Affirming the Church's AIDS ministry

Pope Benedict’s words about HIV-AIDS prevention in the new book ‘Light of the World’ by German journalist Peter Seewald, provide “wonderful affirmation” of the work that’s already being done by Catholic organisations in countries across the world. That’s the view of one of the Church’s top experts on AIDS care and prevention, Msgr Robert Vitillo, who works as special advisor on the issue to the global Caritas Internationalis confederation.

Having followed and encouraged the Church’s response to the AIDS crisis since the early 1980’s, Fr Robert told Philippa Hitchen he was delighted to hear the Pope “acknowledge the urgency of this problem” which he hopes may motivate others who have not yet engaged with the pandemic.

Listen…

“The new thing in these words is that the Holy Father urges pastoral sensitivity – this has always been part of the teaching and tradition of the Church….yet for us to read these words from the Holy Father is very important. We should not be abandoning those people who are engaged in activities that put themselves and others at risk, but we should be accompanying them to help them become more responsible.”

“I think there are some people who’ve always been fearful of responding to people with HIV-AIDS and have tried to find obstacles for church-related organisations to do that, so they may also react in a similar way towards these words of the Holy Father.”

“In ‘The Many Faces of AIDS’ the United States bishops also acknowledged there needs to be a pastoral approach to those engaged in high risk behaviour…..but it’s important to note that neither the bishops in that document…nor the Holy Father have said we should simply promote or distribute condoms. We’re not affirming behaviour that is outside the teaching of church, but simply trying to help people grow and mature towards a more responsible behaviour.
The Holy Father endorses the ‘A’ and ‘B’ approach and acknowledges the ‘C’ would be a first step towards becoming morally responsible.”