Brian R Corbin's Reflections on Religion and Life

Living Your Faith as Citizens and Leaders in Politics, Culture, Society and Business

September 1, 2008 • 6:54 pm 0

Pope Speaks Out On Migration Emergency

70 Illegal Immigrants Die Off Maltese Coast

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 31, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- Migration has become an emergency in our times, and one that demands solidarity and effective political solutions, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today as he commented on the deaths this week of some 70 would-be immigrants off the coast of Malta, said to be one of the worst such incidents recorded in the country.

According to news reports, 78 would-be illegal African immigrants set sail from Libya on Aug. 21. The small boat found itself in the middle of a storm and capsized. Maltese fishermen rescued eight survivors on Tuesday.

Authorities have found only three bodies, but according to the survivors, four women are among the dead, including three who were pregnant.

After reciting the midday Angelus with several thousand people gathered in the courtyard of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father said the tragedy “seemed to surpass previous incidents in terms of the number of victims.”

Emergency

“Migration is a phenomenon that has been present from the dawn of human history, and it has always, for this reason, characterized the relations between peoples and nations,” he said. “The emergency that migration has become in our times, nevertheless, calls out to us and, while it solicits our solidarity, demands, at the same time, effective political answers.”

The Pontiff applauded the humanitarian work of various regional, national and international institutions that are addressing the problem of irregular migration.

He also called on the countries of original to “show a sense of responsibility” and to work to “remove the causes of irregular migration and cut off at the root all of the forms of criminality that are linked to these causes.”

Benedict XVI continued: “For their part, European countries, and all other countries that are the destination of immigration, are called to, among other things, develop through consensus initiatives and structures that continue to adapt themselves to the needs of irregular migrants.

“The latter must be made aware, on the one hand, of the value of their own lives, which are a singular good, always precious, that should be safeguarded in the face of the grave risks that the pursuit of better situations exposes them to and, on the other hand, the duty of legality that is imposed on all.”

“As the [Pope],” he added, “I feel a profound obligation to recall everyone’s attention to this problem and to ask for the generous cooperation of individuals and institutions to deal with it and to find solutions.”

Filed under: Migration, Papal Teachings

August 29, 2008 • 12:26 am 0

Catholic Charities: US Has Too Many Poor

Census Shows More People Living in Poverty

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, AUG. 28, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- The president of Catholic Charities USA said it is “unacceptable” that there are 37.3 million poor people in a nation as prosperous as the United States.

Father Larry Snyder said this in response to statistics released Tuesday by the United States Census Bureau, which revealed that 800,000 more people are living in poverty in the United States this year.

“It is unacceptable that in a nation that is as prosperous as ours that 37.3 million people, including 13.3 million children, continue to live in poverty,” Father Snyder said. “At 12.5%, the poverty rate indicates that reducing poverty is not a priority for this nation.”
The priest said his organization and its member agencies serve nearly 8 million needy people a year.

“The poverty rate is not just another economic statistic,” he said. “This unacceptable figure represents the millions of families we see each and every day who are struggling just to make ends meet.”

Father Snyder affirmed that the downturn in the U.S. economy has worsened the situation.

“Across our nation, Catholic Charities agencies are seeing more and more people having to choose between putting food on the table, paying their utility bills, or making their rent or mortgage payments,” he said. “Needing help with food, rent, clothing and prescriptions are all symptoms of much larger problems facing the poor and vulnerable in America, such as low wages and the lack of affordable housing and health care.”

The charity organization has launched a campaign to cut the poverty rate in half by 2020. They are urging Americans to demand that their political representatives make poverty a priority.

“In this election year, candidates for public office — especially our presidential candidates — must move from rhetoric to action and propose comprehensive plans to address the needs of more than 37 million people living in poverty in the United States over the next decade,” Father Synder said. “We call on all Americans to ask their candidates, ‘If elected, what will you do to address poverty?'”

Filed under: Caritas, Catholic Charities USA

August 18, 2008 • 8:45 pm 0

USCCB Statement on Labor Day, 2008

An American Catholic Tradition
Most Reverend William F. Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre
Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
September 1, 2008

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/labor_day_2008.pdf

The late Msgr. George G. Higgins was a remarkable priest whose primary work for many
years was connecting the Church and the labor movement around Catholic teaching on worker
rights. One of his many contributions was to offer an annual Labor Day statement on issues of
work and economic justice. This American Catholic tradition has been continued by the bishop
chairman of the Conference committee that works on economic issues. As the new Chairman of
the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, I take up this task with some trepidation but with a desire to begin by paying
homage to my friend of many years, Msgr. George Higgins.

Msgr. Higgins was a powerful bridge between the Catholic Church and the labor
movement. He was a realist, but a hopeful one. Monsignor was irascible and rather confident in
his opinions as well as in his convictions of what needed to be done. To his very core, he believed
that workers were best served by joining together with other workers in a union. I suspect he
would have had some trenchant comments about the situation of workers and wages, working
conditions, and the changing face of work in a globalized marketplace. While he would have
waxed eloquent about the “big picture,” his goal would never stray from an extraordinary ability
to measure the large economic issues by their impact on the average working man and woman.
Monsignor would have been harsh in his judgment about the greed and irresponsibility that
led to the mortgage foreclosure crisis. He would have had some caustic comments on the price of
gas for the working person and its impact on family life. He would have kept a keen eye on the
cost of living and its effect on family budgets, on the real value of current wages to buy
necessities, and on the challenges to our economy to diversify without losing sight of its
traditional strengths and opportunities.

Monsignor would have pointed out the lack of union representation in so many of the emerging industries and workplaces where exploitation has been most evident. He would have applauded any and every new initiative that brings labor leadership, management, and related interested parties together as “intermediate institutions” in our society that would be based on mutual respect. He would recognize that such respect furthers the good of the worker, the enterprises involved, and the common good.

Above all Msgr. Higgins would be concerned about the worker, the person, and the family
whose daily lives are affected by a host of factors. He would weigh up and measure all those
factors by their overall impact on human beings. And then he would have offered a couple of
basic suggestions that would move beyond hand wringing and negative assessments. Monsignor
would re-assert his faith in a nation and a people whose creative energies and productive
capacities should and would move us to a healthier economic situation. He would urge us to
remember that in a world of globalized activities, Catholic Social Teaching still offers one of the
best ways to assess whether the human person is the center of economic life or whether workers
who are poor and marginalized are forgotten.

A Nation Blessed
We are a nation blessed with extraordinary natural and human resources. We have great
economic capacity and creativity. We have extraordinary economic power and responsibility.
And, we are free! We all know we face challenges. But when did our nation not have challenges?
Where does it say that we should simply be recipients of the goods of this earth without working
for them, without earning them? Creativity and initiative are as much essential elements of our
lives today as they have been in the past. This freedom of creative initiative and energy needs to
be tempered by a deep sense of responsibility for one another, for our planet, and for the future.
The more we exercise self control in our possession and use of the goods of this earth, sharing
with others opportunities as well as products, the less need we will have for the kinds of
regulatory laws that become necessary when economic privateers and profit seeking pirates take
over whole areas of our economy.

We are a nation committed to both economic freedom and economic justice. But that
cannot mean freedom for me and justice for me alone. The classic linking of the human person
with the common good teaches us that we have to use our freedom and creativity not just for
ourselves and those we care for. It must extend to all those who are affected by our actions and by society’s goals. That means everybody in today’s globalized world.

A Globalized World
All these challenges and questions are framed in a new light with new dimensions in this
age of globalization. The world of work is different than in years past. Finance, production, trade,
and labor are no longer local, regional, or national entities, but global. Of itself globalization is a
neutral fact. It depends on who takes advantage of the current global economy and how it is put to use. Our present Holy Father Benedict XVI has suggested that this process offers “the hope of
wider participation in development” but warns against its risks of “worsening economic
inequality.” (May 26, 2007).

Here, two interrelated principles of Catholic Social Teaching come into play. The principle of subsidiarity champions the freedom of initiative that allows everyone scope and opportunity to be creative and productive and reap the benefits of hard work and energy. When taken to the extreme, it can become exploitive of others. Yet joined to the principle of solidarity, subsidiarity and all its creative impulses become harnessed to an end that includes the makers of a vibrant economy. This links their work into a set of relationships bringing new opportunities to one another across political and social divisions and especially across the great divide between rich and poor. Let interdependence become the “solidarity” of neighbor to neighbor in such a way that the subsidiarity of free creativity builds up and offers new possibilities for all neighbors, especially the poor and the vulnerable. The Church continues to echo the call of Pope John Paul II to “globalize solidarity.”

Catholic Social Teaching
The tradition of Catholic Social Teaching has much to offer in these tough economic
times. In the midst of the transformation of society during the Industrial Revolution, Pope Leo
XIII gave us enduring principles to deal with “new things” in his prophetic encyclical Rerum
Novarum. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have made the cause of justice for workers
their own, responding to the “new things” in economic life. When Pope John Paul II issued his
first “social encyclical,” Laborem Exercens, in 1981, he invited us to look at these issues from the
perennial viewpoint of the value of human work which finds its intrinsic meaning in the dignity of
the worker.

Msgr. Higgins applauded this teaching of the Holy Father. He saw it as a papal clarion call
for all the issues he championed in his own life. He was right because they are all the values
stemming from the truth about the inherent dignity and value of the human person that lies at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church continues to focus on the dignity of the worker as the key to the question of work and as the cornerstone of Catholic teaching on economic life. Our challenge is to assess our “new things” by the application of traditional moral principles expressed in Catholic Social Teaching that continue to have remarkable meaning and relevance to us as we celebrate Labor Day 2008.

Labor Day and Politics
This year, we will choose a new president, as well as one-third of the Senate, all the
members of the House of Representatives, and myriad state and local officials. The campaign has
already been long and, for many, arduous. What can I as a bishop add to this without echoing
what has been said better by others? Msgr. Higgins would urge you to look beyond the slogans
and the promises. He would ask you to assess the candidates’ backgrounds and records. He would have a few choice words for those he deemed unworthy or neglectful of the rights of workers and the role of unions. But he would always insist on some basic principles that we all must follow.

The Bishops of the United States have put forth for Catholics and non-Catholics alike
some basic principles to consider. In publishing the new and, I believe, challenging statement,
Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, we bishops call Catholics to be active and
informed participants in political life. We do not seek to impose or imply a preference for one
candidate over another. We do propose what is incumbent on all men and women of good will: the formation of a correct conscience based on the truth about the human person and human society.

We cannot emphasize this enough. An informed conscience moves beyond personal feelings and
individual popularity. An informed conscience asks first what is right and true. An informed
conscience examines the candidates and the issues from the perspective of human life and dignity, the true good of every human person, the true good of society, the common good of us all in our nation and in this world.

What can I add to that? Never forget that human life is the supreme good in this world.
Never forget that human dignity is not an expendable commodity but belongs to everyone without exception. Every day we are pro-life. Every day we are champions of human dignity.

Our voices and our votes should shape society by bringing these inalienable truths into every particular proposal and program, every particular candidate’s projects and plans. The Bishops’ statement makes both links and distinctions between the fundamental duty to oppose what is intrinsically evil (i.e., the destruction of unborn life) and the obligation to pursue the common good (i.e., defending the rights of workers and pursuing greater economic justice).

I urge you to review and reflect on this challenging call to be salt, light, and leaven in this election year and beyond (see http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org).

A Catholic Framework
We Catholics have been blessed by a centennial of Catholic Social Teaching. I personally
have been privileged to work with three Popes in this field and have been formed by their vision
and their teaching. The Church offers this, not just to Catholics, but to all men and women of good will. We are convinced that the truths about the human person in society that come to us from both reason and revelation must be brought into all the economic, social, civil, political, and
cultural relationships that make up a good society. The human and moral dimensions of economic life are key principles in Catholic thought. Catholic social and moral teaching on these matters offers hope and direction in difficult times. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church provides us with a summary and synthesis of the Church’s teaching on economic life as well as other aspects of the Catholic social tradition. [See Chapter VI “Human Work” and Chapter VII “Economic Life,” Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2004 )]

I recommend it to you.

The bishops of the United States reflect this teaching as they outline key elements of a just
economy in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. These basics need to be part of the
national discussion as we choose leaders and develop policies for the future:

The economy must serve people, not the other way around.

Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation.

Employers contribute to the common good through the services or products they provide and by creating jobs that uphold the dignity and rights of workers—to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to adequate benefits and security in their old age, to the choice of whether to organize and join unions, to the opportunity for legal status for immigrant workers, to private property, and to economic initiative.

Workers also have responsibilities—to provide a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, to treat employers and co-workers with respect, and to carry out their work in ways that contribute to the common good. Workers, employers, and unions should not only advance their own interests, but also work together to advance economic justice and the well-being of all. (#52)

Overcoming Poverty
Poverty has many faces. And they are the faces of our brothers and sisters here in our own
country and around the world. Whether I am in remote corners of Africa or the streets of
Lawrence, Massachusetts, I am convinced that when we face up to the needs of these our brothers and sisters, the challenge of overcoming poverty brings the Catholic community together. The Catholic Church is committed to making her contribution to alleviating the pain of poverty at every level: internationally, nationally, and especially locally through the magnificent endeavors of priests, religious, and laity in our parishes.

Things may be tough for an awful lot of us today. But no matter how difficult it might be for you or me, I believe each of us can name someone we know who is carrying a greater burden. I can hear Msgr. Higgins telling us “Don’t forget the other guy,” especially the person with less. That person has hopes and dreams, too. That person comes from a family and belongs to our human family. That person has dignity because all of us are created in the image of God.

Let me close by sharing with you some thoughts from Pope Benedict’s powerful
encyclical Deus Caritas Est:

Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: In the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God….Love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind is as essential to [the Church] as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. (# 15, 22)

To one and all, I wish you a most happy and relaxing Labor Day with family and friends. I
hope this Labor Day will bring a renewed vigor as we seek to build together a society that cares
for its own, reaches out to the poor and vulnerable, and offers true hope to all. Let us share justly
and freely the goods of society and advance the good of every person and the common good of all.

Filed under: Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice

August 11, 2008 • 7:39 pm 0

Speech by Donald Kerwin, Director of CLINIC/USCCB

“Renewing Hope”
by Donald Kerwin, National Migration Conference, 2008

I learned long ago that people mostly come to these gatherings to be reminded of why they do what they do. Thus, my intention is to speak to the values that underlie our work. Building on the conference’s theme and Cardinal Mahony’s key-note address, I’d like to speak about one virtue in particular, the virtue of hope.

Despite the harsh rhetoric, most people want to do the right thing on immigration, but they need a way to conceptualize the issue and to see immigrants as they truly are. How do we view immigrants? How do we see ourselves?

Migration plays the starring role in our faith tradition. For us, migration has always been a mystery in plain view. Hebrew Scripture tells the story of the Exodus and Exile of the Jewish people, and how these seminal experiences taught the Jewish people empathy toward migrants, not hard-heartedness. The first five books of Hebrew Scripture admonish us no less than 36 times to treat the stranger with justice and compassion.

In the New Testament, we find the stories of Joseph and Mary’s trip to Bethlehem, the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt, and the wise men’s journey to the Holy Family. We follow the itinerant ministry of Jesus, the apostles on the road to Emmaus, and Paul on the road to Damascus. We learn that Jesus identified with migrants and linked our salvation to our treatment of strangers and the dispossessed.

Members of the early Church, a missionary church, called themselves “parokoi” which means temporary residents, migrants, sojourners. Parokoi is the root of our modern word “parish.” In our tradition, therefore, a parish is where sojourners gather.

In all of our history, in all of our experiences, God has accompanied us on our journeys. As a people, we have long known of the fear and prejudice that leads to hostility toward immigrants. We read in the Book of Exodus that, following Joseph’s death, the new Pharoh feared that the exiled people of Israel would become “too many and too mighty” (Ex 1:8-22). As a result, he enslaved them and afflicted them with “heavy burdens.”

Immigrants have also played a decisive role in our national narrative, continuously enriching and renewing our nation. Earlier immigrants, the ancestors of many of us here this morning, came to this nation for the same reasons that today’s immigrants do. And they faced the same suspicions and criticisms. Nativists viewed them as lawless, disease-ridden, and not assimilable.

Their faith made them particularly suspect. Catholicism was attacked as incompatible with democracy. In a striking irony, nativists evoked religious liberty to justify their bigotry and discrimination.

We know that when we welcome immigrants and allow them to contribute fully to our country, it benefits all of us. Conversely:

• When we deny health care to an immigrant, we endanger public health.

• When we deny the possibility of a college education to immigrant children, we cruelly limit their ability to contribute.

• When we effectively deny immigrants access to the police, we undermine public safety.

• When we try to deny citizenship to children born in the United States, we take aim at the very ideals that make us a nation.

We do not want to create a permanent or hereditary underclass of residents — mere “denizens” without security, prospects, or rights.

To us, the question is not what we don’t “get” about the “‘illegal’ in ‘illegal alien’” The question is what those who oppose us don’t get about God-given human dignity? What don’t they get about people exercising their rights and duties to migrate in order to support their families? Why can’t they see that immigrants contribute to the good of our nation with their labor, their faith, their family values, and their commitment to their communities? Why don’t they understand that an illegal entry may be technically a crime, but that it’s a peculiar crime indeed that people feel compelled to commit in order to feed their children? Whey don’t they see that strategies aimed at deporting or forcing out 12 million people would be a civil rights, social and economic catastrophe? In fact, these policies are a catastrophe in many communities. Or that people cannot be illegal, any more than fathers, mothers, sisters, or brothers can be illegal?

We believe in a nation comprised of people from different countries who are united by a commitment to our nation and to its core values of freedom, equality, rights, democracy, and opportunity. We do not believe that membership in our nation should turn on traits like ethnicity, race, nationality, or other inherited characteristics. We reject a vision that would deny citizenship to children born here, effectively making them stateless. We reject a vision that would rationalize or ignore the reality of people perishing in the desert, of families torn apart, of people denied the ability to subsist.

Hope – like justice and hospitality — is one of the great biblical themes that guide our work. Hope for a better life for migrants and for all of us. Hope for the conversion of hearts and minds that are disfigured by confusion, suspicion, anger and ignorance. Hope that our nation will come to embrace people who share its ideals and embody its virtues. Hope that our elected officials will create a better system and will have the courage to enact positive immigration reform.

Hope does not mean we will always get what we want from our limited and imperfect perspective. Mother Theresa reminded us that “we’re not supposed to be successful, but faithful.” However, hope does mean that we will never be resigned to the current state of affairs.
And we have reason to hope. You would be hopeful if you were rooted in a tradition which lived and taught that:

• all persons have equal dignity and rights.

• a state has a right to control its borders, but not at the expense of those who are migrating to realize their God-given rights

• sovereignty is not about denying rights, but about locating responsibility for honoring them

• the rule of law is not about about putting people outside the law, but protecting them within the law

• rights turns on human dignity, not on membership in a particular state or immigration status

• honoring rights serves the good of everybody which is the very purpose of government

• the “common good” is not the greater good, but it embraces the rights and prosperity of everybody, including those without legal status

• cultural diversity should not be feared because culture is where people locate their deepest values

• migration presents an opportunity to unify people based on their values

This kind of vision would give you hope. And, friends, this is the Catholic vision. Here is what the U.S. bishops said when asked to extend the Justice for Immigrants campaign for another few years. They said that the campaign would not be extended for three or five years; it would be extended until our nation provides justice for immigrants. We should all take hope from that response.

Let me end by sharing a success story from Elena Segura and the Justice for Immigrants campaign in Chicago. As part of that campaign, a group of 2,500 women committed to pray for immigration reform. Some committed to pray for months, others for years. Their slogan is Oracion Y Accion Hasta Que Pase La Ley De Inmigracion. They use the image of those who carried the ark of the covenant around Jericho. Around and around Jericho the priests and people walked with the ark. Around and around seven times until the walls of Jericho fell down.
And around and around the prayers of the women in Chicago travel. Around and around the halls of Congress and of the Department of Homeland Security. Around and around the borders between our countries. Around and around the borders in our minds, borders that separate us from our brothers and sisters. The women pray that the wall in our nation’s collective heart will fall. Have hope. Be strong in your faith. It will.

Thank you.

Filed under: Migration, Social Doctrine

July 31, 2008 • 11:14 pm 0

Msgr. Robert Vitillo, Interview With Caritas Expert on HIV

ZE08073112 – 2008-07-31
Permalink: http://web.zenit.org/article-23393?l=english

Beyond Condoms in the AIDS Debate

By Karna Swanson

MEXICO CITY, JULY 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Teaching abstinence outside marriage and fidelity within has been proved to be much more effective in decreasing the spread of HIV than simply distributing condoms, according to the special advisor on HIV for Caritas Internationalis.

Monsignor Robert Vitillo, who will participate in the XVII International AIDS Conference, to be held Aug. 3-8 in Mexico City, adds that unfortunately, abstinence and infidelity are not given the attention they deserve among experts and researchers.

Some 25,000 experts, physicians, activists and decision-makers from around the world are expected to attend the conference organized by the International AIDS Society, which has at its theme “Universal Action Now.”

Caritas Internationalis sponsored a pre-conference seminar Wednesday for Caritas participants from Latin America, and on Aug. 5, together with the Jesuits of Mexico and the Catholic HIV and AIDS Network, it will host delegates from Catholic organizations in an evening of prayer and discussion.

In this interview with ZENIT, Monsignor Vitillo shares what he sees as the Church’s role in fighting the spread of the AIDS virus, and the role of faith-based organizations at the conference.

Q: You say a major challenge the Church faces with regards to AIDS is ignorance of what the Church is doing to fight it. What is the Church doing? What is unique about the Church’s approach?

Monsignor Vitillo: As I have been privileged to witness the response of the Catholic Church to the HIV pandemic on literally every continent, I have noted that the Church’s response is very consistent with its overall mission:

— To teach people both about the facts related to this pandemic, and about the permanent values that should be the foundation of our response. This includes both how to prevent the further spread of HIV — by observing sexual abstinence outside marriage and life-long, mutual fidelity within marriage — and how we should respond to those already living with or affected by the virus — with acceptance, love, and solidarity, and without discrimination, rejection, or stigmatization.

— To serve people. Here the Caritas organizations at the regional, national, diocesan and parish levels have played — and continue to do so — an important role in organizing and replicating health care, social services, emotional support, income-generation activities, orphan care, advocacy and self-help programs for and with persons living with or affected by HIV.

In addition to Caritas, there are many other Catholic organizations working to help those affected by HIV.

— To provide pastoral care to persons living with or affected by HIV.

Many people who know firsthand the impact of the virus are searching to deepen their relationship with God, especially as they face the challenge which HIV has posed to them and/or to their loved ones.

They also desperately want to understand that this virus has not been sent as a “punishment from God” — a number of bishops’ conferences, as well as Pope John Paul II, addressed this issue very clearly by explaining that, according to Catholic doctrine, God does not “punish” people by sending them illnesses.

Q: Last week 50 Catholic groups asked Benedict XVI to lift the Church’s ban on artificial contraception, and accused the Church’s stance of having “catastrophic effects” in the spread of AIDS. Does the Church’s position against condoms constitute an obstacle against fighting AIDS?

Monsignor Vitillo: I would like to slightly transpose this question in order to emphasize my strong conviction that the Church’s teaching, which insists on sexual abstinence outside marriage and lifelong, mutual fidelity within marriage, is indeed scientifically valid and has offered evidence-based proof that people who observe such behavior have been able to prevent the spread of HIV.

Studies in countries where the HIV prevalence rate has been decreased in recent years, such as Uganda, Kenya, and Thailand, indicate that people in these countries were more disposed to reduce the number of their sexual partners and/or to delay the onset of sexual activity than to adopt the use of condoms.

Such behaviors — reduction of sexual partners and delay of onset of sexual activity — are much closer to the Church’s teaching on sexuality and on prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections than is an exclusive focus on condom promotion.

Regrettably, however, many scientists, HIV prevention educators, and AIDS activists are so fixed on condom promotion that they do not give due attention to the risk avoidance that is possible to achieve through abstinence outside marriage and mutual, lifelong fidelity within marriage.

I believe that the Church does a great service to HIV prevention efforts by focusing on risk avoidance and on deeper and longer-lasting behavior change that is necessary to make a significant impact on reducing — and, hopefully, stopping — the further transmission of HIV.

Q: Will faith-based organizations have a strong voice at this international conference, or is the work of these organizations seen as being on the margin?

Monsignor Vitillo: In recent international conferences on AIDS, the voice of faith-based organizations has grown stronger, but there always is room for improvement in this regard.

For the past several International AIDS Conferences, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA), based in Geneva, has made efforts to organize an ecumenical pre-conference. This year, in Mexico City, the EAA has some 450 registered participants for the pre-conference that will be held from July 31 to Aug. 2.

The EAA also organizes an inter-faith exhibit booth at which many organizations — Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and others — exhibit their resources. Because this is a joint effort, the booth is large enough to “compete” with pharmaceutical companies, large governmental displays, etc., for the attention of the some 25,000 participants in the International AIDS Conference.

There have been efforts by some of the conference organizers, including the International AIDS Society, to include the voices of religious leaders and of those working with faith-based organizations.

Regrettably, for some groups, including some particularly aggressive activist groups, faith-based organizations represent an obstacle to an effective AIDS response. I believe that such thinking is deeply flawed and fails to recognize the crucial and life-saving response to AIDS that is embodied in the faith-based efforts.

Some of these groups receive substantial funding from foundations, and even from some governments, that attempt to promote a relativist, secular agenda in the world.

And these groups sponsor few, if any, direct services to those living with or affected by the virus, even though they represent themselves as the “voice” of people so affected. They certainly don’t represent the majority of poor and marginalized people who very much appreciate the engagement of churches and faith-based organizations in the global response to AIDS.

I believe that we need to engage such negative “voices” in respectful dialogue, but, at the same time, we must stay focused on the activities that will have the greatest impact on the lives of those who know firsthand the impact of HIV in their lives.

Q: Is there a divide between faith-based and secular organizations, or do they work together? Do faith-based organizations face any extra challenges?

Monsignor Vitillo: There certainly is positive experience and much more potential for faith-based and secular organizations to work together on those efforts for which they share common values and strategies.

For example, in June 2007, Caritas Internationalis and the Unions of Superiors General jointly sponsored a Night of Solidarity — an initiative of the World AIDS Campaign — to promote universal access to anti-retroviral medications.

As another example, Caritas Internationalis and the Catholic HIV/AIDS Network plan to join the “Making Medicines Child-Sized” advocacy campaign of the World Health Organization to promote medicines, including anti-retroviral medications, that are better adapted for use among children.

I believe that faith-based organizations face some particular challenges related to such collaboration:

— Many secular groups are not accustomed to working with faith-based organizations. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance recently published a manual titled “Building Better Partnerships” to assist such groups to understand better the major faith traditions, the values that undergird their beliefs and actions, and the strategies employed by them in responding to AIDS.

— Faith-based groups must exercise particular caution to avoid compromising their beliefs and values when they engage in such collaboration with secular groups, and must be careful to avoid creating any scandal through such collaboration.

— Such collaboration may require that faith-based and secular groups “agree to disagree” on certain issues and make special efforts to respect each other without compromising their own basic identity and values.

Q: What is the message Caritas brings to the table at this conference? Conversely, what is Caritas hoping to take away?

Monsignor Vitillo: Caritas participants bring many gifts and skills, as well as needs, to the table of the International AIDS Conference.

First of all, we must remember that Caritas is rooted in Catholic teaching, especially in the social doctrine of the Church. That teaching brings us a vision of the whole person, created in the image of God, gifted with a God-given, unique and irrevocable dignity.

Catholic doctrine also reminds us that, as a Church, we are a community and must act as a leaven to help people, especially those who are most poor, vulnerable and marginalized, to develop themselves, even as we look forward to the fulfillment of our development at the end of our earthly lives and at the end of this world.

This vision is beautifully articulated in “Deus Caritas Est,” the first encyclical of our Holy Father, Benedict XVI. The Confederation of Caritas Internationalis has studied and continues to reflect on this encyclical with particular care and attention, and we bring that reflection to all our responses to the world social challenges and natural and human-made emergencies, including that of the HIV pandemic.

This equips us to bring to the International AIDS Conference a desire to identify more than technical or temporary solutions to this pandemic and, alternatively, to identify solutions based on values and on long-term behavior change on the level of relationships between individuals and in society as a whole.

For the past 20 years our confederation has joined other Catholic organizations in sharing both our learning and experience in responding to HIV and in advocating for more just policies and solutions to problems related to this pandemic. I think that we will have more participants from Catholic organizations than at previous conferences, so I hope we can make our presence known and appreciated.

Finally, I think that I can speak for other Caritas participants when I say that we hope to learn more — the current scientific evidence related to the pandemic, projections for the future, effective strategies for prevention, care, support, and treatment. Of course, we will need to assess such strategies from the “lens” of our Catholic values and teaching.

And we wish to deepen our appreciation for the firsthand experience of those who live with or have been affected directly by HIV, and to engage them more actively in our Caritas-sponsored responses to the pandemic.

Filed under: AIDS, Medical Ethics

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