The shadow of AIDS Darkens over the Philippines

The whole nation was saddened last year when Dolzura Cortez died of AIDS. She had told her sad story to the world in order to help others. The nation followed her loosing battle with the fatal virus.

Some recent reports tell us that more than twelve million individual people are infected by AIDS and that the figure will rise dramatically. Thee Philippines Bishop recently spoke out on the causes and the Church response

This Pastoral Letter of the Philippines Bishops is in response to that growing realization that AIDS is spreading fast in the Philippines and that unfortunately, because we have no adequately, because we have no adequate monitoring system there is no way of knowing just how widespread the disease is. The Bishop have warned that the government’s condom solution is a short term solution which will have long disastrous effects because it will encourage the very promiscuity which causes aids.

But what is AIDS? (AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.) AIDS itself is not a disease but a virus which destroy our defenses against diseases. We do not die of AIDS but rather the common everyday diseases which came our way. AIDS but rather we die from not being able to defend ourselves against the common everyday disease which came our way. AIDS leaves defense gates wide open.

As in Contraception, so also in preventing HIV-AIDS infection, condom use is not a fail-safe approach.

To our beloved Priests, Religious and other faithful who have committed themselves to a life of celibacy, we say: You are a sign for others that chastity lived for the Kingdom of God and a well integrated and ordered sexuality are not only possible but are actually being lived.

HIV-AIDS and other calamities that visit us are not necessarily the punishment of a loving and forgiving God for our personal or collective sins.

What Our Bishops Say

Help Don’t Blame
1. Our first attitude must be to serve and minister. If there has been any moral responsibility, we must be ready to say, as Jesus to the sinner: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, from now on do not sin anymore” (Jn. 8:11).

Educate
2. To help stem the spread of this dread disease, we as a Church must collaborate with other social agencies in providing factual education about HIV-AIDS.

Moral Dimension
3. Most of all, we need to recognize the moral dimension of the disease. Though medically the cause of the disease can be identified as a virus, our faith tells us that its cause and solution go beyond the physical.

Condom not the Answer
4. The moral dimension of the problem of HIV-Aids urges us to take sharply negative view of the condom distribution approach to the problem. We believe that this approach is simplistic and evasive. It leads to a false sense of complacency on the part of the State, creating an impression that a adequate solution has been arrived at. On the contrary, it simply evades and neglects the heart of the solution, namely, the formation of authentic sexual values.

Faithfulness
5. We cannot emphasize enough the necessity of holding on to our moral beliefs regarding love and human sexuality and faithfully putting them into practice.

By the tear 2000 there could be 30 million adults and 10 million children worldwide infected with HIV. 10 million would have developed full blown Aids.

World Health Organization