The Response of the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa to the Problems of HIV/AIDS In Light of the Modern Catholic Social Teaching.

Byarugaba, George William (2009) The Response of the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa to the Problems of HIV/AIDS In Light of the Modern Catholic Social Teaching. Licentiate thesis, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.

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Abstract

Writing about HIV/AIDS gives me an opportunity to tell the story of my own experience concerning its venomous impact. I am fortunate or unfortunate or both in that, after my ordination to priesthood, the first appointment I received was to the Rakai district where the first HIV/AlDS case in Uganda appeared. Later, I transferred to the Kokstad Diocese-South Africa, where my appointments have been to the Mzongwana and Lusikisiki communities. Both places have been more affected by HIV/AIDS than any other place in the Kokstad diocese. My stay in both Rakai and Kokstad has brought me face to face with HIV/AIDS; that is, I have had to mourn the deaths of my friends who I knew and worked with so closely; and their deaths left a wide gap and ceaseless pain in my life. Like Martha, who felt the anguish of losing a brother [Lazarus] and perhaps could not understand why it took Jesus so long to come to their aid, I too am sometimes haunted by my own "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:12). I have unsettling questions: What can we do to reverse the situation of unnecessary and premature deaths of our beloved sisters and brothers? How many more people must die before the world wakes up from its dogmatic sleep to realize that HIV/AIDS is genocidal? What can the Church do to save people from the dehumanizing situations which lead many of them to contract HIV/AIDS?

Item Type: Thesis (Licentiate)
Uncontrolled Keywords: facts about HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, catholic theological foundations of health care, justice and human rights, preferential option for the poor, human rights and correlative duties in the Distribution of health care in South Africa, ethical implication from Sinosizo, small Christian communities,
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics
Divisions: Afro-Christiana
Depositing User: JHI Africa
Date Deposited: 21 Mar 2014 09:02
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2014 11:35
URI: http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/29

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