God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

01/02/2012 • 4:45 am Comments Off on New year…

New year…

A new year has begun and  most of the new resolutions will take their usual way of being forgotten within weeks.
I have been asked since a long time whether it would be possible to read the book “Gott-AIDS-Afrika” in the English language.I have read out of the book in many places, among others churches, bibliotheque’s, the German Parliament, the Bavarian Parliament, the representation of Rhineland-Palatinate in Berlin and bookshops in Germany and Austria – and there was a period of time where I was not able to do so…  Two exemplars of the book went to Rome, one was sent to Pope Benedikt XVI ( and yes, we got a receipt) and the other I handed to a Polish Prelate while in Rome with the promise to pass it on…. But as I live in South Africa, there was also quiet an interest into the contents of the book.
I always promised to make an English copy available but never had the time to think of how I want to do it. After being translated into English, the manuscript was laying on my desk for almost a year. There was always something more important to do. But now I have decided to publish most of the book in an English translation here on the blog: “God – AIDS – Africa”  – you can read chapters of the book from the 1.February 2012 – every second days a new chapter will be published. I decided against publishing it as an E-book – there is no need to earn money on it, the purpose of the book was always to stimulate a discussion within the church about the moral teaching of my church and the challenges HIV and AIDS poses to this teaching. The book tells stories I have encountered, questions I have asked myself and those who are in charge of our teaching.
B.Grill, my co-author has added his voice and experience as well. I am looking forward to responses and dialogue – this is what the book intended to stipulate. And once again just for the records: I am happy within my church, which is and remains a community of saints and sinners. But we will only develop our theology and we will only be able to give the right answers to the questions of today when we ask the right questions ourself, when we debate, when we compare the teaching with our daily experience and check on it. For institutions which proclaim they have parts of the truth already within their teaching, it can be hard to allow such questions. But I am sure that God and his reality is so much more than what we know so far and all critical questions are part of learning more of this reality.
Well, with that, one resolution of the old year 2010 will come into practice in 2012. Better late then never. 🙂 And who wants to read it in the original German version – amazon.de or amazon.com should have the hardcover as well as the paperback still on offer.

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

11/13/2010 • 10:17 am Comments Off on 13.11.2010 Pope plans to allow women as readers…

13.11.2010 Pope plans to allow women as readers…

I already see the glimmer of disbelief in the eyes of many readers – half a century after the II Vatican Council and after years of normal practice in churches around the world, the pope considers to allow women to be readers during a catholic service. Even if the theological facts are more complicated, alone this headline shows for millions of Christians that the Vatican has lost touch with earth and people and its own base a long time ago. It is another nail in the coffin of a church which simply seems to ignore reality for ages – how long had Galilaei to wait until he was absolved from the church?

For somebody working in the church and trying to bring people to understand the blessings of our faith, such headlines are simply disasters and not easy to rectify. It shows that all pastoral work to reach the people and to bring the good news to the faithful might experience backstabbing from a media approach, which is simply not only outdated but contra productive. The way news are brought has changed so dramatically in the last 50 years – it seems not for some Vatican circles.

After bringing the death unbaptized babies out of the limbo, after getting the world spinning around the sun, after prematurely getting into a fierce and unpleasant debate with the Pius hardliners and so much more to get worried about, another headline has hit the press making the lives of ordinary priests more difficult.

Filed under: Uncategorized, , , , , ,

11/11/2010 • 9:30 am Comments Off on 11.11.2010 working group on ethics and hiv

11.11.2010 working group on ethics and hiv

I am invited to the theological working group on ethics and HIV in Frankfurt, associated to the “Aktionsbuendnis AIDS” in Germany. It is a lively discussion about what we have to do and how to create synergies and specially the topic how we deal within the church with employees who are HIV  positive is coming up again and again. It seems to me that all churches are not very open on this issue. Maybe the sensitivity of the topic is to frightening for the superiors. Not sure about it, but I am sure that we have to tackle it before it hits us. An interesting afternoon where North and South are meeting in a lively debate.

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

10/09/2010 • 10:22 pm Comments Off on 09.10.2010 Durban

09.10.2010 Durban

After one year Durban again.. the airport is new, the faces of the German-speaking Catholic Community are in the same way familiar and friendly. A talk about the current issues in the church. We talk about the dialogue of the Vatican with the ultra conservative quarters of the Pius brothers which also is causing division amongst ordinary Christians. While it seems that the intention to withdraw the excommunication was meant a welcoming act, the consequences are not that welcomed by many people. Instead of dialogue the right-wing Christian media specially of the internet launches one attack after the other – there is not much sympathy for those behaving like a fundamentalist Christian militia.
Ecumenical questions were another topic – and here it seems that meanwhile there is almost no understanding amongst the interested laity that our church still struggles with the topics of divorce or women ordination and certain question of sexuality. People seemed to have withdrawn a long time ago from the official stance of the church and I guess it is of critical importance that the church is listening to the frustration of the faithful and their practical decisions, made as a consequence of their conscience.
The child abuse cases were another topic and as much as there is no understanding for paedophile priests in active service, it was interesting for me to hear that there is a feeling that even after all the actions of bishops conferences there is still the feeling that too many of the hierarchy are still sitting in positions they should have left as a sign of responsibility. For many people, an apology is not enough. This German scandal, after the US and Ireland has indeed caused a major rift between the institution church and the faithful.
We have still a lot to work on before we can gain the trust again, we need to proclaim the gospel in fulness.

And as so often it is us, the ordinary priests, who have to defend actions, we ourself are seeing with a critical view. Sometimes it is difficult to be honest and loyal at the same time. All the happenings of the last month do certainly not help at all.

Filed under: Reflection, , , , ,

09/03/2010 • 7:15 pm Comments Off on POZ Magazine: “Jesus Had HIV” Sermon Riles South African Christians

POZ Magazine: “Jesus Had HIV” Sermon Riles South African Christians

South African Pastor Xola Skosana upset churchgoers by preaching a sermon titled “Jesus Was HIV Positive,” Mail & Guardian reports. Skosana chose the sermon to draw attention to the stigmatization and silence that fuel the epidemic. The sermon drew scathing attacks, he said, because people assumed it meant Jesus was promiscuous. “My responsibility…is to…paint a picture of a God who cares for people…not who judges them and is ashamed of them,” he said, adding that “in many parts of the Bible, God put himself in the position of the destitute, the sick, the marginalized.”

Source: http://www.poz.com/rssredir/articles/Jesus_HIV_sermon_1_19029.shtml

To read the Mail & Guardian article, click here.

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

Blog Categories

Follow God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE on WordPress.com

You can share this blog in many ways..

Bookmark and Share

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,711 other subscribers

Translation – Deutsch? Française? Espanol? …

The translation button is located on each single blog page, Copy the text, click the button and paste it for instant translation:
Website Translation Widget

or for the translation of the front page:

* Click for Translation

Copyright

© Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

This not withstanding the following applies:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.