God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

09/07/2009 • 10:15 pm Comments Off on 07.09.2009 Monday eve…

07.09.2009 Monday eve…

Monday eve – a long day draws to an end – and still emails are coming in (thx blackberry – which sometimes is rather a curse than a blessing) – it seems never to stop. At least I got my preparations done for Durban, where I am due to fly on Friday for the farewell weekend and service. Since 2002 I had the pleasure to serve also in Durban for the German speaking Catholic Community and it was a real change being there four times a year to meet my fellow compatriots with their families. Durban is so much different than Cape Town, very Indian with the biggest Indian population outside India in one place.

A talk, a farewell mass, a baptism, a welcome to our church, confirmation and a braai as well as a dinner are on the programme for the weekend – a priest never sleeps when the parish sister is called Sr. Agnes coming from “Oberoesterreich”… 🙂 Always busy, never a dull moment. I will miss the people, their friendliness and their openess.

But until Friday is still some work to do.. tomorrow is management meeting of HOPE Cape Town and amongst others we will discuss our “code of good conduct” for all our employees. A very important topic – as one grows as an organisation, there is a need for some rules and ethic behaviour codes.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

09/07/2009 • 5:00 pm Comments Off on 07.09.2009 good deeds…

07.09.2009 good deeds…

Monday afternoon and a phone call from Germany. A company will be in Cape Town with 150 employees in the near future and wants to dedicate part of their time for social work. The request is whether HOPE Cape Town cannot provide for that kind of work, which should be adequate to the portfolio of the employees, last for a couple of hours and leave the people afterwards joyful about the work they have done.

It is amazing to see the amount of people wishing to do something good and meaningful – and how difficult it is indeed to satisfy this need. It should have a long term effect and make everybody instantly happy, the people providing the service, the people receiving the service and I guess also us, as the bridge between both.
I salute those who are willing to sacrifice time and money for a good cause; on the other hand I do acknowledge and know out of experience how difficult it is to provide such opportunities. Opportunities which can be so crucial to the understanding of the situation, we are facing here in South Africa but also in many other locations around the world.

We from HOPE Cape Town try our very best to accommodate all those wishes for helping a good cause for a limited time. And if we cannot help, we feel that we missed out an opportunity to help somebody understanding, feeling, tasting, experiencing a situation which is so normal for the majority of people living on this earth. An experience which makes a European or North American aware that life conditions in their respective areas are the exemption and not the rule.

And having people assisting people can also have a funny side, as we experienced getting some help from as far as I can remember the Canadian nay. Committed to help to create a vegetable garden they all arrived full of enthusiasm in the township. But none of the inhabitants showed up; it was even more silent on the street than usual. We only found out later that the uniforms of the navy and the SAPS are similar – so people, seeing so many “policemen” thought it would be best to stay away – one never knows…. 🙂  The misunderstanding was sorted out and a great vegetable garden is now in place..

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

09/05/2009 • 7:35 pm Comments Off on 05.09.2009 Spring is coming..

05.09.2009 Spring is coming..

Spring is coming to Cape Town – I can feel it as my hay-fever kicks in again and keeps me sneezing all the time. Despite that it is a marvellous time and simply to enjoy the warm sun today was magic.

It was a quiet Saturday so far – well, not that quiet as my godchild was on visit, together with Mama and sister. I can report that all Buddhas are still in one piece, all keys are back to the place they should be and all other furniture and items back to the known places… I admire parents who are so patient with their kids.. I guess I am too old for this kind of fun all day long… 🙂

It is the first day after a really hectic week – and even the promise to my doctor to work only half to give my body the chance to recover from H1N1 was in jeopardy all times. Yesterday I was informed that your secretary from HOPE Cape Town was hospitalized with severe H1N1 and our virologist @ HOPE Cape Town management is working day and night with the authorities to prevent the epidemic to spread – not really with a lot of success.

Used this afternoon to work on the “employee handbook and code of good conduct” and some other items to be used for the administration of HOPE Cape Town. It is amazing how one gets caught up in all this administrative things when the amount of employees is rising. You cannot avoid it. I believe that being good organised and clear on the rules and regulations it helps to keep admin problems at bay most times.

Tomorrow we will have our ecumenical encounter, visiting as the German speaking Catholics the German speaking Lutheran St. Martini community. I have to preach and hope that my sermon will at least enlighten one of the visitors.  Afterwards cake and coffee and some chats before heading to a Jazz concert and a reception by the German Consule General, who just arrived in Cape Town.

Yesterday evening I met with a fellow priest and friend and at the end of the supper I had to put on record that my first Sunday without the German speaking Catholic Community in October  is already filled with the celebration of 4 services in Milnerton and Brooklyn as a supply priest. It seems that my way to holiness does not allow for one weekend without mass here in Cape Town.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , ,

09/04/2009 • 8:05 am 1

04.09.2009 and also @ facebook

Communication is essential and you will find HOPE Cape Town meanwhile on twitter and also on facebook.

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/339124/77594938?m=1a240be5 or better Support HOPE Cape Town is the link to go – and I invite all and everybody who is already on Facebook to log in and join the good cause. You will get updated information, can see some pictures and you can sense that you are belonging to a every day growing family of HOPE Cape Town ambassadors – highly appreciated and needed in our days.

And the best is: It does not cost you a cent to join and add your voice for a good cause.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Uncategorized, , , ,

09/03/2009 • 10:44 pm Comments Off on 03.09.2009 imposed conditions?

03.09.2009 imposed conditions?

Controversial Priest Continues Working

Even though he is known for disagreeing with Catholic Church policies on AIDS and condoms, a German priest has been cleared to continue fighting the disease in Cape Town, South Africa. A spokesperson for Stefan Hippler’s home diocese in Trier, Germany, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, “Despite his critical statements, Hippler has earned great achievements with his work.” (HIVPLUS Magazine)

Quite a lot of people asking me after reading such notices more or less frank whether the permission to stay and work in South Africa is connected to any conditions..   And here is the answer: No, there are no secretly imposed conditions.

There is only the agreement between me and the Bishop of Trier that we want to foster the cooperation between Europe and Africa, between Germany and South Africa, between the dioceses on both continents and the desire to develop a good pastoral care and a good theology regarding the topic HIV and AIDS. To bring Africa more in focus for the department of World Church Affairs in my home diocese of Trier and to work together with Justice & Peace as I do it already here in Cape Town – these should be fruits of my future work with HOPE Cape Town and the Catholic AIDS Network of the Archdiocese of Cape Town.

We both see the immense needs in the field of HIV and AIDS and we both have the desire that the church  indeed serves the people living with the HI virus as much as possible.

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

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