Archbishop: Africa's AIDS Epidemic Bares 'Poverty of Moral Thinking'

[Catholic_Press]

Noting that AIDS is a primarily an African problem, the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference criticized the “poverty of moral thinking in Africa” and dependency on “American-European thinking” in developing solutions to a growing epidemic of the disease.

More…

 

[manualman]

Basically, I THINK I just heard him use a lot of words to say “We’ve got some serious problems here and need some ideas! Anybody? Anybody? … Buehler?”

 

[AcolyteLector]

Basically, I THINK I just heard him use a lot of words to say “We’ve got some serious problems here and need some ideas! Anybody? Anybody? … Buehler?”

uhh

 

[Dale_M]

the article in the first post:

Archbishop Tlhagale also spoke of the need for morality in order to build compassionate human communities.

“Government can only do so much,” he said.

Noting that South Africa’s “jails are overflowing with prisoners,” Archbishop Tlhagale said that to most citizens “the promises of democracy and rule of law are not only dreams that have failed but … a reminder of the painful experiences of the (apartheid) past.”

With “our materialistic society” promoting the rights of individuals to accumulate wealth, “Christian principles of fairness, equality and justice have fallen by the wayside,” he said.

These problems didn’t develop during the past 20 years, but have deep roots. As Archbishop Tlhagale, an African solution is needed, not one devised for the US and Europe.

HIV and economic injustices are only some of the problems. Also worth mentioning is the common practice of rape. 25-33% of South African men admit to having raped at least once. And half of women in that country have been raped at least once.
cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/26/world/main7092661.shtml

time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1906000,00.html

But what can we, who are from outside of southern Africa, do to help? It seems we can pray and offer support to leaders who know what they are about. But who are those leaders? Even in the US, leaders (whether political, cultural, or religious) often disagree markedly over the best strategies for dealing with problems in the country.