Responding to global HIV/AIDS The Picture of Compassion:
A CRS Prayer Service
Introduction and Opening Prayer

PrayerLeader: Close your eyes for a moment and try to picture 42 million people. Where can one begin to visualize so many faces, so many stories, and so much personality? But that is the picture of global HIV/AIDS today. Forty-two million people are living with the disease worldwide. More than half live in Africa, where hunger walks the same path as HIV. And many live in this community as well, where AIDS continues to find victims. Today we pray and we remember and we resolve to respond with a picture of compassion, imagining a world free of the advance of HIV/AIDS.

Let us focus our hearts and minds with this prayer from Zambia:

Oh God, you are the creator of all. Today we your creatures prostrate ourselves before you in supplication. We have no strength. You who have created us have all the power. We bring you our seed and all our implements, that you may bless them and bless us also, so that we may make good use of them by the power, which comes from you, our Creator.

All: Amen.

Prayer Leader: Divide those gathered into two groups, A and B, and alternate the reading of the Psalm.

A: Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.

B: Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends—those who see me on the street flee me.

A: I am forgotten by them as through I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.

B: For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life.

A: But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”

B: My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.

A: Let you face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I have cried out to you;

B: Praise be to the Lord, who showed wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.

A: In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sights!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.

B: Love the Lord, all saints! Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Reader: A reading from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 12:22-34)

Reflection on the Scripture (optional) consider inviting a speaker to talk about AIDS both globally and locally. Or consider a time of quiet reflection with music, or a sharing of stories from people who have AIDS or their caregivers.

Intercessions:

The Response is: Bless us with compassionate hearts.

Reader: We bring our prayers before a God who knows our prayers before we pray them, who in listening to our intercessions helps us to acknowledge the desires of our own hearts. We pray…

God of compassion, many steps away from people with AIDS out of ignorance, or fear or denial. Help us to step toward our brothers and sisters who have AIDS, those who are an ocean away and those on the sidewalks down which we walk. Help us stand in solidarity with their suffering, in recognition of their worth. We pray…

God of the poor, AIDS does not discriminate by race or religion or economic class. But people do. Help us to respond to the cry of the poor for AIDS medication and health care, for food, for education, for communities of support. We pray…

God of the orphan, there are villages in Africa where all of the adults have died of AIDS; only their children remain. Help us to create a global village that will raise these children in love and hope into a secure future. We pray…

God of justice, our nation has the power to fund a large percentage of the efforts that will slow the spread global AIDS. Strengthen our call for a U.S. response that is wise and immediate and generous. We pray.

God of our inmost hurts and heartbreaks, AIDS reaches us where we live. Be with us as we call to mind the people we have loved, known or encountered who are living with or who have died from AIDS… (give people a moment to reflect quietly or invite them to name people they are praying for)… We pray.

Prayer Leader: We have brought our prayers for healing and compassion before God. Let us go forth as compassionate healers into a world that awaits the full Reign of God. We pray this in Jesus’ name…

All: Amen

Responding to Global HIV/AIDS The Picture of Compassion

For one Ugandan child, the picture of how HIV/AIDS affects his family is that of a snake that strikes. For another it is people lying prone, or a table filled with medicine- if medicine is available.

For the 14 million AIDS orphans worldwide, the picture is bleak as children find themselves heading household, dropping out of school to go to work, and being drawn into desperate situations that put them at risk of contracting the disease. In 2002 alone, the disease claimed 3.1 million lives globally, in some cases robbing entire villages of their adult population.

To be a child coping with HIV/AIDS in the family often means having little time to draw pictures.

Throughout the world the Catholic Church is the largest provider of care for people suffering from HIV and AIDS. Halting the spread of the disease and caring for those affected is among Catholic Relief Services’ top priorities.

CRS’ current AIDS projects serve approximately 4 million people affected by HIV/AIDS programming in Asia and Latin America.

Guided by Catholic Social Teaching, CRS’ HIV/AIDS policy calls for compassionate responses that affirm human dignity, responsibility and social justice. Programming includes home-based care for individuals and families; support to orphans and vulnerable children; behavior change and life skills education; voluntary counseling and testing, and projects aimed at increasing people’s livelihoods.

Halting the global AIDS pandemic requires a global response in which resource-rich countries such as the United States help tackle the complex issues that have lead to AIDS’ rapid spread in countries where the disease exacerbates poverty. That means:

• Fully funding President George Bush’s HIV/AIDS initiative to provide $15 billion to combat AIDS and provide medications in Africa and the Caribbean over the next five years.
• Reducing countries’ international debt so that they have more resources for HIV/AIDS medications, education and care.
• Financially supporting HIV/AIDS programming, including community-based care, effective education and behavior change.
• Providing the food and nutrition that extends the lives of people with HIV/AIDS who live in poverty.

Through its grassroots advocacy, CRS invites Catholics in the Untied States to act in solidarity with people affected by HIV/AIDS worldwide.

As members of the Church and society we must reach out with compassion to those exposed to or experiencing this disease and must stand in solidarity with them and their families.

-- “A Call to Compassion and Responsibility,” National Conference of Catholic Bishops

Advocate for legislation that combats global AIDS. Throughout the U.S. Americans are calling upon George W. Bush and Congress to fully fund authorization legislation that provides $15 billion over five years to combat HIV/AIDS in the world’s hardest hit regions, African and the Caribbean. For more information contact Adrienne Curry, Diocesan Director, CRS 312/751-8367 or acurry@archchicago.org

Engage youth in the issue. CRS’ “Food Fast” invites youth in grades 8-12 to participate in a 24-hour fast while learning about issues that affect global hunger. Food Fast materials contain everything you need to prepare and hold the event, including organizing tips and interactive activities. Materials focusing on AIDS in Africa are available. Call 312/751-8367 for more information.

Join CRS’ Africa Rising” Hope and Healing Campaign. Combating HIV/AIDS in Africa is a key focus of CRS’ campaign for Africa. Africa Rising! Hope and Healing educates about Africa and its people and invites U.S. Catholics to advocate for U.S. polices that will help African countries combat HIV/AIDS as well as foster peace and reduce poverty.

Study and pray. The following statements of the U.S. Catholic Bishops can be ordered through USCCB Publishing (800-23508722)

• “Called to Compassion and Responsibility: A Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis.” This 1989 document outlines a response to AIDS both in the United States and overseas.
• “A Call to Solidarity with Africa.” The bishops’ 2001 statement on Africa suggests ways the U.S. church can learn from African and support efforts to address AIDS, poverty, debt and civil conflict.

Responding to Global HIV/AIDS Bulletin Quotes

Select from these quotes to include in bulletins and newsletter. Quotes from Church leaders are on the first page, and global AIDS statistics are on the second.

Throughout the world the Catholic Church is the largest single provider of care for people affected by HIV/AIDS, serving 25 percent of those who suffer from the disease. Catholic Relief Services’ current AIDS projects serve approximately four million people affected by HIV/AIDS in 30 counties. Activities are concentrated in Africa, but the agency also has HIV/AIDS programming in Asia and Latin America.

“The Catholic community, with many others, has long worked for this new commitment on global health and debt relief (President George W. Bush’s proposed $15 billion global AIDS initiative). I hope that Congress will now appropriate the money needed to make this legislation a reality, and that the U.S. government will press for strengthening the debt relief program along the lines proposed by this legislation.”

Press statement by Bishop John H. Ricard, S.S.J., Chairman, International Policy Committee, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, September 16, 2003.

“We must walk in solidarity with those who are living with HIV/AIDS and those at risk. As witnesses of Christ, we are called to respect the dignity of each person and to promote healthy living—physically, spiritually, morally and psychologically—through prevention and treatment.”

Washington Archbishop, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, in his pastoral letter on HIV/AIDS “The Fullness of Life.” 2003

“The drama of AIDS threatens no just some nations or societies, but the whole of humanity. It knows no frontier of geography, race, age or social condition… (calling) for a supreme effort of international cooperation on the part of the government, the world medical and scientific community and all those who exercise influence in developing a sense of more responsibility in society.”

Pope John Paul II, Visit to Tanzania, 1990

“As farm as HIV is concerned… social responsibility has an important international dimension. The problem is not confined to the United States and cannot be solved only here. We are deeply conscious of the devastation this terrible disease is bringing to many other parts of the world. The United States must play a significant role in responding to the worldwide dimension of the disease.”

“Called to Compassion and Responsibility: A Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis” USCCB, 1989

“Our response to persons with AIDS must be such that we discover Christ in them and they in turn are able to encounter Christ in us. Although this response undoubtedly arises in the context of religious faith, even those without faith can and must look beyond suffering to see the human dignity and goodness of those who suffer.”

“Called to Compassion and Responsibility: A Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis” USCCB, 1989

• At the end of 2003, an estimated 40 million people around the world were living with HIV/AIDS, including the five million people who acquired HIV in 2003. The epidemic claimed an estimated 3 million lives in 2003.

• Current projections suggest that an additional 45 million people in 126 low- and middle-income countries will become infected between 2002 and 2010, unless the world succeeds in mounting a drastically expanded global prevention effort.

• Worldwide 14 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Than number is roughly equal to all U.S. children under the age of 5.

• Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region with 70 percent of the world’s AIDS cases. Currently 26.6 million people have HIV/AIDS in the region including approximately 3.2 million people newly infected in 2003.

• In seven African countries, it is estimated that 20 percent or more of people over age 15 are infected. In these countries, AIDS will claim the lives of around a third of today’s 15 year-olds unless actions are taken to slow the epidemic.

• Elsewhere in the world:

• After Sub-Saharan Africa, India has the largest number of people living with AIDS, an estimated 3.97million people at the end of 2001
• By percentage, the Latin America and Caribbean region is the hardest hit outside of Africa. In Haiti, for example, more than five percent of the population is infected, reaching 10 percent in some places.
• About 11 million people in Asia could become HIV-infected in the next five years (2003-2007) unless the HIV/AIDS response is dramatically stepped up.
• AIDS is spreading quickly in the Russian Federation where the total number of reported HIV infections climbed to over 200,000 by mid-2002- from 10,993 reported at the end of 1998.

• There are sings of hope that increased global HIV/AIDS awareness and efforts to halt the disease’s spread are bearing fruit. Uganda for example has seen marked declines in HIV/AIDS prevalence rates—down from ore than 20 percent to around 5 percent in recent years- the most dramatic prevalence decline worldwide. A nation-wide effort to reduce AIDS infections has ranged from community-based programs on the need for behavior change, to interventions that empower women and girls, target youths and fight stigma, to confidential voluntary counseling and testing. Religious leaders and faith-based organizations, including the Catholic Church, are noted for being on the front lines of the response to the epidemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that today there are 850,000-950,000 HIV-positive people living in the United States, more than at any other time in the epidemic. An estimated 180,000-280,000 HIV-positive individuals do not know they are infected, and therefore are not benefiting from HIV care and treatment, and may also be unknowingly transmitting the virus. Ad additional 250,000 people living with HIV who are aware of their status may not be getting the care they need or prevention support to help them protect their partners. Altogether, roughly half of all people living with HIV in the United States are untested, untreated, or both.

• Official estimates show that, as of December 1999, there were 360,000 adults and children living with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. By the end of 2000, that number had grown to an estimated 390,000. Due to reporting challenges, however, the real number could be closer to 500,000
• According to latest data, in the English-speaking Caribbean, HIV/AIDS is not the leading cause of death among men between the ages of 15 and 44.
• The latest data show 35 percent of HIV-positive adults were women.

• By June 2000, approximately 1 out of every 300 persons was estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. This is a minimum estimate because there may be persons with HVI who were not aware of their HIV infection status.
• By June 2000, the primary mode of HIV transmission in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as in the rest of the Caribbean, was through heterosexual contact.

• As of December 2001, Puerto Rico ranked among the top 10 U. S. states or territories with the highest cumulative AIDS cases among residents.
• In Puerto Rico, injection drug use was reported as the leading mode of transmission through June 2000. The number of persons who reported HIV infection through injection drug use was more than twice that of the second leading mode of HIV transmission- heterosexual contact.

To address the HIV/AIDS health crisis in the Caribbean, we must confront major challenges including:

• The lack of standardized HIV testing in the region;
• Underreporting of HIV/AIDS;
• Limited or no access to voluntary and/or confidential HIV counseling and testing; and
• Providing services in a socially and economically diverse community.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that today there are 850,000-950,000 HIV-positive people living in the United States, more than at any other time in the epidemic. An estimated 180,000-280,000 HIV-positive individuals do not know they are infected, and therefore are not benefiting from HIV care and treatment, and may also be unknowingly transmitting the virus. An additional 250,000 people living with HIV who are aware of their status may not be getting the care they need or prevention support to help them protect their partners. Altogether, roughly half of all people living with HIV in the United States are untested, untreated, or both.

• Through December 2002, 833,452 AIDS cases have been reported to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Of these cases:

82 percent were among men

72 percent were among women

1 percent were among children less than 13 years of age

• Forty-two percent of the cumulative AIDS cases were among Whites, 38 percent among Blacks, 18 percent among Hispanics; and less than 1 percent each among Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives.
• Of the adult and adolescent Hispanics reported with AIDS in the United States through December 2001, roughly 81 percent were men.
• In 2000, men of color represented 47 percent of AIDS cases among men who had sex with men. By comparison, in 1989, men of color represented only 31 percent of AIDS cases in men who had sex with men.
• The 10 states or territories reporting the highest number o AIDS cases cumulatively among their residents area s follows: New York, California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Georgia, and Maryland.
• Through December 2001, in areas with confidential HIV reporting, 174,026 persons have been reported as living with diagnosed HIV (not AIDS). In 2001, 35,575 HIV cases were reported from these areas.
• Women accounted for 32 percent of HIV (not AIDS) cases reported in 2001 from areas with confidential HIV reporting. Among these, Black and Hispanic women accounted for 78 percent of cases. Among men with HIV (not AIDS) in the same time period, Black and Hispanic men accounted for 63 percent of HIV cases.
• In areas with confidential HIV reporting, persons ages 13-24 accounted for 13 percent of new HIV (not AIDS) cases reported in 2000. Of these persons, females accounted for 47 percent of the cases in this age group.
• Of the estimate 40,000 new HIV infections each year, greater than 50 percent occur among African Americans.

Catholic and AIDS Resource Links

www.aegis.orgwww.catholicnews.com

AIDS Action Website Catholic Relief Services

www.aidsaction.orgwww.catholicrelief.org

AIDS and the Catholic University The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance

http://admin.shu/dove/AIDS.htmlwww.e-alliance.ch

AIDS Pastoral Care Network Faith in Action Volunteer Program

www.apcn.orgwww.fiavolunteers.org

American Catholic The Care Team Network

www.AmericanCatholic.orgwww.careteam.org

Little Company of Mary Hospital Caritas Internationalis

www.lcmh.orgwww.caritas.org

Maryknoll Catholic AIDS Action, Namibia

www.maryknoll.orgwww.caa.org.na

National Association of Catholic Chaplains Catholic Charities

www.nacc.orgwww.catholiccharitiesusa.org

Catholic Medical Mission Board Catholic Health Association of the U.S.

www.cmmb.orgwww.chausa.org

National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA)

www.ncapa.org

National Black Catholic Evangelization Forum

www.nbcef.org

National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM)

www.ncchm.org

National Catholic Education Association (NCEA)

www.ncea.org

National Catholic Office for People with Disabilities

www.ncpd.org

National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL)

www.nccl.org

Pledge for Peace

www.PledgePeace.org

Secretariat for African American Catholics, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

www.usccb.org/saac/hivawareness.htm

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

www.usccb.org

The Vatican

www.vatican.va/phome en.htm

Pray With the Church… For all Who Suffer from HIV or AIDS

God of our weary years

God of our silent tears,

O good and gracious God,

You are the God of health and wholeness.

In the plan of Your creation,

You call us to struggle in our sickness

and cling always to the cross of your Son.

O God, we are Your servants.

Many of us are now suffering with HIV or AIDS.

We come before You, and ask You,

if it is Your Holy will,

to take away this suffering from us,

restore us to heath and lead us to know You

and your powerful healing

love of body and spirit.

We ask you also,

To be with those of us who nurse Your sick ones.

We are the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers,

children and friends of Your suffering people.

It is so hard for us to see those whom we love suffer.

You know what it is to suffer.

Help us to minister in loving care, support, and

patience for Your people who suffer with HIV

and AIDS.

Lead us to do whatever it will take to

eradicate this illness from the lives of those

who are touched by it,

both directly and indirectly.

Trusting in You and the strength of Your Spirit,

we pray these things in the Name of Jesus.

Amen.

Add petitions to the Prayer of the Faithful, such as:

For all who suffer from HIV or AIDS, that our compassion for them may led them closer to Christ, … We pray to the Lord.

For those whose sickness brings them closer to the cross of Christ, that through the merits of his passion and death, they might glimpse the risen glory of Easter, …We pray to the Lord.

For all who have recently learned that they have HIV or AIDS, for courage, strength and hope, … We pray to the Lord.

For all who care for the sick, and especially those who care for persons with HIV or AIDS, that God might fill them with strength, wisdom and love, … We pray to the Lord.

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