AMERICA/PERU - “AIDS is not only a question of health it is a matter of morals”: Peruvian Bishops statement distributed in parishes in view of World AIDS Day 1 December

Monday, 28 November 2005

Lima (Fides Service) - In view of World AIDS Day December 1 the Catholic Bishops of Peru issued a statement for distribution to every parish in which they express solidarity with people suffering from HIV/AIDS and their families and urge all Catholics to reflect on the root of the disease.
Referring to teaching of Pope John Paul II, the Bishops point out that the root of this terrible disease is found in human behaviour, or more precisely, in disordered moral and sexual behaviour. The problem of AIDS must therefore be seen from the medical and from the ethical point of view and in the post-modern culture of materialism, permissiveness and hedonism, and the consequent loss of a sense of sin. The Bishops quote the Pope as saying that “human immunodeficiency virus spreads because there is a parallel sort of immunodeficiency at the level of existential values which is clearly a pathology of the spirit” (cfr. John Paul II, 4th International Conference on AIDS, 13-15 November 1989).
Faced with the crisis in moral and spiritual values there is a negation or indifference to humanity’s transcendent destiny a clear sign of a pathology of the spirit no less dangerous that a physical pathology. The Bishops say the best way to prevent AIDS is education to authentic and spiritual values to build a culture of life and responsible love. They stress the need to foster formation of parents to enable them to give children a correct sexual education more than simple information and aimed at the integral formation of the person. The Bishops say sexual education must focus not only on physical and biological aspects of sexuality but also on moral and religious duties. (RZ) (Agenzia Fides 28/11/2005, righe 25, parole 328)


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