Statement of the Holy See to the United Nations

According to the statistics, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has become a real plague in the way it spreads out and the number of deaths it causes. The Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region according to the epidemiological facts of the UNAIDS report for 2008.

In addition, the recent statistics show that the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the African context is in the process of becoming predominantly “female and young”. If, the 2/3 of people living with HIV/AIDS is in Sub-Saharan Africa, 67% are women and among those more and more are young girls. This feminization of the epidemic could be a symptom of the extreme subordinate and dependent status of the women in the African society. In fact, there are cultural factors, specific to their female-sex, that favor this feminization of the epidemic such as the case of polygamy (and the drama that entails the contamination from HIV/AIDS within the families), female circumcision, sexual violence, certain practices, rituals and other beliefs and clichés that contribute to the contamination of HIV/AIDS. It is also the case of the weak role that women have in choosing whom to marry and also in the conjugal act, that contribute to the growing percentage of women with HIV/AIDS and the feminization of the HIV epidemic. In this context, it is clear that the inequalities between men and women at the same time intensify the impact of the epidemic of the HIV and must be taken under consideration in an efficient way at the community as well as at a national level[1] in adopting preventative measures.

In addition to the cultural factors, poverty is one that affects considerably the way the families deal with the financial responsibility and the care giving of the people living with AIDS. Poverty makes families more fragile, creates conflicts and leads easily to feelings of guilt, and stigma, and also to the rejection of those infected with HIV/AIDS. Poverty limits access to healthcare. In the Democratic Republic of Congo for example less than 10% of those infected with HIV/AIDS are eligible for antiretroviral therapy. Sometimes, the purchasing power of the families does not allow them to buy adequate food for those that follow the antiretroviral therapy.

It is in that context that the pandemic of AIDS sets several challenges to the African Community and the church, and these are challenges that cannot be postponed for later. The challenge of the Evangelization of our cultures and the cultural identities, the challenge of education according to the “real values of liberty as gift, of love as sacrifice, of patience as hope”[2], of this love as one’s gift free of the enslavement of selfishness[3]; the challenge for access to quality healthcare for all those infected with HIV; the challenge to value women and to promote their fundamental rights; the challenge always present of a more just and equal relationship between men and women within the African community; the challenge to support a natural family, as a profound communion of life and love founded on the marriage between a man and a woman that constitutes “ the first place of humanization of the person and the society”, the “cradle of life and love”[4], and finally the challenge for correct information about HIV/AIDS.

We see, that taking care of the people infected with the HIV virus, is a question of justice and personal obligation of our faith in Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for all.

3. Commitment of the Catholic Church of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the fight against HIV/AIDS

In the fight against the impact of the HIV/AIDS on the families (ill and infected people) the bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo made a pastoral commitment to be involved in a systematic way across all the dioceses with specific programs[5]. These address the following three areas: prevention (information and education), treatment and care, and finally psycho-social support.

At this level the prevention efforts focus on changing attitudes and ways of thinking. This work is done particularly by the diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace. The Commission is committed to the prevention of HIV/AIDS through an awareness campaign, the training of the educators, and the teaching of the values to the youth.

The Diocesans’ Offices for Health Care in collaboration with the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace are busy in the fight against the stigma and the discrimination of the people infected with the virus and they emphasize the value of dignity and the rights of the infected. They also fight against the old fashion customs.

The bishops understood that without educating the women any investment in the fight against the HIV/AIDS would be doomed to fail. For that purpose the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace delineated a program of self awareness for women. It is organized around three modules:

This program allows women, who form the core of their community, to analyze the social issues they are faced with, to learn to read, and write in the context of their lives and to engage in a dynamic transformation for change of their society. At this point we have twenty five groups; the Commission opened twelve houses for women and young girls, as a place for learning and expression of the female energy.

Setting up a legally constituted state is one of the ways to improve the quality of life and the Commission for Justice and Peace deals particularly with the civic training of the populations. The program taking place right now, is especially about the participation of the citizens in local governance. More than 2,750 local committees of participative governance were put in place. The basis of the organization allows local populations to reflect on the questions of interest of the community and to be engaged in order to improve the life of their communities. In addition, to hear the concerns of the populations, the Commission for Justice and Peace put together small groups of a parliamentary connection at a provincial and national level. In the statement of the local committees, the war in the East of the country, the sexual violence, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the democratization of the Institutions are some of the main and urgent issues that require an answer from the elected members.

The Organization of Caritas is involved in paying the treatment of the ill. Several dioceses of the Democratic Republic of Congo built houses to care for the widows and the orphans of AIDS. In these houses the healthcare of the women, the food and the schooling of the orphans is being paid. The most destitute victims receive financial help that facilitate their reintegration in the society. Certain parishes seek additional money to support those infected with the virus. As for the care of those infected with the virus certain clinics went even further by funding molecular labs to prevent the virus from being transmitted from the mother to the child and also to ensure the safety of a transfusion.

The Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace follow up with those infected with the HIV virus at home or at the special centers. Often the fight against the sexual violence engages the Commission for Justice and Peace in the fight against the infection from the virus that sometimes comes as a result of sexual violence.

Another very important activity that results from the engagement of the structures of the Church of Congo is the family mediation: it is not rare for the widows and the orphans of HIV/AIDS to be treated as “witches” and be abandoned. The dioceses get involved in the mediation among the affected family members for the reintegration of the ill and other people.

From what preceded we understand well that HIV/AIDS has become a problem of society and that the Church approaches it as a pastoral priority. However given the scale of the illness and the increase in the numbers of those infected with the virus and especially the number of women infected, the moment has come to consider a program at a national program that should be organized around the global strategies in the fight against the pandemic of the HIV/AIDS.

Sister Marie-Bernard Alima, S.J.A.E.
Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace of the Episcopal Conference of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace (Rwanda, Burundi, and Democratic Republic of Congo).

[1] Cf. Official site of UNAIDS

[2] SHIMBA BANZA, VIH/SIDA et Pastorale. Pistes des solutions et coresponsabilité, Actes de la XXIVe Semaine Théologique de Kinshasa, Maladie et Souffrance en Afrique. L’Eglise interpellée par la pandémie du Sida, FCK, 2007, p. 147.

[3] Ibid., p. 146.

[4] SHIMBA BANZA, VIH/SIDA et Pastorale. Pistes des solutions et coresponsabilité, Actes de la XXIVe Semaine Théologique de Kinshasa, Maladie et Souffrance en Afrique. L’Eglise interpellée par la pandémie du Sida, FCK, 2007, n° 2.

[5] Cf. La lutte contre le VIH/SIDA, Déclaration du Comité permanent de la CENCO, 10 Février 2007, n. 12-15.