By Paul Dobbyn
MONSIGNOR Robert Vitillo often tells the story of the ageing South African bishop who volunteered to share a room with a young AIDS- infected man at a Caribbean seminar on the disease in the late 1980s.
The American-born priest, for the past 27 years full-time special advisor on HIV and AIDS to Caritas Internationalis, uses the story to illustrate the impact of prejudice and fear on ministering to those living with the disease.
Monsignor Vitillo was in Australia recently as guest speaker at a Catholic pre-conference on HIV/AIDS before joining thousands of delegates from across the world attending the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne.
He retold the story of the bishop and the young man in a recent interview.
“This took place during a regional consultation with which I was involved in the Caribbean,” he said.
“It was not long after the Church started to become involved with the issue on an international level.
“Bishop of Georgetown, Guyana, Lester Guilly was among those involved in the consultation.
“I didn’t find out until later that local staff were refusing to share a room with a young man with HIV/AIDS who was going to address the gathering.
“Bishop Guilly had then said: ‘I’ll fix it; I’ll do it’.
“The bishop found a very angry young man, one who was especially angry at God.
“By his example and words, the bishop was able to assure him that God was a just God.
“The young man and the bishop became friends and came to an agreement: whoever got to heaven first would pray for the other … the young man died first.”
The story has parallels with Msgr Vitillo’s own deep compassion for and commitment to the spiritual and physical well-being of people living with HIV/AIDS.
This emerged as he spoke of his book on ministering to people afflicted with the disease.
The book was adopted earlier this year as the Church in Africa official training manual.
He also spoke of being impacted on several levels by the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight tragedy in the Ukraine which took the lives of 298 passengers, including international AIDS experts heading to the Melbourne conference.
Unsettling also for Msgr Vitillo was that he had been in Ukraine only a few days earlier to observe the Catholic Church’s support of those living with HIV/AIDS there.
In Ukraine, an estimated 238,000 out of five million live with AIDS.
The Church has been working with the World Health Organisation to get medicine to Ukrainians cut off from medicine by the civil war there.
Msgr Vitillo also delivered a strong defence of the Church’s teachings on the issue, saying the Church had been validated with increasing evidence showing behavioural changes were key to preventing the spread of the virus.
He was also emphatic about the leading role the Church plays in caring for HIV/AIDS sufferers.
“Catholic hospitals, doctors, nurses and the Church’s international aid and development agency, Caritas Internationalis not only care for more than 25 per cent of the estimated 38 million living with AIDS/HIV worldwide, but have been at the forefront in the battle since the first cases were reported back in the early 1980s,” he said.
Msgr Vitillo said his involvement in ministry to HIV/AIDS sufferers was not his doing “but the Lord’s”.
“The call came at the HQ of Caritas Internationalis in Rome 1987,” he said.
“I was attending the general assembly when it was decided to promote HIV/AIDS services in Eastern and Central Africa.
“Shortly after this, I was asked by the Caritas Internationalis Secretary General to co-ordinate that organisation’s response.
“At this point it was a very new field for the Church at a global level although certain local churches were already very much involved.
“Very quickly, various national bishops conferences became most interested and it was also decided to link up with religious congregations.”
In his new role, he began developing educational programs with a global focus.
He also started meeting with medical and ethical experts on the issue.
“The aim was to help enlighten us so that we could help Church personnel in the field,” Msgr Vitillo said.
“I also had to work on my own understanding of the issue.
“Even though I had knowledge that the virus was not transmitted casually, I still had second thoughts on whether I could shake hands with anyone infected by HIV/AIDS.”
Since then this priest of the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, has obtained a Masters Degree in Social Work from Rutgers University, where he also pursued doctoral studies in the same field.
He is now head of the Caritas Internationalis delegation to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
It’s from such broad experience he draws a powerful defence of the Church’s teachings and activism on HIV/AIDS and related issues.
“Catholics have been there since the very beginning but many in the world don’t realise this and perceive Catholics as people who only say ‘no’ to the use of condoms or affairs outside of marriage,” he said.
“They don’t see us in terms of our more than 30 years of commitment to those with HIV/AIDS.”
His message to Catholics is to “not be ashamed of the Church’s teachings”.
“For example, the teaching of the Church on abstinence before marriage and faithfulness once married is very realistic,” Msgr Vitillo said.
“It is valid, ethically, morally and scientifically.
“In all of countries with a strong faith there has been observed a definite decrease in rates of HIV/AIDS infection.”
The continued fixation on condom use as a way to reduce the spread of the disease was not helpful, he said.
“This often shifts the focus from other ways to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.
Msgr Vitillo is interested in the whole person in this field of ministry.
“It’s about the person’s physical, the emotional, the social and the spiritual aspects,” he said.
“Models are being developed to help doctors, nurses and health workers assess the spiritual needs of those living with HIV/AIDS.
“This is dealing with issues such as fear of death, anger at God and difficulty in relationships.
“The aim is to help put people in touch with a personal God or some deeper reality in their lives.
“We have noticed many do turn to God.
“We have learnt a lot from them; our own faith has been deepened by working with these suffering people.”
