God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

30.04.2010 Human mankind

Does human mankind ever learn? Most people will answer with a clear “no”… We see it already in our small little world how difficult it is to keep peace with the neighbours or to avoid prejudice. In the finance sector of our days we see that the circle of failures already and those who have spoken about changing the system to avoid another crash of the markets are continuing their same old path.. some minor corrections are allowed to please the public.

In Bangkok people take a whole city hostage – stand-offs, shootings, killings, endangering of innocent people seems to be “normal” – nobody wants violence but everybody is captured so much in his own world and thinking that without “wanting it” one just jumps on every opportunity to gain and to damage those considered to be “the others”.

In our church, the “hype” about sexual abuse creates interesting reactions: the right wingers within our church try to equalise sexual abuse = homosexuality, the left-wing in the church proclaims the conjunction between celibacy and abuse – and instead of investigating the real reasons behind all these, one uses the opportunity for each convictions own gain. This is an abuse in itself and insults the victims. This times can be times of an honest review how church performs – as HIV and AIDS can be a subject to trigger an honest review of parts of our moral theology. Are we able to stand the test of times – or do we fail – again, as many would say.

Difficult times… indeed..

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

22.04.2010 working group for HIV positive priests and religious

What has the working group for HIV positive priests and religious in mind?

We want to provide excellent and confidential service and pastoral care for Catholic priests, religious, deacons and seminarians, but open to other denominations – which includes:

    • Advice for priests, religious, deacons and seminarians regarding VCT for themselves and their communities
    • Confidential and non judgmental counseling (in person, by email, phone, letter)
    • General information about HIV and AIDS
    • Assistance in the work on AIDS policies in religious institutions, diocesan structures, church related business
    • Workshops for interested priests and religious
    • Networking for priests and religious infected or affected by the HI virus
    • Advocacy against stigma
    • Transforming the stigma of HIV into a meaningful tool of service to others in our churches
    • Working on a theology of HIV and AIDS
    • Cooperation with relevant authorities, especially with the papal council for health care workers

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

20.03.2010 What has child abuse…

… to do with a blog on HIV and AIDS? This is one of the question I was asked yesterday reflecting on the internet presence of HOPE Cape Town. Should such a blog be linked to a NGO website? I am not sure what you think, but I guess, my answer is a clear yes:

First of all, all work is done in a certain environment, and even HOPE Cape Town is no purely Catholic entity, we are founded in the Catholic and Christian spirit and the German-speaking Catholic Community Cape Town takes pride in this fact and supports the project in many ways. I am as the co-founder and chair for the first 6 years – I am a Catholic priest and of course my environment contributes to my way of working with HOPE Cape Town.

And there is more to it – when I have groups from overseas, they are all shocked by the high number of rapes happening here in South Africa – especially with under aged and within families. If you look into the child abuse case scenario of Germany, you will find that 95% of child abuse takes place within a family and closed friends environment. What does this tell us?

I think, the complexity of life and living it deserves a view beyond the tea-cup I am having in front of me – we have to see major trends, we have to look into the working environment and we have to consider factors which may put to rest a lot of  prejudices. Only if we look at the full picture we can judge a situation.
That is the reason why I once in a while strain into other territories – commenting on development besides HIV and AIDS.

A last example: I commented on the economic crisis. Why? Because the economic crises, as also the war in Afghanistan in Iraq by the way, contributes to the fact, that money especially from the USA for research and development of new drugs combatting the pandemic is fading. Once again, we have to look onto the greater picture, otherwise we are losing it. Nobody is living on an island anymore, and what happens in USA or Thailand or Israel or Iraq has an impact on our work here in South Africa. Like it or not – it is a matter of fact.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

01.02.2010 News which grabbed my attention this early morning

There are some news which grabbed my attention this morning:

The first is from Berlin where the rector of the Berlin  Canisius-Kolleg gave a press conference about the abuse of minors, which happened in the college in the seventies. Amongst his thoughtful assessment he also said: “The church is suffering of homophobie.” He elaborated that the church keeps quiet about homosexuality in its own rank and the clergy with this inclination is permanently unsure whether there are accepted within the church hierarchy when they deal honestly with their sexuality. I think this is right – we all have to deal with sexuality – and only when we can do it in an honest way, then my assessment is, that most cases of abuse of minors could be avoided. In my view we as a church are guilty of not confronting this topic in a reasonable way many times.

The second news this morning is also from the church and deals with a talk, Archbishop Marx from Munich gave in Davos,where he supported the idea of controlling the banks better after the disaster last year. I think he is right, but that is for still to little to late. Maybe the article I read gave not all he said, but I guess, we have to learn many more lessons from the last recession and as far as I can see, we do ignore most of these but instead touch up some spots and go ahead as usual – until the next crash. It seems that the politicians nor the churches are able really  and hard and honest to reflect on major changes in our economical and political system to avoid disaster and to come to a just system of an economic system, which also has a social component. The fact that every politicans is eager to be re-elected in a short time of office means that most of them have no guts to really go for reform.
The system of Hartz IV in Germany, the unbelievable ignorance of politicians in Germany when it comes to the reform of health care show as examples the impotence of current politics.

The third news of this morning is about the Iraq war and its consequences. It is reported that the advisers to President Bush, who gave green light for the legal implementation of torture as an offical tool for the military and the CIA will not be prosecuted. It is a shame that the masterminds of the implementation of torture are going free while normal people face the full force of the law when convicted of minor things. We are not equal before the law. The same applies by the way for Georg W Bush and Tony Blair who, would they have lived and acted as an African head of states would face the Criminal Court in De Haag for war crimes – starting a war without legal grounds. As European or US American, they are standing above the international law. It is indeed a joke that we fail to implement our own ethical principals to ourselves while insisting they are applied to others.

Filed under: General, Reflection, Society and living environment, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

22.01.2010 A long day

…draws to an end, beginning at 6 in the morning and ending now after midnight. The last 48 hours have been amazingly divers and interesting. I did not know that I brought so much energy with me from my holidays. Resting a lot seems to have helped to recover and gain the energy needed to tackle the first days after coming back.

A great eve with people from Switzerland ended this evening, good talks, nice food. lovely company. It simply felt good again – sitting outside after the meal and chatting a bit the night away. I once again realised how privileged I am to live and work in South Africa. And I also realised how much people expect from me and how much challenge is still lying ahead. That is enough realisation for one day.

Next week are two major fundraising events for HOPE Cape Town – the Golf tournament at Pearl Valley Golf Estates on Monday and on Tuesday the Horse Auction from the Catholic Men’s Society Milnerton/Brooklyn – at 7pm Milnerton Town Hall. If you have time come and join the crowd, bid on a horse, win and do good at the same time.

And don’t forget to circle in your calendar the 22.5. 2010 – Ball of HOPE – together with the Southern African – German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Westin Grand Hotel.

And many more exciting events to come. Watch the space.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, , , , , ,

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