stigma and discrimination

How would your church react if you had HIV and AIDS asks Paul Pope?

I'd like you to take a moment and imagine that during a single week you lose your job, your family and your community. And when you turn to your church for support, they also reject you - how would you feel?

For over twenty years now I have witnessed and been told stories of people being spat at, children rejected by school, homes and possessions burned, loved ones rejected by their families, people killed or taking their own lives because they had or were believed to have the HIV virus.

You may think it unlikely, but many of the 39.5 million people that UNAIDS estimate live with HIV and AIDS worldwide still face stigma and discrimination today. Progressio hears of discrimination first hand from people with HIV and AIDS in the 11 developing countries where we work. Progressio works with partners to deliver care, treatment and support, and lobbies internationally to represent their interests to faith and political leaders, because discrimination occurs at every level. This April, the Australian prime minister John Howard was reported to be considering new measures to monitor the activities of or stop people living with HIV and AIDS entering Australia.

Why do people discriminate against people with HIV and AIDS? There are many reasons: HIV and AIDS is seen as a life-threatening disease, and people are scared of contracting it. The disease is associated with behaviours that are already stigmatised in many societies, such as sex between men and injecting drug use, and people living with HIV and AIDS are often thought of as being responsible for their own infection. The stigma and discrimination faced by women are particularly acute in some societies because the women are mistakenly perceived as the main transmitters of sexually transmitted diseases.

When facing their darkest hour, many people turn to the church for comfort and support. Unfortunately, the Catholic church is not faultless in its attitude to people with HIV and AIDS, although it was one of the first to provide care and support services to people living with HIV and AIDS, providing over 70 per cent of care in some countries. One of Progressio's local partner organisations who raise awareness of HIV and AIDS stigma and discrimination, told me of a widowed mother-of-two living with HIV in Ecuador who was rejected by the priest when she asked for his support at her local Catholic church. I heard similar stories at the 2006 HIV and AIDS Ecumenical Conference in Toronto in Canada and an Ecumenical HIV and AIDS conference in Buenos Aires in Argentina in 2007.

Why does discrimination exist in the church? Although a simplification, I believe there are two church 'camps'. One part of the church is nurturing and supportive, working alongside us to guide us to make sense of the world. It engages with the world in all its mess and confusion, and helps us all to grow as it grows itself. The other part of the church is quite separate from the world, characterised more by 'command and control'. It thinks in black and white rather than shades of grey, and has absolute answers regardless of the complexity of the problem or situation.

For people with HIV and AIDS, the former often describes their local, pastoral experience, while the latter may be more how they experience the church hierarchy and some of its teachings. This mixed message is difficult for HIV positive people and the people working with them. It is also a great challenge to the credibility of the church.

How can we end discrimination? Progressio believes that the Catholic church plays an essential role in shaping the personal and moral choices people can make about HIV and AIDS. So it is vital that the leaders of the Catholic church acknowledge that stigma and discrimination are still a problem among faith communities. They must clearly and consistently promote the message that discrimination is unacceptable and educate faith communities to care for and accept those living with HIV and AIDS to actively involve them in their local church and community.

What can you do personally in your church and community? You may think you provide a welcoming and open environment, but how do people living with HIV and AIDS know that? If you know that discrimination is taking place, how do you go about stopping it? Make a promise with me to challenge discrimination in your church and community at the livesimply promise bank.

Progressio represents the interests of people it works with in the South who live with HIV and AIDS, by lobbying northern-based faith leaders including the Catholic church on issues such as discrimination.

Paul Pope is Progressio's HIV and AIDS advocacy coordinator. Progressio is an international development agency working with people of all faiths and none to tackle poverty and injustice in developing countries. Independent of church structures, it combines gospel and Catholic social teaching with development and human rights thinking to tackle HIV and AIDS in 11 developing countries.

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