God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

11/01/2009 • 4:31 am Comments Off on 31.10.2009 The Gala

31.10.2009 The Gala

It is 4h23 in the morning and I am just back from the HOPE Gala Dresden.  It was a good evening with lots of show programme, excitement and good deeds and it seems that all in all everybody is happy. While some are still dancing the night away for me it is time to go to bed as in a couple of hours, the next meeting will take place. Sunday is not always a day to rest for me… We had the vice ambassador of South Africa and her husband, the minister of interior of Germany and his wife, the former premier and many actors and well-known people – photographers where en mass there – the first time I have seen it like that. Security was very tied because of the minister, who belongs to the group of specially endangered persons in our republic.

Viola and her team gave her best and succeeded, it was good to have Joachim Franz and his team with us as well as Ulrich Heide from the German Aids Foundation – a good day which shows that cooperation between all of them and myself is strong and growing. Cooperation is important and I am sure that the last days cemented a network which will be heard of in the years to come.

But first some hours of sleep. Good night.

Filed under: General, Networking, , , ,

10/29/2009 • 6:53 pm Comments Off on 29.10.2009 A day to remember…

29.10.2009 A day to remember…

The 29.10.2009 is a special day for me – it is the day, where HOPE Cape Town was launched officially in 2001.  It was a day I remember clearly: the drive to Tygerberg with a guest in my car who just had been given a positive test result. Clem Sunter giving a talk for the 150 man/women strong audience, a priest, a rabbi and an imam giving the blessings, the invited sangomas who were not that welcomed in the “academic environment” at that time, the buffet done by the Rotary ladies afterwards.

A day not to be forgotten – it changed my life forever and 8 years later, I can say that nothing is as it has been before that time. HIV and AIDS, these topics seems today to be my destiny – my life portfolio and I get more and more the sense, that I am – after 8 years – not be at the end of my way but only at the beginning. And this is sometimes scary to sense, to feel and to know. It is a topic, a red line in my life now, that I have never called for, but that without asking entered my life and took over in so many ways. AIDS activist, condom priest, rebel in the church – how many titles did I earn in the last years – and how many in my own church feel uncomfortable to get associated with me? On the other hand: How much love, how much support did I get from all ways of life in the last years. How many emails, letters did I receive as an answer on my book, the talks and workshops, the sermons and whatever way I was asked to give input in this field of the pandemic.

curse and blessing – and all the grey areas in between – but one is for sure: This topic has opened to me a world I don’t want to miss anymore – this topic has given me the chance to meet people in a way, which one can call indeed real encounters of hearts and minds and souls. I don’t want to miss one of them.

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , , , , , , , ,

10/29/2009 • 12:24 am Comments Off on 29.10.2009 Do we need a theology of AIDS?

29.10.2009 Do we need a theology of AIDS?

A talk and discussion with the Catholic Community of the University of Aachen. Do we need a theology of AIDS? Is HIV a sign of the times? – quite a handful of questions to discuss and it was a good evening. I could bounce my ideas about a theology of AIDS onto the students and at the end I guess we had a consent that we need a theology of HIV and AIDS. We also agreed that we have to network and start working on it as the people of God and trying to involve others in the church. It was also acknowledges how much we need a pastoral approach towards those within the church living with the virus, be it laity, clergy or religious.

It was in summary an amazing day with lots of good encounters – a real exchange of ideas, yes, a bridging of ideas, life circumstances, life realities. I am very grateful for this day and I am now looking forward to the days in Dresden. A total different set of encounters there, but also very important – getting a whole town to realise the reality of HIV and AIDS and to do some about it. I guess, I will sleep tonight very well.

Filed under: Networking, , , , , , , , , , ,

10/28/2009 • 5:25 pm Comments Off on 28.10.2009 450 youngsters…

28.10.2009 450 youngsters…

A big surprise when I enter the Liebfrauen church in Bitburg for the first part of my day: talking and celebrating a prayer service with the students of the St. Willibrord Gymnasium. Round about 450 students are filling the church – I am not sure what I thought before but I was indeed surprised to see so many youngsters. Talk and service went well, we were able to connect and it seems, at least according to some teachers afterwards, the noise level was significant lower than in other services. The youngsters listened – a good experience and quite energizing for me. And energy I needed: After the service I met with 120 students of class 13 – the Abitur class.  At the “Haus der Jugend” we had time to discuss matters and to try to bridge the gap between South Africa and Germany. And again an audience to connect to – with good questions and I hope some good answers too.

Prevention, treatment, sexuality, sangomas, academic research, grass root projects, theology, church and condoms – there was not a lot untouched during the discussion – a lively debate.

After that I went with the principal and the teachers to the school to be formally welcomed in front of all teachers. The principal found some nice words of welcome and some of my very own teachers 30 years ago were still working – a pleasure to meet them again. 2 Jahrggangsstufen (standard 8 and standard 9) were singled out to have a discussion with me during the next two hours. Amazing to hear that some students came after the talk to pass on the regards of their parents who happened to be my friends and neigbors or classmates while I was myself a student of the school.

Then a nice drive to Aachen – changing briefly into Belgium to cut time and some more busy streets – and now I prepare for my evening talk about “HIV and AIDS as signs of the time” – with a discussion afterward with the students of the University of Aachen. As mentioned before the representatives of misereor, misso and others where not allowed to discuss this topic with me – and I still feel sorry for them: not talking to each other is the worst case scenario for us as Christians. It is indeed a shame, as I strongly believe that we all try to find ways and solutions serving mankind. And we do this with seriousness and we all deserve respect and a listening ear for our ideas. I hope and pray that this ignorance will cease soon and that we are able to engage in fruitful discussion. I am amazed to see who all is talking to me, also from the church side – but not those big Catholic development agencies. Are they are scared of competition? Or anything else I am not aware?

Be it as it is – I am looking forward to discuss a theology of HIV and AIDS with the students and to see, whether my very fragmented approach of theology, bounced on the minds of those students, can develop further. I continue to hope for the best…

Filed under: HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Medical and Research, Networking, Politics and Society, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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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