God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

09/22/2009 • 4:56 pm Comments Off on 22.09.2009 more fundamental questions…

22.09.2009 more fundamental questions…

In the last days I described my stance on mandatory testing and the pre-testing counseling. Having now more time to dedicate my energy towards the HIV/AIDS portfolio, there are more topics I feel are necessary to persue in the coming months and years. I have spoken already about the need to end the stigmatization within the health sector itself.  On the political front I can forsee to look more intensive into the question of travel freedom of people living with the virus. The ban to visit certain countries or the ban to get a work permit if you are HIV positive as you can find it in Australia, Singapore and many other countries is not only a sign of a lack of maturity of politicians in the respective countries but also a clear violation of human rights. I am aware that the UN, but also the German “AIDS Hilfe” is dealing with the issue, but we should all join hands and start to pressurize political systems allowing such violations of dignity and human rights.
In some of the blogs I mention the work with HIV positive priests and religious as well as seminarians. This is indeed a very tricky question and I hope that in October, when I am in Rom to meet together with Joachim Franz with the papal council for health care workers, to get this council on board to have a hard look how we deal with HIV and AIDS in our own ranks. Is the refusal to take a HIV positive person into e.g. monkhood or a seminary not a sign of fear and immaturity of the church? Are we as a church really allowed to deal with infected people in refusing them to follow their vocation? I am sure that God does not mind the status of a person. So we also shouldn’t mind the HIV status of a person. What kind of AIDS policies are regulating the life of the church and their institutions? Do we advocate the acceptation of people living with the virus only for the area outside the church? Tough questions, but we owe it the greater love of God to check our own balances on those questions and see whether they add up.

The ethical question of ceasing treatment if somebody does not adhere at all – also a tricky question. I mentioned the criminal law as a tool of prevention, which I find absolutely unreasonable in the way it is administered in most countries, specially also here in Africa.

Those are some of the questions in my mind, where I would like to contribute towards a solution which ends the madness of stigmatization and discrimination, which forces governments and churches to act reasonable and always upholding the dignity and human rights of every person.

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

09/20/2009 • 11:42 pm Comments Off on 20.09.2009 Beyond the condoms…

20.09.2009 Beyond the condoms…

Having written a blog entry about the criminalization of  HIV and seeing the response so far, I just realise that there are quite some moral and ethical issues we still have to deal with in the fields of HIV and AIDS. One is used to hear only about the condom story when talking about or talking with the Catholic Church, but there are more things coming to my mind:
– Equality of man and women
– Criminal Code and HIV
– Travel restrictions or travel ban and human rights
– Commencement and possible cessation of treatment
– Dealing of the Catholic Church (or any church) with their own clergy being positive
– Understanding of sexuality in the context of Europe, Africa and Asia as well as Latin America
– Abstinence only or diverse approach towards prevention work

I wish I could convince the German and the Southern African Bishops Conference to set up a study group on all these issues and surely a couple of more questions, which will come up in a brainstorming session. It would make such a difference.

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

09/18/2009 • 11:03 pm 12

18.09.2009 Criminal HIV?

“Nick Rhoades, an Iowa man sentenced May 8 to 25 years in prison for failing to disclose his HIV status to a male sexual partner, had his sentence reduced to five years of probation without jail time in a September 11 reconsideration hearing, The Iowa Independent reports.”

It is indeed an interesting question on whether disclosure of a HIV status can or should always be judged by legal means. In the existing climate of stigmatization and discrimination it is very unlikely that all people infected will be willing or able to disclose before being sexually active with somebody else. Punishment for non-disclosure, often even if no infection took place is growing in the legal systems of nations and I tend to disagree.
I would argue that the onus lies on both parties to protect and if I want to engage in sexual activities where the exchange of body fluids is likely, I have to treat every unknown and maybe even every known person as if he/she is carrier of the virus.  It always takes two to dance one says – and this applies also to such cases like the one above.
I personally don’t think that the tool of the criminal code is a very good tool to prevent infections; I think it will rather make it more unlikely that people get tested because at least they could argue then, that they did not know at all.
I see with concern that more and more also African countries develop laws in that regard, even punishing people when they did not know of their infection and no infection took place.
Extra criminal laws in this regard puts people living with the virus very quick into the criminal corner – that is not what we need to stop the stigma and in doing so,  creating an environment where we are really able to stop the spread of the virus.

Filed under: HIV Prevention, Politics and Society, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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