Question:
I would like to know what the Church’s position is regarding AIDS patients.
Answer:
One must distinguish between the attitude to be taken toward AIDS patients and the attitude to be taken toward the disease of AIDS itself and its causes.
- Toward AIDS patients, the Church preaches mercy and the charitable treatment that every sick person deserves, no matter what his illness may be or the manner in which he contracted it. An eloquent example of this is the fact that the Church has opened houses to care for these patients, such as the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who opened the first facility for them in the United States. If it is possible to help them heal, we should do so; and if not, then at least explain to them the meaning of suffering and death, giving them a Christian door to hope.
- However, the attitude toward the disease itself and toward the causes of its spread is different. In this regard, one must bear in mind that this is a serious epidemic, but one capable of being controlled. Since the main routes of transmission are sexual promiscuity (especially in the homosexual environment) and drug addiction, we must aim at two things: to inform truthfully about the problem and to educate about the virtues that prevent “risk” behaviors. Therefore, it is through education in true love, in conjugal chastity, and in marital fidelity that an authentic preventive struggle against AIDS can be channeled. On the other hand, the so-called “safe sex” campaign – that is, the use of the condom to avoid contagion – is completely false and pernicious. The condom, on the one hand, is not technically safe, and on the other hand, it is a false expression of love and therefore only contributes to creating a mentality of false love and sexual promiscuity, which is precisely the mentality in which the AIDS epidemic flourishes.
Fr. Miguel A. Fuentes, IVE
Original link: Here
