Argentine Pastor Wants Churches to be Open about HIV/AIDS

November 7, 2002

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – "God is not democratic, but rather has always preferred the poorest people and leaned towards those who are excluded from church, religion and society." With this provocative statement, Lutheran pastor Lisandro Orlov from Argentina began his address on the theme "The World Provokes Us – HIV/AIDS" at a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) consultation on diakonia, taking place November 3-7 in Johannesburg.

The United Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELU) in Argentina pastor wants to see "a different church," – one that is more inclusive and open, a church of the cross that has the courage to tell the truth.

Orlov, 60, has since 1986 coordinated an IELU ecumenical and solidarity initiative for people living with HIV/AIDS. Together with a team of 14 other pastors and volunteers, he visits and cares for about 200 people with HIV/AIDS each year. He ministers to people with HIV/AIDS not as those who are dying, but rather as people who want to live. About 17,000 people in Argentina have fallen ill or died from the consequences of AIDS. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, there were about 130,000 people living with the disease in Argentina by the end of 2001. Pastor Orlov is not only considered provocative with his viewpoints, but also is highly respected both in his country and internationally. The Argentine government appointed him as an official representative of his country to the planning meeting for the May 2001 UN Special Conference on HIV/AIDS in New York, USA.

Orlov stresses that he never refers to those living with HIV/AIDS as victims, but rather first of all as persons. He points out that the term "victim" is generally applied to sick people only if they have cancer or HIV/AIDS, because both ailments are seen as connected with "punishment" in a moral sense. "We are always looking for groups on which to put the blame," says Pastor Orlov. In Mozambique, he said, with an estimated 1.1 million people with HIV/AIDS, it is usually migrant workers who are blamed – because they leave their families to look for work in South Africa, where they start new families and also go to prostitutes. In this way, Orlov explains, each of them infects a whole series of persons.

What people with HIV/AIDS need, the pastor continues, is neither blame nor any kind of moral or ethical instruction, but rather respect and understanding from people who listen to and care about them. He finds that it is not because of the growing numbers of persons with HIV/AIDS that the churches should care; each individual is reason enough to deserve concern. Activist Orlov sees the AIDS pandemic as a great opportunity for the churches. But he is of the opinion that the churches are much too cautious. They must speak out prophetically and much more strongly on behalf of these marginalized people. The Argentine pastor says it should no longer be taboo to speak openly about sexuality or about using condoms. Often he imagines the church as a mother, says Orlov, holding out her arms to embrace those who are defenseless and helpless.

He says he has made many mistakes in his contacts with affected people over the past 16 years, but he has also learnt a great deal and has himself become radically different. Today, he finds it particularly important to keep on asking questions, even when he does not get answers. To ask questions is human, is his motto. Possibly the answers will be found by seeking them together, not from the top down, or from the pulpit, but in the midst of the people, among those who are sick and marginalized.

Orlov finds it extremely important that the worldwide fellowship of Lutheran churches has prepared two significant documents on HIV/AIDS – the action plan "Compassion, Conversion, Care: Responding as Churches to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic" in January 2002, and the May 2002 Pan African Lutheran Church Leaders' Consultation commitments to "Breaking the Silence" in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

For the Argentine pastor, these declarations are an important step, but they must reach the congregational level. He is concerned that often, good statements are not well known because they do not get beyond the church hierarchies. He emphasizes that effective dissemination of information is a very urgent matter.

He was addressing around 80 representatives of Lutheran churches, partner organizations, social service agencies and institutions, meeting in South Africa for the November 3-7 LWF Global Consultation on "Prophetic Diakonia – For the Healing of the World." The conference is focussing on the understanding of church social service – diakonia -in its national and international context.

Lutheran World Information