Over Time, Latin American Church Leaders Change Response to HIV, AIDS

The Catholic Church in Latin America is changing its approach to the continuing epidemic of HIV and AIDS, and many are welcoming the changes.

"While moral double standards and stigma remain strong elements of the response to HIV and AIDS in many evangelical and Protestant churches, I've recently seen an enthusiastic willingness to deal openly with the epidemic from Catholic leaders," said Dr. Eduardo Campana, an Ecuadorean who heads an AIDS program for the Latin American Council of Methodist Churches.

"It's somewhat surprising given their opposition to some forms of prevention, and I don't know if the interest comes from on high or from the grass roots, but it's helping to foster a broader response to HIV and AIDS and the factors that contribute to it," he told Catholic News Service.

For example, he said, the Mexican bishops' conference released a groundbreaking pastoral letter during an international gathering of AIDS researchers and activists in August in Mexico City. The bishops urged people to work together to fight discrimination against those with AIDS and to avoid judging them.

"The Mexican bishops have done a wonderful job of combating stigma and discrimination," said U.S. Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo, who serves as the special adviser on HIV and AIDS to Caritas Internationalis, an umbrella group of Catholic aid agencies. "Their educational materials have won marketing awards. ... And they've done a good job of linking the epidemic to changing patterns of migration and to the poverty which makes people vulnerable to HIV."

Jesuit Father Hernan Quezada, a physician who advises a regional network of Caritas organizations on AIDS, said the church is wrestling with the fruits of its initial approach, which at times contributed to stigmatizing those living with the disease.

"At the beginning of the epidemic, we had an unfortunate discourse, and so people have seen us as disinterested or as an obstacle to responding to the crisis," he told CNS. "There were a lot of negative experiences, and that has created a kind of reverse stigmatization against the church. Today we're struggling to show our many positive experiences. We're trying to destigmatize ourselves so we can work more with governments and civil society groups."

He said that ideological approaches to discussing the disease "never move the discussion forward." He said change occurs when people learn what it is to live with HIV and AIDS.