Catholic priest and aids.

I think this is so utterly tragic on so many levels.The fear of the disease suffered in silence.The stigma attached by their parishes.The cover up by the church.It reminds me of the genocide of the 80s.I know the article is a big old but I just came across it.

http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/world/2000/02/02/aids/index.html

AIDS killing supposedly celibate priests
Six of 10 Roman Catholic clerics who answered a Kansas City Star survey say they've known at least one colleague who's died of the disease.

By Hank Hyena
In a special series on AIDS in the priesthood, the Kansas City Star mailed a confidential survey to 3,000 priests. More than 800 responded.

Fifty-eight percent said they knew at least one priest who had died of an AIDS-related illness. And 32 percent said they knew a priest living with HIV.

Heres another article about this .
http://www.answering-christianity.com/priests_with_aids.htm
(snip)
“I’ve worked with priests who have died with AIDS,” says Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist and former priest, who has spent the last 40 years researching and writing about the sexual habits of Catholic clergy. “I estimated that 750 priests had already died of AIDS,” says Sipe, who has analyzed hundreds of cases of AIDS in the priesthood, and believes that “another 750 priests carry the HIV virus.”

:popcorn:

another human being is the worst sin possible. When the hell are people going to wake up and realize that a bunch of old men in dresses in Rome don't know SQUAT about sex, relationships, and what it means to procreate?

Celibacy is a cruel myth. Few can really do it unless it's imposed by age or illness. The church only tried to force it on the clergy when too many of them started to leave their estates to their children instead of to Rome.

Most Catholics are sensible people who listen to the "still, small voice inside" they were taught to pay attention to by the nuns and they use birth control and resort to abortion when the need arises. The guilt is still there, though, and that's a shame.

The church is truly cruel to its most devoted members, though, and that includes its clergy.

Back in the early 80s, priests dying of AIDS was a "dirty little secret" that the Church tried its best to hide -- it was the final straw that did it for me as a Catholic. The Church has a long, ugly history of pretending things aren't happening -- the alcholic priests, the AIDS/HIV priests, the pedophiles -- they will hide and deny whatever the issue is until they no longer can.

Well said.I should actually say I was catholic until ratzingers insanely stupid statement about making gays wait 2 years after their last sexual contact and straights one year before joining seminary.