Religious release 'map' of how orders help people with HIV/AIDS
By Carol Glatz (Catholic News Service)
ROME (CNS) -- In an effort to enhance their visibility on the world stage and provide networking support to others, two worldwide organizations of religious released a global "map" of how the church is combating HIV/AIDS.
Titled "In Loving Service," the 30-page booklet documents the services religious orders offer to millions of people affected by HIV/AIDS around the world.
Organizers said the mapping project will be vital for showing the churches, governments, international organizations and potential donors exactly what men and women religious are doing in the areas of prevention, care and education.
A draft of the booklet was released April 30 and at a May 3-5 international forum sponsored by the International Union of Superiors General, an organization for women religious, and the Union of Superiors General, an organization for men religious.
Organizers said the role religious institutes play in fighting the spread of HIV and caring for those affected by AIDS has either been overlooked or criticized for the church's opposition to the use of condoms in prevention programs.
"We're hoping (the booklet) would make more visible what religious are doing" not only to counteract the "negative perceptions," but also to help consolidate the efforts of individual religious around the world, Camillian Father Frank Monks told Catholic News Service. Father Monks is the former superior general of the Camillians and the president of the joint health commission of the two religious unions that oversaw the project.
He said the negative image some international organizations have painted of the church is not only "very annoying," it also hinders many religious institutes from getting access to the needed money or resources that could fund or expand their HIV/AIDS projects.
This means many religious men and women also are overworked and risk burnout, he said, because in addition to providing crucial care to some of the poorest and most remote parts of the world, they also must engage in "time-consuming" canvassing to find money, funding and medicine for their work.
Consolata Sister Simona Brambilla told CNS that the ideal would be to set up a coordinating office in Rome that can centralize all fundraising efforts and help train people to be more effective in the field in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Concerning the church's stance against condom use, Father Monks said like many ethical issues, "it's not all black and white."
"There is a conversation under way in the church and whatever conclusions come out of it, we will accept," he said.
The church advocates abstinence before marriage and fidelity during marriage as the best way to prevent the spread of HIV. However, currently there is no official church position on the use of condoms by married couples to prevent the transmission of HIV, though the church opposes the use of any artificial means of contraception -- including condoms -- that would interfere with the creation of life within marriage.
Pope Benedict XVI had asked the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry to draw up a study dealing with the use of condoms within marriage when one partner is infected. The council handed that study over to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2006.
Father Monks said the "In Loving Service" survey results will also help religious "be more effective because our response has been fragmented. The Camillians didn't know what the Combonis were doing" and vice versa, he said.
Besides distributing the booklet to all the headquarters of all the religious orders in Rome, some Vatican bodies and the world's bishops' conferences, the mapping project will also set up an "informal network" that includes a planned Web site so religious can share ideas and information about HIV/AIDS services.
With the help of UNAIDS and Caritas Internationalis, representatives of men and women religious formulated a questionnaire that was sent to every Catholic religious institute in the world asking them to detail how they were involved in HIV/AIDS care and prevention.
Of the more than 2,100 religious communities in the world, only 446 responded to the survey. The data was then compiled and analyzed by faculty and students at Georgetown University in Washington.
Comboni Sister Maria Martinelli said many religious communities did not respond because they are not directly involved in HIV/AIDS programs.
However, she said some orders not involved in health care wrote saying they did teach young people about healthy habits and helped boost their self-esteem, which may help protect them from high-risk behaviors.
She told journalists April 30 that offering medical care is only a small part of what the church can do in the fight against HIV/AIDS; besides offering education and rectifying social and economic injustices, religious can offer "pastoral duties of accompanying" those affected by HIV.
Father Monks said prayers, "a hug and hope are as important as medicine."
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops