December First World Aids Day

(01 Dec 2006 RV) The Holy See today joined celebrations to mark World Aids Day by calling on individuals to use the information they have on the pandemic to avoid infection.
A message issued to mark the occassion by Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, said while education is key to prevention, such education should not involve mere information about the disease.
“We must receive adequate information, certainly, but we should make this information our own, assimilate it, and apply it to our needs so as to meet them, and then, subsequently, find new horizons to advance, know more about this disease, and reach the point of eradicating it,” said Cardinal Barragán.
The Holy See also appealed to leaders and people of influence to implement necessary campaigns to ensure that infected mothers have adequate medicines so that their children will be protected.
Cardinal Barragán also called for better health and pastoral care for people living with HIV/Aids, saying very deep faith is needed in order to understand the meaning of a life that has been struck by Aids.
Around the world, events are happening to raise awareness of the disease and its human cost. One of the saddest realities of the HIV/Aids pandemic is the toll the disease takes on society’s most vulnerable members: children. Catherine Smibert reports on the initiative of a Jesuit missionary priest, Fr. Angelo D’agostino, who founded and directed a special home in Nairobi, Kenya, for children affected by aids, until his death last week at the age of 80…