God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

09/03/2009 • 2:51 am Comments Off on 03.September 2009 feeling humbled

03.September 2009 feeling humbled

The last two days were amazing days – so many emails, phone calls, text messages – I even did not know that so many people are following my “case” and were waiting after the cancellation of contract through the German Bishops Conference what will happen to me. Most seemed to have bid, that I will go back to Germany – others thought I will leave the church. Well, both thoughts were quite  real – real threats to my life, but thanks heaven a somehow happy end has been found.
Receiving all this positive messages, I feel indeed humbled and realise once again, what expectations people have. I personally never felt that I am doing something extraordinary but simply what was waiting along my way I picked up – and I had from the start marvellous people assisting in creating HOPE Cape Town. Living in South Africa creates other possibilities as somebody would have in Germany. But I believe that everybody has a chance to pick up a challenge along his way on earth and in doing so, change the course of this world and to assist and help people in need.

I am also a bit scared seeing the expectations of the HOPE Cape Town “family”. HOPE Cape Town is in the phase of restructuring because our possibilities and opportunities have grown so fast and big, that we have to look how to cope with all the workload. So we will add myself and a PA, a personal assistant to join HOPE Cape Town. Grass root work and research are at the ends of our working spectrum, and in between is quite a range of portfolios in need to be covered. Thanks God for the recent addition of Saadeka Williams as a full time HOPE doctor.

Also the Catholic Aids Network is in development. We had a meeting this morning as CAN has now to be registered as a NPO and PBO in South Africa in its own rights. So we met with a lawyer who is willing to do “pro bono” work and assist in getting the constitution right and the applications on the way.

With POZ, the working arm of HOPE Cape Town together with the Justice & Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Cape Town, providing pastoral care for priests, religious and seminarians who are living with the HI virus, there is a whole new area where we have to gain expertise. Today we fixed also our meeting with the secretary of the Papal Council for health care worker in Rome; on the 18.10. we will have a meeting with the Bishop to discuss amongst other topics a possible working relationship in this field. I am very curious to see how they react in the Vatican for such a request of official support. But with or without the support, we have to face realities and we have to tackle them head on. Doing so we are also forced to look into our theology and develop our teaching accordingly. It is indeed a tricky field – but on the other hand: only tricky fields are a real challenge… 🙂

Well, it is time to go to bed – it is 2:46 am in the morning and at 6am a new working day is beginning.

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

09/01/2009 • 10:41 pm 2

01.09.2009 joy

Reading all the emails and sms today I only feel joy and surprise, that so many people take somehow part in my journey and appreciate the decision to keep me in Cape Town. It is indeed amazing how in the age of Internet news go around the world, via twitter, facebook, news-portals, newspapers, radio station – really, really amazing.
I personally feel relieved to know now that I will stay, I am looking forward to keep on working in a field I love and I am very serious about. I had this morning my first meeting with our project supervisor to plan for October and the months to come and can sense the excitement of people within HOPE Cape Town. I only can hope, that I will match all those expectations. It can be frightening to know all the tasks ahead, but also giving you that thrilling kick you need to get the best out of you.

I already today made contact with some visitors from the Archdiocese of Munich, who happened to be in Cape Town and to introduce the idea to broaden the partnership between Bavaria and the Western Cape with a bigger slice of church cooperation. And the first appointment is set when I will be in Munich beginning of November.
Plans for my travel to Germany in October also become clearer. Aachen, Munich, Frankfurt, Dresden, Bitburg, Wolfsburg and Berlin are already on the map and I hope to add some more before I have finished the preparations. Rome is also on the list, not quite in Germany but in reach when you fly from Munich..  :-). Joachim Franz (be your own hero e.V.) and myself try to get a second meeting with the Papal Council for Health Care Workers to continue our dialogue we started when we visited the Vatican last year in November.

Thousand ideas are floating around my head, but i first have to wrap up my chaplaincy in a decent way and prepare the way for my successor. He should feel welcomed when he arrives and knowing my great community here I do not have any doubt that this will be the case.
For myself, the 4th of October will be the farewell day – having Holy Mass at 11h30 combining English, Polish and German, followed by a reception and some speeches. And of course something to eat. Choir and Orchestra will perform pieces from Haendel during the service – I am really looking forward and my wish is, that after that special services people are going home and feeling good and elevated, having still the tunes of Haendel (and some thoughts of the sermon 🙂 ) in their minds. A truly inspiring service. I have asked a friend of mine, Fr. Wim, to preach on this occasion and I am looking forward to his surely well prepared sermon on that day.

I hope this farewell day is a great day with lots of laughter and memories but also the beginning of a new chapter in my life.  I am grateful for all the support in these days of decision.

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

08/31/2009 • 10:30 pm Comments Off on 31.08.2009… turns out to be a blessed Monday…

31.08.2009… turns out to be a blessed Monday…

It is Monday afternoon when I have a contact with my Bishop in Trier. And now it is official:

I will serve for the next 5 years here in Cape Town, working in the fields of HIV and AIDS, specially HOPE Cape Town and the Catholic AIDS Network and all, what comes with it.  After being a chaplain of two German speaking Catholic Communities the last year, I change to be a “Fidei Donum ” Priest – means a present of the faith. The expression comes from Paul VI and one of his documents (Encyclical Fidei Donum), asking the European churches to give priests to the developing world to assist in the development of the local churches. Admitted, meanwhile it seems that the European churches need assistance.. But nevertheless, it still is a working mechanism, specially for the church in Latin America.

I am grateful and relieved, that after a year of unpleasant experiences and disappointments a constructive talk was possible with my new Bishop in Trier and that this constructive meeting turned the situation into a solution which is beneficial to the church, the people and also takes into account my talents and charisma. It shows, that we are able within the church to find good solutions, if we only want to…

Living at the Cape of Good Hope, working with HOPE Cape Town – so nomen est omen… somehow it seems.

What does it mean now for me in practice?  I will start working on the 1.10.2009 for HOPE Cape Town and the Catholic Aids Network – leaving my offices at the Mediterranean Villa, the community center and occupying offices in Newlands and at Tygerberg Campus of the University of Stellenbosch. And I am invited to supply for the Archdiocese of Cape Town, whenever time permits and need arises. So I stay as a priest within my church and work in the fields I have gained some knowledge and expertise the last years.

It is indeed sad to leave the communities, but it is also exciting to know, what lies ahead and to be able – after one year of being tossed from one corner to the other – to plan ahead again in a systematic way. So it was more than an ordinary Monday, I came home blessed with a final decision, a perspective and lots of ideas how to pursue the new task. Indeed, miracles happen in our days…… 🙂

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

08/29/2009 • 1:04 am Comments Off on 29.08.2009 Religious Leaders Absent in the Anti-AIDS Fight & the POZ initiative

29.08.2009 Religious Leaders Absent in the Anti-AIDS Fight & the POZ initiative

The following article I found today on the website “the body” – and caught my attention:
Religious Leaders Absent in the Anti-AIDS Fight  August 21, 2009
Though they exert great influence in the communities in which they serve, religious leaders are not doing enough to fight HIV/AIDS, said experts at the recent ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, held in Bali, Indonesia. “Many religious groups and leaders are unwilling to address HIV/AIDS and make it a priority. Their commitment level is quite low, particularly when compared to the size of their budget and the amount of work they do,” said Donald Messer of the US-based Center of Church and Global AIDS. “We’ve been talking about HIV/AIDS and the religious groups’ response for three decades now. We’re still talking too much even now,” said Fiji’s Dominica Abo. The “most powerful contribution” religious leaders can make is addressing stigma, discrimination, and biases that put groups like women at high risk for the disease. The epidemics impact on women and children needs to be addressed from a faith-based perspective, said the Rev. Youngsook Charlene Kang of the United Methodist Church in the United States, noting that women account for nearly half of all infections worldwide. “We need to call on religious leaders to educate and create new pathways within our churches for parishioners to learn the role that faith communities can play.” Messer noted that many conservative Muslim and Christian groups continue to preach against contraceptives, including condoms, believing they promote promiscuity. “[Yet] when used directly and consistently, condoms are humanity’s best protection and weapon against HIV/AIDS,” he said. “Some religious leaders are more eager to preserve the purity or correctness of theological perspectives than their task to save human lives.”
I guess, that the POZ initiative of HOPE Cape Town and the Justice & Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Cape Town will make a difference and highlight, that we take the fight against stigma, discrimination and bias serious. By working with and for priests, religious and seminarians, who are living with the virus, we address the double stigma of being infected and being infected as a “sacred” person, so to speak.  In this sense we can see a double discrimination – and of course also the bias, as many church leaders do not acknowledge that the pandemic also is amongst us, the clergy.
I am personally thrilled that we got the permission from the local Archbishop of Cape Town to work in this field – and when I will visit the papal council for health care workers end of the year, I will address it and hope that they join hands to work for a transformation from stigma to charisma.

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

08/28/2009 • 9:04 am Comments Off on 28.08.2009 Light at the end of the tunnel…

28.08.2009 Light at the end of the tunnel…

Friday morning, a new day and slowly but surely the clouds of uncertainty are fading away. As it looks in the moment, I will stay in Cape Town to continue my work in the fields of HIV and AIDS with HOPE Cape Town and the Catholic AIDS Network (CAN) of the Archdiocese of Cape Town. This would enable me to built on the last more than 8 years of work in this portfolio. I must admit that I would be very happy to dedicate my time and energy for this cause and to create, develop and foster relationships in this field between Europe and South Africa.

Regarding the German speaking Catholic Communities in Cape Town and Durban the future is now also decided. I accept the fact that there is a termination of contract and I will not take the matter for a juridical review within the church. It would damage the church, waste a lot of energies and I cannot see the need to fight those, who decided to get me out of this portfolio. I don’t feel any need to have a dependency of any kind to them. My farewell in Cape Town will be on the 4th of October 2009, in Durban on the 13.9.2009.
I feel sad about leaving the communities – I felt home with the people in the last 12 years, but I guess, for a priest it is normal to change positions – and in our days, it applies for a lot of professions. The good old times, where priests where sitting for ages in one little village are gone….

But I am also looking forward to the new challenge and I know that I can continue to build on a good foundation – life is good and at the end, the bible is right:  God can write straight on twisted lines. Light at the end of the tunnel…

Filed under: General, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

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