AIDS hospice in Africa gets parish support

St. Clement's has partnered with Bishop Kevin Dowling of the Rustenburg Diocese in South Africa to start an AIDS hospice there. The parish has already sent more than $4,000 to help with the project.

"We're supposed to see Jesus Himself in the most helpless. These people are helpless," stated Rev. James O'Blaney, CSsR, pastor. "We thought we could do one thing and do it well: help the people who are dying, and in horrible conditions, lying on concrete slabs."

Hearing the need

She returned with a request: Bishop Dowling, whom parishioners remembered from a visit to Saratoga in the 1980s, asked for help in building a hospice. More than half the population of his diocese is infected with HIV.

"This HIV strain is different from the one in the U.S.," Father O'Blaney noted. "It's more virulent, and outside of a blood transfusion, it's only communicated heterosexually -- so the people dying are women and children."

Pitching in

An average weekend brings in about $10,000-$11,000 in collections, so it was decided that ten percent of any total over $8,000 would go into a tithing fund. Quarterly, the parish would send 75 percent of that fund to Bishop Dowling. (The other 25 percent goes to other charities, like the Capital District Community Loan Fund.)

"Aside from prayer, we're doing something, rather than throwing up our hands and saying, `This is too much,'" Father O'Blaney explained. The parish even set up a secure system to wire the funds directly from bank to bank to be sure they reached Bishop Dowling.

More to come

Emotional support is also being provided: Sister Marianne visited the parish's intergenerational workshop and showed the youth there photos of children in Africa who were infected with HIV. The group immediately took up crayons, pencils and markers to draw pictures to send to one young boy.

Eventually, Father O'Blaney hopes to see someone from St. Clement's travel to South Africa to see the conditions there firsthand and report back to the parish.

"What's wonderful," he said, "is that we can actually do something, instead of just reading about it."

(To learn how you or your parish can help, contact The Community Hospice at 285-8150. Donations can be sent to The Community Hospice African Fund, 295 Valley View Blvd., Rensselaer, NY 12144.)

(03-29-01) [[In-content Ad]]