in a not very good preparation and hand over for the meeting – and I make it very clear at the end of the meeting that my way from Cape Town to Rome is not just for fun but that I mean serious business and we are really interested in engaging in meaningful discussions and solutions which will be beneficial for all concerned.

I had the impression that at the end we might have a good starting point for a further engagement and possible cooperation in one matter and starting a process of serious consideration for the matter regarding HIV positive clergy. I don’t want to go into detail about the way forward regarding the POZ initiative as I think it should first concern the project group in Cape Town and I will report back to them. But I can tell without telling too much that our planed strategy seems to fit in very nicely to bring the process forward.

Back to Wolfsburg were I will stay the next two days discussing cooperation with Joachim Franz and his team – and after an almost sleepless night in Rome I will now sleep this evening very tight. The flights with Swiss Air have been rather nightmares than pleasures – but flying hasn’t been a pleasure for a long time…

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, Networking, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10/19/2009 • 12:12 pm 1

19.10.2009 news in between: Condoms are not reliable in fight against HIV, says African cardinal

It just crossed my laptop screen while in Rome and I want to share it without further comment:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) : Condoms are not always effective in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, said Cardinal Peter Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana.

Abstinence, fidelity in marriage and universal access to antiretroviral drugs are the strategies the church continues to promote in the fight against AIDS, he said. The cardinal, who Cardinal Turkson copyright CNSwill turn 61 Oct. 11, made the comments during a Vatican press conference Oct. 5, presenting some of the issues to be discussed during the second special Synod of Bishops for Africa. Cardinal Turkson was asked about the AIDS epidemic in Africa and what position the synod will take, specifically concerning the use of condoms in HIV prevention. He said when “people propose the use of condoms it becomes effective only in families where they are going to be faithful.” However, condoms give “people a false sense of security, which rather facilitates the spread of HIV/AIDS,” he said.

Condoms cannot be relied upon to provide 100-percent protection against HIV transmission because “there are condoms which arrive in Ghana, which in the heat and whatever burst during sex,” he said. Because there is always a chance condoms might break during sexual intimacy, he is reluctant to recommend condom use even to married couples in which one partner is affected with HIV, he said. The priorities for African bishops at the synod will remain “abstinence and loyalty and fidelity” within marriage, he said. During pastoral counseling, he said he presents the issues and discusses them with the person seeking advice, which “allows the person to decide, to (make) his own decision.” He said he does not “undervalue the possibility that somebody who has AIDS recognizes his own Christian commitment (and) would simply just decide to refrain from sex,” even if he or she were in a faithful marriage, in order to prevent the spread of HIV. “Some would in such a situation have advised the use of condoms by a partner who has HIV so that it doesn’t spread, but again, in our part of the world, even the use of condoms is sometimes risky,” he said.

“If we have proper, top quality condoms, then one can probably with certainty speak about” the effectiveness of an infected partner using condoms, “but that is also not the case” in Ghana, he said. Cardinal Turkson said he would rather see the resources spent on manufacturing and providing prophylactics to Africa be earmarked for subsidizing antiretroviral drugs for the people there. “Let us use those resources to support the production of antiretroviral drugs so (they) would be more available to people,” he said. “That’s probably the big favor that we can do for the people suffering from HIV/AIDS.”

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, Society and living environment, , , , , , , , , , ,

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