|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
AIDS-POLICY Aug-11-2008 (1,030 words) xxxi
Faith community gains respect in AIDS policymaking, say observers
By Paul Jeffrey
Catholic News Service
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Faith-based organizations, which for years have been relegated to the margins of discussions on AIDS policy and planning, are finally beginning to gain recognition, said participants in the XVII International AIDS Conference, which concluded Aug. 8 in Mexico City.
"This isn't perceived as a friendly place to be a religious leader, but increasingly the faith community is being respected and taken seriously," said Linda Hartke, coordinator of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, a group that includes several U.S. Catholic groups, including the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Medical Mission Board.
"Yet with respect comes new responsibility and challenges. The more engaged we are, the more other people expect of us. The challenge for us is to do more, to do it better, to learn from our experience, to build bridges to other sectors of civil society as well as governments and the private sector, because it's only by working in partnership and not in isolation that we'll be more effective," Hartke told Catholic News Service.
During a speech to a gathering of 600 religious leaders that preceded the conference, Craig McClure, executive director of the International AIDS Society, applauded the churches' response to HIV and AIDS. The Geneva-based International AIDS Society, the main sponsor of the international AIDS conference, is the world's leading independent association of HIV and AIDS professionals.
"Many faith-based organizations have been at the front line of the response to HIV since the very beginning. In the early years of the epidemic, some were the only groups willing to provide solace for the dying. When many others shunned those living with HIV and AIDS, many Christians and people from other religions reached out with compassion to those in their communities who were in need," he said.
Nonetheless, McClure said, "the significant proportion of HIV services that are delivered by faith-based organizations throughout the world is not reflected in their influence globally, regionally and nationally on policy setting and regulatory processes and this must change."
He said some lingering tensions complicate making faith-based groups full participants in policymaking.
"Particularly in the area of prevention, there remains a disconnect between the moral teachings of some of the great religions regarding such topics as homosexuality, polygamy and the use of condoms and the reality of people's day-to-day experience," he said.
"Many members of the most marginalized and HIV-affected communities such as gay men, sex workers and drug users feel shunned by their religious leaders. Some have abandoned their religion entirely even if many of the services provided by faith-based organizations are done ... without prejudice or judgment," McClure said.
U.S. Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo, who serves as the special adviser to Caritas Internationalis on HIV and AIDS, agreed that the relationship between faith-based organizations and secular groups involved in AIDS work is getting better. Caritas Internationalis is the Vatican-based umbrella organization for national Catholic charities around the world.
Msgr. Vitillo pointed out that in 2006 the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS published a book he wrote on faith-based responses to HIV and AIDS in southern Africa.
Yet he acknowledged that some friction remains.
"In the past few years there has been a lot more interest on part of the International AIDS Society in learning about faith-based organizations, in finding ways to partner with them. But some other groups don't have such an open posture toward faith-based organizations and see them as an obstacle to responding to HIV," he told CNS. "I think they're mistaken. They need to open up and include some of the excellent models developed by faith-based groups, especially in those parts of the world where faith-based organizations provide half or more of the health care, let alone the social services and development work.
"It's a shame when they try to exclude faith-based organizations from the mix. There's no one group that can respond fully to HIV and AIDS. It's much too complex. We all need to work together on this, otherwise we'll continue to lose the battle," he said.
Msgr. Vitillo said the tension is unlikely to go away soon, given that the church's positions are not likely to change.
"The Catholic Church strongly promotes value-based prevention of HIV, and its whole approach to human sexuality and human relationships is value-based. We have a strong teaching of sexual abstinence outside of marriage and mutual permanent fidelity within marriage. That's brought some reverse discrimination against the Catholic Church from people who don't accept or want to live by that teaching and who want the church to change its teaching. But the Catholic Church doesn't change its teaching. It's been there long before the HIV pandemic and I believe it will be there long after. This is an important base of values for human relations," he said.
One religious leader argued that it was the churches' task to publicly repent of their contribution to stigma and discrimination. Bishop Mark Hanson, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, began his presentation to the religious leaders gathered before the main AIDS conference by washing the feet of two women living with HIV.
"I am absolutely convinced that we, as religious leaders, and we in the religious community have so shunned and shamed people with HIV and struggling with AIDS that we must begin first by engaging in public acts of repentance," said Bishop Hanson, who is also president of the Lutheran World Federation.
Hartke told CNS that the international AIDS conference, which takes place every two years, provides an important venue for moving forward the dialogue between faith-based groups and others involved in the struggle against HIV and AIDS.
"Although we're making progress, in many communities there isn't a lot of trust, and there have been painful experiences with religious leaders and faith-based organizations. Overcoming that doesn't come at a conference, but back in local communities. Here you'll see religious leaders sitting down with sex workers in a conversation that's respectful and proactive, exploring ways to work together and collaborate. Yet translating that back home into action at a community level is a much bigger challenge," she said.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
