A Second Council Call

Our Faith communities throughout time have faces many challenges. HIV/AIDS is a prophetic and pastoral challenge.

The Council of National Religious AIDS Networks in the USA raises its collective voice to impress upon our respective faith communities the imminent need, in this changing pandemic, for continued dialogue and response. Our tasks are:

• Giving voice to those who desperately need appropriate prevention resources;
• Giving voice to those who have no access to medication and treatment;
• Giving voice to those for whom such treatments are of no avail;
• Giving voice to those who have not yet learned how to demand that they be afforded the dignity of our common humanity;
• Standing whith those who because of HIV/AIDS face persecution and isolation;
• Giving voice to those who have suffered losses in silence.

In the manner of our various faith traditions we must acknowledge these facts at every opportunity, not just as statistics, but as dire realities that bring suffering and death to women, men and children in a global community.

We call upon the leaders and members of all religious bodies to raise these issues until we see the end of HIV/AIDS and have given our compassionate best to those inficted and affected. THIS IS OUT MUTUAL OBLIGATION.

Council of National Religious AIDS Networks, September 1998