Inter-faith meeting at UN Special Session on AIDS

Inter-faith meeting in conjunction with

UN Special Session on AIDS

New York, June 25, 2001

Presentation by Rev. Robert J. Vitillo

Representing Caritas Internationalis

"Access to Care, Support and Treatment"

I want to thank the World Council of Churches delegation to the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS for this invitation to Caritas Internationalis to share some of its experience with this urgent topic. Caritas Internationalis is the world-wide confederation of nationally-based Catholic social service and development organizations in some 160 countries of the world. Since Caritas and other Catholic Church-related organizations provide a significant amount of health care, social service, and development activities in many countries of the world, especially those in economically-depressed areas, our organization believes that the topic for this workshop is of vital importance. The commitment to an intensive response to HIV/AIDS on the part of Caritas Internationalis dates back to 1987, when the Confederation’s General Assembly identified the pandemic as one of its priority areas of action; this commitment has persisted until the present time.

Caritas has attempted to mobilize a non-judgmental and compassionate educational and service-oriented response to the challenges posed by this pandemic through the following actions:

by sponsoring educational seminars on the global, regional, and national levels (primary target audiences are Church leaders - bishops, clergy, religious men and women, lay catechists, and those engaged in church-related health and social service activities;

by establishing a Working Group of Experts who could provide consultation and guidance to those interested in organizing church-related HIV/AIDS services in various parts of the world

by seeking funding and professional expertise to support several hundred HIV/AIDS projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern and Central Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and the Pacific;
by organizing fora for the exchange of experiences among those actively engaged in such ministry as well as those who are contemplating entry into this field.

On the specific topic of Access to Care and Treatment, Caritas Internationalis is guided by the rich body of Catholic Social Teaching, which emphasizes and appeals to the Church and to the world:

to respect the life and dignity of each human person, from the time of conception to natural death;

to share the goods of this earth in equitable fashion and in a spirit of solidarity;

to work in collaborative manner but under the guiding principle of subsidiarity, so that action is taken at the most basic and appropriate level to achieve the common good.

In his message, which closed the Jubilee Year 2000 and opened the Third Christian Millennium, Pope John Paul II called attention to the need for such action as follows:

Our world is entering the new millennium burdened by the contradictions of an economic, cultural, and technological progress which offers immense possibilities to a fortunate few, while leaving millions of others not only on the margins of progress but in living conditions far below the minimum demanded by human dignity. How can it be that even today there are still people dying of hunger? Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without a roof over their heads?

... Christians must learn to make their act of faith in Christ by discerning his voice in the cry for help that rises from this world of poverty ... Now is the time for a new creativity in charity, not only by ensuring that help is effective but also by getting close to those who suffer, so that the hand that helps is seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters. (Tertio Millennio Ineunte, #50)

In 1995,Caritas Internationalis and CIDSE (the association of European Catholic Development Organizations, sponsored a workshop on Sustainable Health Care. The participants called upon the Church to promote the following actions:

advocate from a value-based perspective with governments and society-at-large;

re-define and re-orient its own service institutions;

offer integrated, holistic health education and services in partnership with governments and non-governmental organizations with a similar mission;

encourage community-based reflection on micro- and macro-ethical issues;

promote and collaborate with community-based planning and management of health care;

assist the voiceless to express their needs and to be empowered in the active solution of their problems.

Also in 1995, these same two organizations, Caritas and CIDSE, formulated Guidelines and Minimal Criteria for considering AIDS project proposals. In so doing, they made the following statements:

AIDS is a complex development issue; it is not simply a health question. It has a whole range of social, legal, economic, cultural and ethical dimensions.

It is clear that Church agencies have a crucial role to play in responding to the AIDS pandemic.

However, in responding to the pandemic, project initiatives need to be appropriate, integrated with other development activities, sustainable and, if possible, replicable. It is important to avoid duplication of efforts, verticality of approach and non-sustainable or opportunistic enterprises.

The following THREE BASIC AND MINIMAL CRITERIA were identified for use in the assessment of all AIDS project proposals:

1. AIDS projects must not stand alone but relate appropriately to existing health or other development activities.

2. AIDS projects must provide objective, non-judgmental and non-discriminatory information and services.

3. AIDS projects must as far as possible help to create and to strengthen indigenous coping mechanisms which will be characterised by self-help and community involvement.

Other factors and considerations which will be taken into account are:

¨ concern for especially vulnerable groups;

¨ holistic approach;

¨ sensitivity to the concerns of the local Church;

¨ mobilisation and use of local resources;

¨ consideration of the local culture and customs;

¨ collaborative links with other NGO efforts in the locality;

¨ collaborative links with government policy and programmes;

¨ realistic and cost-effective budgeting.

Within these guidelines, Caritas and CIDSE organisations committed themselves to provide basic medical kits for HIV- related illness as a part of general basic medicine supplies which conform to the WHO essential drug list. At that time, they did not, however, believe that it was appropriate to provide anti-retroviral medications as part of their assistance programmes, in view of the high cost of such drugs, the limited number of people who would benefit from them, and the lack of health care infrastructure to assure appropriate administration and monitoring.

Most recently, the Caritas and CIDSE organisations have come realise the need for more concerted and intensive reflection on the subject of access to anti-retroviral treatment in developing countries. Thus we have planned a consultation on this theme, to be held in August 2001 at the Medical Mission Institute in Wurzburg, Germany. Participation from other Christian organisations has been invited as well.

The specific objectives of this consultation are the following:

- Analysis of experiences and lessons learned about anti-retroviral use in resource-poor countries
Fostering south-south exchange on the issue

Reaching consensus for policies, strategies, and guidelines

Formulating suggestions for amendments to drug donations guidelines.

One debate related to the topic of Access to Care and Treatment has centered on the question of intellectual property rights. In his statement to the 2001 World Health Assembly, Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Health Care, made the following appeal:

It is necessary to expand the list of generic medicines destined for the majority of the worldwide population, and to promote national legislation and international agreements in order to counter the monopoly of a few pharmaceutical industries and thus bring down prices, in particular, of products destined for developing countries. Finally, it would be necessary to promote agreements for the proper transfer of health-care technology to these countries.

As a basis for his statement, Archbishop Lozano made reference to two statements by Pope John Paul II. I believe that these make a fitting conclusion to this talk:

It is absolutely necessary to activate a greater and more adequate form of resource sharing, including those which involve the transfer of science and technology (Given at the United Nations, 1980).

The Church has consistently taught that there is a "social mortgage" on all private property. This concept must be applied to "intellectual property". The law of profit alone cannot be the norm of that which is essential in the struggle against hunger, sickness, and poverty [Message to the Jubilee 2000 Debt Campaign (23 Sept. 1999), L’Osservatore Romano, 25 September 1999, 5].

go to "Documents about AIDS and the Catholic Church"

go to "SIDA e a Igreja Catolica"

last revision of this page: July 23rd 2001