God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

10/25/2009 • 8:02 am 1

25.10.2009 News from the Vatican…

I found this article about the last day of the Africa synod. I do understand this article as a great encouragement for my work as on the “condom” issue it clearly supports my stand that there is no official policy, that we have to debate such a policy and the book “Gott, AIDS, Africa” seeks in big parts to assist in such deliberations.  Good to know that after all the hassle I experienced there is also officially  nothing wrong with my stance. 🙂

Vatican City – The pope appointed Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana to head the Vatican’s justice and peace office on Saturday, a high-profile post that cements his reputation as a possible future papal candidate.

The office is responsible for promoting the church’s social teachings on justice issues, such as war, the death penalty and human rights. Turkson told reporters three weeks ago there was no reason there couldn’t be a black pope, particularly after Barack Obama was elected US president. Turkson’s appointment to his new post was announced at the end of a three-week Vatican meeting on the role of the Catholic Church in Africa, which Turkson had headed. In their discussions, the 300 bishops and cardinals tackled the pressing issue of Aids on the continent, including the question of whether married couples could use condoms if one spouse is infected. While the Vatican has no specific policy concerning condoms and Aids, the Catholic Church opposes the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against artificial contraception. It advocates sexual abstinence and marital fidelity as the best way to combat the spread of HIV.

In their final recommendations to the pope, the bishops made no mention of condoms, leaving it up to the couples themselves to decide how to prevent infection. Asked at a news conference if this marked a deviation from church teaching, Turkson replied that the Vatican still had no firm policy on the matter. “That issue is still being discussed,” Turkson said. “I don’t know when this discussion will come to an end, but I’m aware such a discussion is going on in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

Condone condoms?

In 2006, the Vatican’s top health care official confirmed his office was studying whether condoms can be condoned in the case of a married couple where one spouse is HIV-positive. Since then, there has been no indication the issue was still on the table until Turkson’s comments. In the final recommendation, the bishops called for pastoral care for couples dealing with an infected spouse to help form their consciences “so that they might choose what is right, with full responsibility for the greater good of each other, their union and their family.”

Other issues in the document include:

– An urgent call for starting religious dialogue with followers of Islam and African traditional religions.

– A recommendation that each African bishop name an exorcist to deal with sorcery and witchcraft, which are part of traditional African religions and cultures.

– A denunciation of an African Union agreement known as the Maputo Protocol that says abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is endangered.

– A call for a day for reconciliation every year.

Round of applause

But the biggest news to come at the end of the synod was Turkson’s appointment, which drew a round of applause when Pope Benedict XVI announced it at a luncheon with the 300 bishops, priests and others attending the synod. The 61-year-old archbishop of Cape Coast replaces Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, who is retiring.

Up until now, the most prominent African cardinal mentioned as a possible first black pope was Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria. But he retired from the Vatican office in charge of rules for celebrating the liturgy around the world last year, and will celebrate his 77th birthday next week, making him an unlikely choice. Speculation has swirled for years about the possibility of a pope from the developing world because that is where the church is growing fastest.

– AP

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

10/25/2009 • 4:43 am Comments Off on 25.10.2009 Ignorance and the sensus fidei

25.10.2009 Ignorance and the sensus fidei

The following interview from Cardinal Napier (Durban) was given to the the Vatic an newsletter, several news station report:

Cardinal says media has ignored work of African bishops’ synod

Three weeks of intensive discussion among African bishops about the challenges they face in their poor and often war-torn countries have been largely ignored by the media, a South African cardinal said. Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban and a co-president of the Synod of Bishops for Africa, also has complained that news about Africa in newspapers and on television in the rest of the world is usually bad news, and that positive stories are rarely reported. The Vatican’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, asked Cardinal Napier Oct. 23 whether sufficient attention had been given to the synod; he replied, “Absolutely not. It’s been very little.” Some Catholic newspapers and radio stations across Africa covered the synod, which was to close Oct. 25, but “as far as the rest of the media is concerned, I don’t think they are doing much,” the cardinal said. “Spiritual or religious things are not reported, unless they are controversial,” he said. “In that case,” he added, “they are sure to be published!” The 275 members of the synod have discussed a vast array of topics regarding the church’s work in Africa, including economic injustice, war, hunger, Christian-Islamic dialogue, family life, environmental exploitation and the particular plight of women, just to name a few. Even before the Vatican newspaper interview, Cardinal Napier had taken a gentle swipe at the media for ignoring the positive aspects of the continent while emphasizing disasters and tragedies. “Africa is much more,” he told journalists Oct. 14. “It embodies values and abilities that can offer spiritual richness, even to the rest of the world.” He admitted in the L’Osservatore interview that the bishops themselves during the synod presented the difficulties faced in Africa, often dramatically. “We are trying to describe the African reality, and unfortunately it must be said that in many parts there are serious problems,” he said. But, the cardinal said, “there are also positive realities,” like the reconciliation processes in Rwanda, Burundi and South Africa. “We should ask the media to announce good news as well,” he said. An example of good news that most media outlets would tend to ignore, he said, “is the growth and deepening of the faith there.”

In this interview he also complained that the church is only judged in the fields of HIV and AIDS in terms of the condom issue, leaving out the great work the church is doing otherwise in this field. I agree with the cardinal. But for me, this shows how sensitive and critical this issue is for the public and that since 1968 this issue has not been resolved within our own church. The “sensus fidelium”, necessary for the churches’s speaking about truth as one criteria, has even 40 years later refused to embrace the well-known encyclica in its entireness. We as the church can try to ignore this matter of fact, but it will not go away. It will bite us until we confront ourselves as church with this reality.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, Reflection, , , , , , , , , ,

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, , , , , , , , , , ,

10/16/2009 • 3:40 pm Comments Off on 16.10.2009 Back to the middle ages…

16.10.2009 Back to the middle ages…

This article about Uganda shows, how critical it is to get informed decisions and at the same time void all attempts of countries to deal with the criminal code regarding HIV and AIDS.

Ugandan bill proposes death penalty for sexually active HIV-positive gay men

Homosexual acts are already illegal, but the Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposes the death penalty for those having gay sex with disabled people, under-18s or when the accused is HIV-positive

A Ugandan MP has introduced a bill which would impose the death penalty on HIV-positive gay men in Uganda if they have sex with another man.

David Bahati’s bill is seeking to introduce an offence of “aggravated homosexuality” which would also impose the death penalty for same-sex activity if one of the partners is disabled or under 18 years of age. An independent Ugandan MP, John Otekat Emile, is quoted by BBC Online as saying that the bill has a “99% chance” of passing. Earlier drafts of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 punish homosexuality with a massive fine of 10 million Ugandan shillings and a maximum of ten years in prison. The bill also seeks to punish the “promotion of homosexuality” – including funding and sponsoring LGBT organisations and broadcasting, publishing, or selling materials on homosexuality – with a fine and a minimum of five years in prison. According to the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission, anyone who fails to report known violations of the law within 24 hours will also be subject to up to six months in prison for neglecting to report in their colleagues, family, or friends.

The bill also claims jurisdiction over Ugandans who violate its provisions while abroad, so that, for example, a Ugandan citizen normally resident in the United Kingdom could be convicted and imprisoned if he or she visits Uganda, on the basis of allegations that they have committed any of these offences while in the United Kingdom. Uganda is a recipient of significant international HIV aid.Concern has been expressed that money from the US PEPFAR programme has gone to rabidly homophobic organisations. In 2008, activists were arrested at an international conference in Uganda when they protested against the Ugandan government’s decision that gay men would not receive any HIV resources. There has been an increasing level of discrimination and violence against people in Uganda because of their sexuality in recent months. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has highlighted the detention of four men for 90 days without trial under Uganda’s already draconian anti-homosexuality laws. A fifth man, Brian Pande, died in hospital of undisclosed causes in mid September. Anti-gay organisations organised a protest rally in Uganda’s capital Kampala in August. The IGLHRC has also highlighted that the proposed legislation is in direct contravention of numerous international human rights agreements to which Uganda is a signatory. Furthermore, they also believe that it violates several clauses of the Ugandan constitution, which supposedly guarantees the right to privacy, the right to freedom of speech, expression and assembly, the protection of minorities, and the protection of civic rights and activities.

This article was first published by NAM/Aidsmap.com and is copied from http://www.fridae.com

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

09/23/2009 • 9:42 pm Comments Off on 23.09.2009 Doing good..

23.09.2009 Doing good..

Doing good isn’t that easy. How often do we have requests from people from overseas wanting to do something good. This means in many cases they envisage themselves helping HOPE Cape Town in some practical and personal way. This is difficult in many ways. HOPE Cape Town is not a children’s orphanage in the wild of Africa, but a professional organisation working in state institutions like primary health care facilities (also called township clinics) or Tygerberg Children’s Hospital. We simply cannot take everybody as a volunteer and this creates very often disappointment. South Africa too has rules and regulations, and very often, the question of a working visa ends the dream of doing good. But also being in the country guarantees not a volunteer post. The person must be suitable, the work must be meaningful and beneficial to the causes of HOPE Cape Town and its’ patients and clients.

So we try to balance every request and look for its merit. But even if it would fit, an organisation like HOPE Cape Town can only take a certain amount of volunteers at a time. There must be supervision and guidance. We have in the moment two volunteers at any given time from “weltwaerts” which is an initiative from the German Government to give young people a chance to discover their talents while working abroad. Add one or two more and we are already at the end of our capacity.

It is interesting to see that also elderly persons want to contribute and we see more and more requests from those, who are retired and seek for a meaningful purpose for the years after work. And as Cape Town is a prime destiny on the world map, there are months were we have to answer every day several requests. This leaves me for example sometimes a bit unhappy to deny such requests as I am sure the person on the other side of the world just want to do good. And I have to concede that wanting to do good is getting more and more difficult in our days.

So how does HOPE Cape Town choses its volunteers?
After getting an application we are looking whether the person can fund himself/herself completely and whether the skills or requirements are fitting in with the requirements of HOPE Cape Town and its actual work. If it matches and a place is available the person gets the go ahead to come and join HOPE Cape Town for a certain period of time. The volunteer will have a supervisor whom he or she reports to on a regular base.

Besides the volunteers we also have most times medical students doing an elective student programme and we more and more have also PhD students who make use of our connections into the township communities for their research. It goes without say that all is done in accordance with the regulations of the ethical committee of the University of Stellenbosch if so required.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Medical and Research, Networking, , , , , , , , , ,

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