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April
3, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 7Oakland,
CA
Church’s credibility key in AIDS work
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The credibility of the church among
minorities makes it an important institution in HIV/AIDS prevention and
education programs at the local level, said Catholic officials involved
in African-American and Hispanic ministry.
This credibility helps break down the taboos, stigmas and misconceptions
associated with the disease, said Beverly Carroll, executive director
of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for African-American Catholics,
and Ronaldo Cruz, executive director of the bishops’ Secretariat
for Hispanic Affairs.
In the African-American community people are afraid they will be identified
“as someone who is promiscuous, who has had sex outside of marriage
or who is a drug abuser,” said Carroll.
The result is that people are afraid to get tested, she said.
Cruz said the Hispanic value system opposes homosexuality and “there
is a cultural norm which seems to say that if you have AIDS you’re
gay.” A lack of knowledge means that people do not understand that
the disease “can be contracted by innocent people,” he said.
