God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

01/20/2010 • 11:05 pm Comments Off on 20.01.2010 Haiti

20.01.2010 Haiti

What can one say about Haiti – days after the earthquake one can still find miracles – people being found while trapped for days – but one also finds the impotence of the modern world to deal with disasters like it. After hurricane Katharina now Haiti is showing us how little we so developed nations with all our equipment can do when nature strikes. For me, besides all the human tragedy it is always amazing to see that we reach to the stars, explore the universe – but are not able to handle mother nature and it’s sometimes brutal aftermath. We are not the crown of creation – but part of it – and being part of creation means being part of living and dying in the circle of life – sometimes so completely against the way we portrait nature: gentle, perfect – or as it is stated in the Bible:  – and it was good.

We have to reconcile our longing for harmony between human mankind and nature with the realities: eaten and being eaten, natural disasters killing innocent people every year. The lion is still not laying with the lamb – but in Africa every year people are killed by wild animals; tornados, thunderstorms, storm flooding, earthquakes, avalanches – they all produce victims and most of it is completely unpredictable and most times, the poorest are impacted the most.

For me it also shows how precious life is – how sumptuous every minute we live and how fast it can be end. Such tragedy is not only a challenge for our compassion and solidarity, but also a reminder about the value of every minute we are able to live and put a meaning to our living.

Haiti – time to open our hearts and show solidarity, but also to open our minds and reflect on the meaning of it all.
And yes, it is difficult to reconcile or explain what has happened, but the most stupid explanation I have read so far was the one of a well-known American preacher Pat Robertson, who according to CNN attributed the earthquake to the fact, that Haiti “swore a pact to the devil” by the creation of Haiti.

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01/12/2010 • 2:54 pm Comments Off on 12.01.2010 Installation of a new bishop

12.01.2010 Installation of a new bishop

Today, the invitation arrived via email to attend the installation of the new Archbishop of Cape Town, Stephen Brislin.  As always in the life of the church, a new bishop awaits a huge amount of different expectations and hopes. And these expectations and hopes are most times so far away from each other, that it seems to be a mission impossible to be a bishop in our days.  On the other hand: Within the church, a bishop has power and according to the CIC he is the head of the community of the faithful with many far-reaching rights. Especially when it comes to the lives of the priests – so much of their well-being hangs in balance with a good bishop’s rule. Humility and the knowledge, that we are all remain humans, even in the service of the church, are essential for such a service. And this is indeed the core of his vocation: To be a servant for the people of in this case Cape Town, to assist in the well-being of the people of God, to encourage and go with and lead those seeking to come closer to God.

And obviously, he does it not alone, but in communion with the other bishops and the bishop of Rome. In our days, it seems that this communion is rather centralized – word coming from Rome and filtering down to the different dioceses’.  From outside it looks and from inside it feels often as a one-way-road. It would be great if the communion and the collegium of the bishops will play a bigger role in the life of the universal church, so that also we from Cape Town, we from Africa can contribute more to the development of this universal church. It would also support the message of the African Synod which puts lots of responsibility on the church of Africa.

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01/05/2010 • 9:47 am Comments Off on 05.01.2010 Holiday blues…

05.01.2010 Holiday blues…

Staying on holiday so far away from home has two disadvantages: The first is that people forget that there is indeed a time difference and that phoning me in the evening means waking me up after midnight. Well, one might say, that one could simply switch off the cell during night – and yes, that’s right. But – and this is the second disadvantage: climax points of disasters and worries happening normally especially, when one is far away – so one is needed the most, when one is far away… Or is that only my fantasy?? 🙂

Nevertheless, Bangkok is starting to fill up again with people and cars and noise; normal life has come back to the city of angels. And checking the news I see our president dancing the Zulu wedding dance in full leopard outfit – his third wife, not to count the divorced one and the deceased one – and it is mentioned that he is already engaged with future wife number four. And it comes to my mind what that all means to fidelity in marriage – and the concept of marriage as we Catholics have. Not to mention that his now third wife has already three kids – so sexuality must have been practiced before marriage. Which is obvious for most Africans, as after paying the lobola the couple is allowed to engage in sexual activities before the wedding ceremony – old African traditions – once again – what does this mean to the more Eurocentric view of Catholicism which puts sex only into the marriage.

Here in Bangkok I am reading in the moment a book about katoeys – the third gender in Thailand – and once again I asked myself, what does the existence of such a third gender mean in the framework of Catholic moral theology.

So not, only sleepless nights, but also so many questions and so little answer…  And all this has indeed also to do with the topic of HIV and AIDS and how we approach it.. Well, I still have more than a week time to find some…  🙂

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, Politics and Society, Reflection, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

11/21/2009 • 11:39 pm Comments Off on 21.11.2009 A party, a future deacon and Konrad…

21.11.2009 A party, a future deacon and Konrad…

A long day draws to an end – ending with a party to celebrate the beginning of summer. Thanks to Monika & Bernd for a wonderful evening, even the wind and the clouds could not stop us drumming and eating and drinking and chatting a great eve long. It was good to see people again, catch up and simply make new friends. A perfect end of a day which began with meeting somebody who will be ordained to be a deacon in two weeks time. This will be a special occasion for me as it marks an end to a way I had the pleasure to accompany as a spiritual director for some years now. And amazingly, being a spiritual director does not mean a one-way-street; having done this now not only once it was and is always a sharing, which includes the spiritual director. I always learned in advising somebody in a big way myself  – giving is receiving; this is so true as I experienced again and again.

And then the email from Konrad, making me aware of a double negative I used in one sentence of  a one of my blogs and making so my sentence unknowingly to the opposite I really wanted to say. Thanks for that, you creme de la creme volunteer :-), and for all who will find the sentence with a “don’t” and a “not” in one sentence concerning my view on sexuality: please scrap the first “not” and the sentence is right!  🙂 Ach ja, Konrad, we are missing you also… very much so… 🙂

And there was another highlight today: I was invited to write about “Aids in Africa” for a publisher’s academic compilation (University of Trier) and today I could file the finished script after receiving confirmation that my writing was appropriate for the intention of the publisher. It feels good to file away what one has accomplished in the knowledge one has done well.. 🙂

So –  a good day, and a throughout the day working internet connection – what else does one need to go to bed as a happy chappy..:-) Good night

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10/27/2009 • 7:30 am Comments Off on 27.10.2009 … and in Africa..

27.10.2009 … and in Africa..

JOHANNESBURG – AFP reports: — African leaders were urged Thursday to increase efforts to end HIV infections among children and women, in the world’s worst affected continent.

Speaking at the launch of the Campaign to End Pediatric HIV-AIDS, activist Graca Machel said that only two countries in Africa spent a target of 15 percent of their budgets on health. “You tell me next time we meet how much is being spent in wars and defence…but how much is being spent in health, how much is being spent in agriculture to produce food for our kids,” Machel told delegates. Sub-saharan Africa is home to 1.8 million of the world’s two million children infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Mother-to-child prevention and treatment coverage currently averages 30 to 40 percent against a target of 80 percent. “We need the international community to commit, to meet their obligations, but we have to show commitment ourselves no matter how small our budgets might be,” said Machel, who is married to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and a member of the group of senior statespeople known as The Eld”We will not get there when African leaders do not get moved, they do not get moved by the hundreds of thousands of people who are dying on this continent when we know that this can be prevented,” she said.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Politics and Society, , , , ,

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