An Indian archbishop has urged the Church to help eliminate the stigma of AIDS by becoming “a genuine healing and reconciling community” in the country, which now has the most HIV/AIDS cases in the world.

“The impact of the stigma can be as detrimental as the virus itself,” said Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore, chairman of the Indian bishops' health care commission, in a message for World AIDS Day Dec 1.

“We need to end the silence about HIV. Leaders of communities -- bishops, priests and lay faithful -- and heads of families need to speak openly about HIV and AIDS in our gatherings,” the archbishop said.

“The fear of stigma leads to silence, and silence can result in tragic consequences,” he added.

Since the identification of the first instance of HIV in India in 1986, the rate of infection has increased “at an alarming rate,” reaching 5.17 million people by September, with an adult prevalence rate of 0.9 percent, according to the Indian government.

UN statistics report a higher number of cases. In a report released in June, UNAIDS said that India, with 5.7 million HIV/AIDS cases, had overtaken South Africa with 5.6 million as the nation with the most HIV/AIDS cases.

Archbishop Moras called the stigma associated with HIV a “terrible burden.”
“It is totally unjustifiable and unacceptable that people living with HIV are being denied basic rights such as medical care, food or shelter and dismissed from jobs they are perfectly fit to perform,” the archbishop said.

He urged diocesan social service departments and other developmental agencies “to create more job opportunities for people living with HIV” to integrate them into the mainstream of the community and “live more dignified lives.”

“The challenge (to fight the stigma) is very tough indeed,” Father Alex Vadakkumthala, executive secretary of bishops' health care commission, told Catholic News Service Nov 17.

“Due to fear of stigma, many do not reveal their HIV-positive status even to their wives, passing on the infection,” he said.

However, Father Vadakkumthala pointed out that the launch of the Indian Church's AIDS policy in August 2005 has helped generate greater awareness.

“Most of the seminaries have already made AIDS part of the syllabi under moral theology,” Father Vadakkumthala told CNS by telephone from Mumbai, where he was organising an AIDS awareness seminar for Catholic nurses and others in collaboration with the US-based Clinton Foundation.

“The Church cannot afford to add to the stigma” with discriminatory behaviour, the priest said, noting that hundreds of seminarians now spend time in AIDS hospices and other HIV-relief centres.

Though the Church has set up several free AIDS testing centres in southern India, Father Vadakkumthala said the stigma prevents many from undergoing the tests.

To counter such fears, Archbishop Moras' message reminds Church workers “to reassure those who disclose their positive status that they can live without fear and also receive legal protection when they are at risk of losing adequate medical care, home and property, as it happens sometimes.”

(CNS)