Acknowledging the role of Church and religions in fight against AIDS

International Conference ends today.

Bangkok (AsiaNews/UCAN) – The 15th International Conference on AIDS/HIV ends today. For the first time delegates representing different religions denominations played a more visible role, sign of the greater awareness that theirs is an important contribution to the fight against this deadly disease. During the conference, the United Nations emphasised the need to give developing countries greater access to anti-retroviral drugs, drugs that reduce the rate of infection among children born to HIV-positive mothers, as a way to fight the spread of the disease. The UN found it especially alarming that rate of infection among women in Asia was the rising.

For the first time, the conference organisers set up a multi-denominational prayer room. According to a pre-established schedule Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish delegates took their turn to pray and observe their own liturgy. "The faith community has been made to feel especially welcome," said Linda Hartke, coordinator of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, a network of more than 85 Churches and Church-based advocacy groups engaged in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

On July 13 parallel to the International Conference, Bangkok welcomed a meeting of about 80 priests, religious and laypeople operating as frontline AIDS workers throughout the world, especially in Cambodia, China, India, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Organised by Caritas Internationalis, the meeting allowed participants to share the experiences, responses, and problems of their respective churches in assisting people living with AIDS.

Usanee Nanasilp, secretary of the Thai bishops' Catholic Commission for Pastoral Health Care, told the meeting that in Thailand the Church set up its AIDS committee in 1990 and today has 28 organizations offering awareness education, care, counselling, medicine and homes for AIDS patients. The Church offers job opportunities to them and comforts those near death. Bishop Bernard Moras of Belgaum, Chairperson of the Indian Bishops' Health Commission, said that in India the Church has been involved in the fight against AIDS since 1986 when the first HIV case was detected. Today just for AIDS patients, the Church administers 80% of health facilities and 51 health centres in rural areas. Father Joseph Zhang Kexiang, Vicar General of Liaoning diocese (China), said he was surprised local authorities approved his request to open a centre for AIDS patients. Sister M. Consolata Bui Thi Bong, a medical doctor at the Kim Long Charity Clinic in Hue (central Vietnam), said that her clinic treats up to 300 poor patients everyday and organises HIV/AIDS training seminars for volunteers.

During the meeting some participants voiced dissenting opinions vis-à-vis the official position of the Church on prevention and fight against AIDS. In 2003 however, Cardinals Javier Lozano Barragan and Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, presidents respectively of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care and the Pontifical Council for the Family, said the Church must help people change their lifestyles. They said fidelity, chastity and abstinence are the best ways to prevent infection and stop the spread of the disease. According to the two prelates, giving preference to condom use, which the Church opposes as a form of artificial contraception, means promoting promiscuity and thus contributes to the spread of AIDS. (MR)

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