World Aids Day comes with a ray of hope 

December 1 is observed as the World AIDS Day, calling for awareness about HIV and the resulting AIDS epidemic. World Health Organization (WHO) says, ‘HIV is not an easy virus to defeat’. It states that nearly a million people still die every year from the virus because they don’t know they have HIV and are not on treatment, or they start treatment late. With COVID-19, we are faced with two pandemic that have brought untold suffering to many individuals and families. 

Rather than being judgemental, the Catholic Church addresses the AIDS pandemic in a manner consistent with her mission/mandate to save souls (Matthew 18:11). She explains that HIV/AIDS should not simply be considered a medical or public health issue and that a holistic approach should be used for its prevention and treatment. “Were promiscuity not endemic, HIV wouldn’t be an epidemic.”, emphasizes Zygmunt Zimowski, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers.
The Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC) has a clinical response and a non-clinical response to HIV. The Clinical response is through the Church’s health care facilities while the non-clinical response is through work of pastoral agents in communities and other non-clinical settings.  

These health facilities provide HIV testing, care and treatment services to all people of God, irrespective of creed in line with the UEC’s policy of health care. About 12 per cent of people on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in Uganda are cared for in Catholic Church’s health facilities which are located in different parts of the country.
The Church has programmes for psycho-social support that enable individuals and families cope with living with the virus. More needs to be done though in strengthening Pastoral/Social support systems to reach out to more people across different age categories.

Church programmes
Poverty continues to be one of the structural drivers of the epidemic in Uganda. Church programmes that address poverty and other structural drivers through Caritas need to work more with government programs to have more equitable access to economic empowerment for the most vulnerable. The Catholic Church has consistently lobbied drug makers and governments in poor nations to increase the provision of antiretroviral medicines. 
The Church teaches against the trivialization of human sexuality, insisting on modesty, chastity, premarital sexual abstinence and marital fidelity, as the only true ways to combat the disease. She rejects the promotion of so-called ‘safe sex’, calling it a dangerous and immoral policy based on the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against Aids. It, actually, promotes “sinning safely”, promiscuity, contributing to the spread of Aids. People will be reluctant to test for HIV/Aids as they will feel being protected.

The Church’s stance on combating HIV/Aids has been criticised by some public health officials and activists, as being unrealistic, ineffective, irresponsible and immoral. They note that it would be madness to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms, which many believe can prevent the transmission of HIV. The stance cost John Paul II the Nobel Peace Prize, which he was widely expected to receive. Well, he won the heavenly crown!

In the eyes of the young
Encouragingly, young people seem to be more concerned about their future, and more open to the teaching of the Church, than critics may think. They only need a proper catechism on the theology of the human body and the spiritual language it speaks. They will appreciate that fertility is not a disease to be treated, will learn to reverence one’s spouse and be open to God’s gift of human life.
 So, World Aids Day is not doomsday. The season of Advent gives a ray of hope as well as repentance to it.
 “A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Luke 3:4).