 World AIDS Day
Secretariat for African American Catholics V 202-541-3177
Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs V 202-541-3150
3211 Fourth Street, NE V Washington, DC 20017
October 2004
Your Eminence/Your Excellency,
 The annual World AIDS Day commemoration on
Wednesday, December 1, 2004, is a special international observance held
to call the attention of people throughout the world to the catastrophic
effects of HIV/AIDS on the world population. There are an estimated 40
million people world-wide living with HIV/AIDS - 37 million adults and
2.5 million children younger than 15 years of age. Especially hard-hit
are sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well as communities of
color in the United States and the Caribbean.
Women and AIDS is the theme of this year's
World AIDS Day. HIV and AIDS affect women in many different ways. Among
them are transmission issues: infection with HIV through a sexual
relationship, from mother to child, through acts of sexual violence, and
through injection drug use. Discrimination is also an issue for women
with HIV/AIDS. It has an impact on their job prospects, their economic
and social positions, and their access to healthcare services and
education. Women also have specific treatment needs.
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) estimate that there may be up to 950,000 people living
with HIV in the United States and 40,000 new infections a year. Of these
new cases, over 50 percent are in African American communities, while
Hispanics account for 20 percent of the total reported AIDS cases.
Seventy-eight percent of all incidences of AIDS in females are from
those two groups. Additionally, 82 percent of all AIDS cases reported
among teenagers in 2000 were from the African-American and Hispanic
communities.
Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has made
frequent appeals for solidarity with those living with and otherwise
affected by HIV/AIDS throughout the world. Most recently, he focused on
the grave situation of children and families so affected in Africa:
What too of the tragedy of AIDS and its
devastating consequences in Africa? It is said that millions of
persons are now afflicted by this scourge, many of whom were
infected from birth. Humanity cannot close its eyes in the face of
so appalling a tragedy! (Pope John Paul II, Lenten Message 2004)
There is an urgent need to mobilize the
Catholic community and the general public to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Our respective secretariats in the USCCB, the Committee for Hispanic
Affairs and the Committee for African American Catholics, along with the
National Catholic AIDS Network, have joined together to address this
crisis in our communities.
We need your help. During 2004, World AIDS
Day coincides with the beginning of Advent. As we begin this season of
preparation and anticipation, we invite you to encourage the faithful
under your charge to join their prayers with others in the hope that an
end to this epidemic will soon be realized.
Please find attached a copy of the letter
sent by Most Reverend Howard Hubbard, Episcopal Moderator of the
National Catholic AIDS Network to all pastors and parish coordinators in
the country as well as a liturgy resource for possible use on the first
or second Sundays of Advent and an information summary about HIV/AIDS
that may be helpful to you. If you have questions, please call the
Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs 202-541-3150, the Secretariat for
African American Catholics, 202-541-3177, or the National Catholic AIDS
Network, 773-508-7080.
Sincerely,
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Most Reverend
James A. Tamayo
Chairman, Bishops' Committee
for Hispanic Affairs |
Most Reverend
Joseph N. Perry
Interim Chairman, Bishops' Committee
for African American
Catholics |
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