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AIDS impact is 'devestating' to priestly ministry in Nigeria
Marylynn G. Hewitt, SFO of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 13, 2006
Abuja, Nigeria Bishop Michael Nnachi Okoro has just finished setting the table for more than two dozen guests he'll welcome for the evening meal at the retreat center in Ebonoyi State.
Though he helped build this two-story center surrounding a vast courtyard and attached chapel by hand, he's now focused on serving others with more difficult work these days ministering to those with AIDS. The toll it's taken on his flock and his priests is devastating, he says. "It is spreading everywhere very fast. There is nowhere that is immune," he says. "It is everywhere."
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Bp. Okoro |
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Fr. Tumba |
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Bp. Usuh |
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Fr. Jooji | In this diocese with 331,000 Catholics, the average priest serves 4,597 Catholics. AIDS is "very hard and very painful for the priests," says Abakaliki Bishop Okoro.
He estimates every priest spends part of each week caring for and anointing those with AIDS. And when they die, "we bury them too."
He, too, has anointed "very many" in their last moments.
"We need to keep talking about it it's a terrible infliction," he insists. To ensure that the conversations continue, he's asked each priest to preach about it during the Sunday sermon at least once a month.
"In our diocese, we care for them somehow. We also try to get people to be sympathetic because the very first thing is that when you have it, there is a stigma and that stigma also means people don't want to have an association with you. So those who have it are very lonesome people."
While government campaigns preach condoms as safe sex, "we preach abstinence as the best protection," says Bishop Okoro. While it is impossible to say a condom is 100-percent protection, "we say being chaste is," he adds.
"We are not asking people to abstain for the rest of your life only until you get married. And when you are married, be faithful to your wife."
In the nearby diocese of Makurdi, Bishop Athanasius Atule Usuh says he tells people "you can prevent it, but there is no cure."
Each parish in his diocese has a counselor to help people living with HIV or AIDS. "Many who are infected feel neglected and people run away from them. Some of them do not go to church," he says. The counselors will work to help them anyway.
In this vast diocese of 2.9 million people, there are 8,790 Catholics per priest. Sunday Mass is on a rotating basis for the outstations. "It is not possible" for a priest to visit every week, he says.
But Bishop Usuh makes sure to celebrate Easter and Christmas Mass with those living with AIDS. "I try to give them hope," he says, adding he has known "many, many, many" who have died from AIDS. "It can be the saddest thing ever."
As AIDS continues ravaging the population, more and more orphans are left in its wake.
"I have identified 38 orphans in my parish of SS. Peter and Paul in Nyanya," says Fr. Sam Tumba, chairman of the Archdiocese of Abuja HIV/AIDS committee. "Every parish has them. This is a global problem."
Part of his work is getting parishes to determine how best to help the orphans and to try and keep them in a home, rather than an orphanage. "We have support groups to make home visits to help. For the orphans, we encourage them to get to school and identify some parish school fees to help" with the $300 per-year tuition for grade school and $400 for high school. "AIDS is related to poverty," he says. It is hard work, he admits, but "you can't sleep. You must help."
AIDS recently hit home for him when it claimed the life of a "very good friend" who was "a vibrant man, a generous Catholic and did parish work." Helping those with AIDS, and those left behind "is helping and sharing in the mission of Christ," says Fr. Tumba.
Fr. Innocent Jooji is the vicar for social services for the Archdiocese of Abuja with 2.3 million Catholics 2,197 Catholics per priest. "The Church is trying to appeal to the generosity of the people of God in getting a prevention and care structure in place. The AIDS impact has been tremendous," he says. "This is a continuation of the healing ministry of Jesus Christ."
It is in that spirit that Bp. Okoro continues to anoint those dying from AIDS. He has no idea how many times he has done that, nor how many in his diocese have HIV or AIDS. "That is one problem in Africa we haven't gotten to that yet." The lack of record-keeping doesn't stop him from remembering many of the people. One in particular was a man of 26. After he was diagnosed, "he was full of anger that this had been passed on to him by somebody. He came home, sold all his things and divided them into three portions. One portion went to his mother. He was the only son and this was to look after her. Another portion was so she could bury him properly. He used another portion to avenge himself. So he went to meet and have sex with nine girls nine different girls and to buy them fineries.
"The day I went to meet him, he said what was paining him now is what he did. They weren't the one who caused the problem he was. He asked me to keep telling his story and to tell others that if you get it, you don't have anyone to blame but yourself."
Four days later, the young man died.
Bishop Okoro has two prayer requests. One, "that we may be open about this. If you are open, I think it helps very much. They say that the biggest disinfectant is sunlight." And second, "for the strength to bear all this."
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