Cardinal Napier of South Africa speaks to Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on HIV/AIDS

(11 Jan. 2007) : “We are called to give witness to Christ by reaching out to our brothers and sisters who are living with HIV/AIDS in our communities or elsewhere”, declared Archbishop of Durban, South Africa, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier at Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) centre, New Delhi on Jan. 10, 2007. “Our coming together here is not a coincidence but part of God’s plan of how to make Jesus visible to others through our compassionate service to HIV/AIDS infected people”, said Cardinal Napier.

Referring to the work of Christ, Cardinal said, “we might not be able to perform miracles like Jesus, but wherever love of Christ is brought in a way that is real, miracles do take place there”. Shedding light on the AIDS infected in India and South Africa, Cardinal pointed out that both the countries are facing the same problem and are not far behind from each other in the race of highest AIDS victims with India having 5.7 million and South Africa 5.4 m cases. He said that the situation in Southern Africa was so bad that AIDS had become a threat to the very survival of families and their future. However, the prelate highlighted that “There is hope among the HIV infected that somebody would come and show that God has not abandoned them. At first, the Church did not understand the gravity of the situation and thought it was just a local disease. But now the Bishops Conference in South Africa has set up an AIDS office which coordinates activities of various groups, raising funds, training and facilitating, improving existing programmes, providing monetary and evaluation support and facilitating sharing of success stories,” the prelate said.