God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

10/29/2009 • 12:24 am Comments Off on 29.10.2009 Do we need a theology of AIDS?

29.10.2009 Do we need a theology of AIDS?

A talk and discussion with the Catholic Community of the University of Aachen. Do we need a theology of AIDS? Is HIV a sign of the times? – quite a handful of questions to discuss and it was a good evening. I could bounce my ideas about a theology of AIDS onto the students and at the end I guess we had a consent that we need a theology of HIV and AIDS. We also agreed that we have to network and start working on it as the people of God and trying to involve others in the church. It was also acknowledges how much we need a pastoral approach towards those within the church living with the virus, be it laity, clergy or religious.

It was in summary an amazing day with lots of good encounters – a real exchange of ideas, yes, a bridging of ideas, life circumstances, life realities. I am very grateful for this day and I am now looking forward to the days in Dresden. A total different set of encounters there, but also very important – getting a whole town to realise the reality of HIV and AIDS and to do some about it. I guess, I will sleep tonight very well.

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10/06/2009 • 11:51 pm Comments Off on 06.10.2009 event note 2…

06.10.2009 event note 2…

Sometimes one is looking forward to something and then suddenly all is different. I was looking forward to the event I posted yesterday, giving a talk and then a discussion about HIV and AIDS as signs of the time with representatives of some church entities dealing with development issues like misereor, misso etc…. But I just got the note, that all of them don’t want to participate. So it will only be me and the audience on that very day and even if I don’t know any official reason for the non participation, I was given a hint I am still not the guy one is sitting with at the same table.

It is amazing to discover again and again that even the simple rule of engagement = talking with each other, finding common ground, being engaged with each other seems to be so difficult in my church. I must say that I do my work with great enthusiasm and –  obviously being touched by the all the pain and suffering and reality –  I am searching for ways, even theological ways to work through my experience and to find a theological answer assisting the people infected. And the main word is “searching”. I don’t have the answers, but I know that we only can find them in brainstorming together, all involved in this field.

Maybe I ask too much, maybe it is not normal to talk even to somebody not sharing his or her own conviction – I always learn from talking to such people. But maybe I am an exception and the rule is different. I must admit that it sometimes frustrates me when there is no dialogue because it is refused one sided. It is a pity and chance has been not used to understand each other. Some years ago I would have been frustrated about such a behavior but that phase in my life is gone. I cannot change other people, I only can change myself. So whomever I will talk to in Aachen, it will be good and meaningful. Therefore:

I am still  looking forward to engage with the students in Aachen and hope that we can produces new thoughts, exciting visions for a topic so serious like HIV and AIDS.

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09/06/2009 • 8:53 am Comments Off on 06.09.2009 Ecumenical matters

06.09.2009 Ecumenical matters

This morning our German speaking Catholic Community will join the Lutheran St. Martini community by being a guest during their service. I have the honor to preach during the service and it is always a bit tricky. What really to say? That it is a scandal being separated since that long time? Everybody knows? That we would need each other and all our diversity to become the people of God? Also known. That it is in theological terms sinful to live separate church lives? That is does not help if Vatican documents describe the Lutheran church as a not complete church?

Times have been rough in the last years and the tendency to segregate instead to unify was leading us people on the grounds into a situation, where nobody with some knowledge about ecumenical questions would like to be. Being scared of each other is surely not the right base for understanding. And all the unctuous sermons of the church elite pasting over the cracks and gaps do not help either.

I am sure that God in his grace does not mind to hear Lutheran or Catholic prayers and that for him, it does not matter whether a man with stole or without is standing in front of the congregation. If rather matters to the so called church discipline, but not to God at all. If we would prevent the temptation to form a picture of God as a “super human” but leave him (even that is a presumption – him, her.. it all does not match – the Jews are right, not to name God) his (again the same problem) mystery.

For me ,such an encounter with the Lutheran brothers and sisters feels like a thorn in the flesh of our churches – and it is more than time to pull out this thorn.

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07/07/2009 • 12:30 pm Comments Off on 07.07.2009 Questions…

07.07.2009 Questions…

During the last 8 years working closely with people being infected and affected, one starts thinking what all this is fitting in in our faith system. Is HIV or AIDS only to be seen as a medical condition? Or as a social or moral failure to bring people towards a proper behaviour – what ever that might mean? In the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, I heard from some church leaders that HIV and AIDS are punishment for bad behaviour.. Or is the virus simple another sign of evolution – the daily struggle of nature to survive?

Are there indeed the “poor AIDS babies” and the adults “who are somehow bearing the stigma of misbehaving”?  Are there good or bad people living with the virus?

What does it mean to our theology of creation, our picture of God? What does it mean to the moral teaching of my Roman-Catholic church? Are we able to develop a theology of AIDS and turning the stigma into a charisma?

What does work in this field do with a priest, thorn apart between dogma, teaching and real life situations. The church is mater and magister, so told me a bishop last year in Rome. “Where I am working, we represent more the magisterium, where you working, you represent more the mother” Rightly said, but what does it mean in consequence?

I don’t have answers – but I am on a journey to find out..

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07/06/2009 • 9:09 am Comments Off on 06.07.2009 Blogging

06.07.2009 Blogging

Blogging is “in” and so should also a priest allowed to write about his work, his topics, his dilemmas, joys and sorrows.  As I am working in South Africa and besides my parish work, which will soon be coming to an end as the chaplain of the German speaking Catholic Community, I dedicate lots of time into the work in the fields of HIV and AIDS, this blog will obviously deal foremost with these topics. But also the development of the church and politics are on the agenda – a good Christian is also a participating citizen and politics and religion have much in common.

I am looking forward to comments, encouragement and critical comments, but they should at least be constructive. 🙂 If there are fellow bloggers also in the fields of HIV and AIDS or in the circle of religion, feel welcome to make contact. All discussions, which connect different worlds and point of views will bring this world foreward in the best sense of the word.

sh

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