by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
Today is World AIDS Day.
We can all be change agents in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Are we doing enough to reach out in love and compassion to those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS? What more can we do e.g. as individuals, in our parishes and schools? Are we empowering our young people and adults to make informed choices, based on the tenets of our faith?
On November 25 and 26, I participated in a 2-day Symposium organised by the HIV Awareness Unit of the Ministry of the People and Social Development, in conjunction with the Faith Based Network of Trinidad &Tobago, of which I am a board member. The theme was Beyond desire: The Role of FBOs.
According to UNAIDS, in 2012 there were 35.3 million people globally living with HIV; 2.3 million people became newly infected with HIV; 1.6 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses. Although people are living longer because e.g. of access to antiretroviral drugs, only 9.7 million people in low and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral therapy. T&T has a National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS. Let’s become advocates so that we can assist those in need.
According to the Global AIDS Response (2010-2011) the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS in T&T at the end of 2010 was 22,787, producing an HIV prevalence rate of about 1.5%.
Trinidad and Tobago is characterised as having a generalised epidemic. Hon. Rodger Samuel stated at a National Youth Symposium in May 2013 that approximately 1.3% of T&T youth 15-24 – about 3,500 young persons, are living with HIV. Over the period 2010 to 2011, the percentage of T&T adults and children living with HIV/AIDS receiving treatment – through antiretrovirals – were 75% and 73.1% respectively. Drugs to stop mother to child transmission are successfully being administered.
The topic I addressed at the recent Symposium was: “How can faith communities be a voice and a presence in responding to issues such as HIV and AIDS” (see CCSJ’s website). The US Bishops rightly stated in The many faces of AIDS: A Gospel Response (1987): “As members of the Church and society, we have a responsibility to stand in solidarity with and reach out with compassion and understanding to those exposed to or experiencing HIV and AIDS. We must provide spiritual and pastoral care as well as medical and social services for them and support for their families and friends… we must offer a clear presentation of Catholic moral teaching with respect to human intimacy and sexuality…Discrimination or violence directed against persons with AIDS is unjust and immoral.”
Our response must be compassionate and non-judgmental. All life is sacred. We must recognise the dignity of each person made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). “The Catholic Church is the largest private provider of care to HIV AIDS patients in the world. In relation to the sexual transmission of the disease, the Church holds that sexual-abstinence before marriage and monogamy inside marriage are the best means of limiting the spread of the epidemic.” (Wikipedia).
Catholics can and must be there at every stage – prevention, treatment, care and assistance. The words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on World AIDS Day 2005 are instructive: “Closely following Christ’s example, the Church has always considered the cure of the sick as an integral part of her mission. Therefore I encourage the many initiatives promoted, especially by ecclesial communities, to eradicate this sickness, and I feel close to AIDS sufferers and their families, invoking upon them the help and comfort of the Lord.”
Many Bishops Conferences around the world have produced pastoral letters/statements on this issue. Support the work of e.g. SVP at Cyril Ross Nursery, or Living Water Community (LWC), which runs Mercy Home AIDS Hospice in Woodbrook. Both SVP and LWC are also involved in outreach work with families. Stand in solidarity with those in need; working with and empowering those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. CARITAS suggests that parishes can develop prayer, liturgies, anointing services, memorial services, rituals, and symbols that are meaningful. Home-care, counselling, social and spiritual support, encouraging persons to get tested and accompanying them are also important areas of pastoral care.
I end with the words of Blessed John Paul II who reminded participants in the 1989 Vatican Conference on AIDS: “… I invite all the faithful to lift up their prayer to the Lord of life so that he will help humanity to bear fruit, even with regard to this new and menacing calamity. That God will enlighten believers … so that they might be messengers of the hope that does not die.”
