hand and heart

The recent post office troubles have impacted our regular fundraising efforts. Please consider supporting the Register and Catholic journalism by using one of the methods below:

  • Donate online
  • Donate by e-transfer to accounting@catholicregister.org
  • Donate by telephone: 416-934-3410 ext. 406 or toll-free 1-855-441-4077 ext. 406
A nurse uses a syringe to give medicine to a girl at San Jose Hospice in Sacatepequez, Guatemala, Nov. 30. About 68 HIV-infected patients, infants to those 18 years old, receive free medical care at the hospice. CNS photo/Jorge Dan Lopez, Reuters

On World AIDS Day, Vatican renews call for greater access to therapy

By  Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
  • December 1, 2011

VATICAN CITY - The deaths each year of more than a million people from AIDS, the suffering of their families and the new infections of hundreds of thousands of infants are unacceptable when the medicines needed to prevent them exist, a Vatican official said.

Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, said World AIDS Day must be a time "to promote universal access to therapies for those who are infected, the prevention of transmission from mother to child, and education" in responsible sexuality.

In a statement Dec. 1, he said that despite the development of antiretroviral drugs 20 years ago, an estimated 1.8 million people still die of AIDS each year.

"These are people who could lead normal lives if they only had access to suitable pharmacological therapies," he said.

The deaths "are no longer justifiable," the archbishop said, nor is the pain experienced by their families and fact that hundreds of thousands of children are orphaned each year.

Universal access to antiretroviral therapy is essential, he said. But greater efforts also must be made in educating people, especially the young, in a responsible exercise of their sexuality, one that "privileges abstinence, conjugal faithfulness and the rejection of sexual promiscuity," he said.

Please support The Catholic Register

Unlike many media companies, The Catholic Register has never charged readers for access to the news and information on our website. We want to keep our award-winning journalism as widely available as possible. But we need your help.

For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.

DONATE