Archbishop Gregory's address to AIDS ministers

Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church,
Atlanta, GA

In August of 2001, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, who at the time
was the president of the Conference (of Bishops) was invited to go
to a meeting with the bishops of Sudan. Fortunately, the
Conference of Bishops of the United States has a very warm and
important relationship with the Catholic Church in almost every
area, and so many of the communities we would consider “mission
communities” depend on the Church of the United States for
financial, moral and fraternal support. So, the bishops of Sudan, the
13 of them, wanted to have a meeting with the President of the
Conference of Bishops of the United States.

Bishop Fiorenza was only going to be serving for another two months and as the vice president, I was
presumed the successor. He said, “Well, Wilton, why don’t you go because many of the things that
you will speak of with the bishops of Sudan probably will be things that you will have to address when
you are president.”

As many of you may know, Sudan has been involved in a civil war for more than three decades. There
are literally millions of people who have lost their lives, probably many more than we’ll ever know
because poor people usually don’t count, so the numbers of those who have actually died will
probably be known only to God. But we know that over those 30-some years millions of people have
lost their lives.

It is so hostile in Sudan that the bishops
themselves won’t even meet in their own
country. They’ll go into Kenya, their neighbor, to
hold their conferences because it’s just too
violent and too risky for them to meet there.

We met in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, where
many Sudanese who have fled the violence
have come to live on the border there.

In any event, while I was there meeting with the
Sudanese, I was also the guest of Archbishop
(Rapahel) Ndengui, who was the Archbishop of
Nairobi. And he’s an extraordinary man; I was
captivated by him. He took me on a tour of a
shanty town in Nairobi --which is the reason I

am bringing the story--, a shanty town that the "guesstimates" are it is comprised of 150,000 people.
It is not the only shanty town in Nairobi. But he was very well-known among the poor, which was one
of the reasons that I was so impressed: here was the Archbishop of Nairobi but whose presence
among the poorest of the poor was a frequent sight. When he walked into the confines of the shanty
town, people and kids immediately recognized him and went up to meet him. So he wasn’t there just
to show off for me; he was there because he had a pastoral presence that was important and well-
known.

because almost every dwelling had some evidence of AIDS present there: either one or both of the
parents had died from AIDS, or the children were born with AIDS. We’re not talking about old people;
these were very young people. As you can imagine, Africa is a growing continent and its young far
outnumber its elderly.

Throughout the shanty town the Church’s presence was clear. I am very proud to say the Catholic
Church was very present but so, too, were the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians,
Evangelical communities, attempting to comfort the people. That’s what their ministry was: just to
comfort, offer whatever modest medication they could, to offer water and a meal since many of these
people were too weak to cook. If they had money, it was to buy food and to prepare it.

It was clear to me that what we are living with,
both in our nation and throughout the world, is
what Jesus would be confronting if we were
living in biblical times. These are the ones that
He would search for and bring near Him to
comfort.

So, whatever you are doing by way of assisting
those who are living with HIV and AIDS, you
are continuing the ministry of Jesus. And you
do that without judging, as Jesus cared for
those people. He didn’t say, “How did you get
it?” He cared for them because they were
suffering and they needed Him, as the people
who are living with HIV/AIDS in our own city, in
our own community need us.

I thank all of you on the parish level, I thank all
of you who work for organizations that reach

Irene Miranda, Director of the Archdiocese of Atlanta's
Office of AIDS Ministry, and David Caron, chairman for the
Ministry's Advisory Board, present Archbishop Gregory with
the icon "Mary, Mother of God, Light in All Darkness." The
icon was commissioned especially for the National Catholic
AIDS Network to communicate a spirit of compassion and
faith for those whose lives have been touched by the AIDS
pandemic, and to raise awareness and promote a spirit of
hospitality within Catholic parishes and organizations.

out to people with HIV/AIDS, I thank all of you who work with me in the diocesan level, my colleagues
at 680 and other spots. I thank my brother priests.

This moment in history is our moment. We could have been born during the height of the bubonic
plague. We could have been born at another moment where there were some other catastrophic
illnesses, but the good Lord put us in this moment because Jesus needs to continue His ministry
and he needs to continue His ministry through us.

I thank you for doing that.

As we walked through the shanty town, we
stopped at a number of... I want to say homes,
but none of us would call them homes; they
are literally canvas tents or tin roof shanties.
We wouldn’t even house our cars in some of
these places. But in going through the various
places there, it was clear that AIDS is really a
pandemic and I had never understood what
that term meant until I spent this afternoon with
archbishop Ndengui in the shanty town

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