Matthew
5:44-48 44. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45. In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. |
Barnes'
Notes on the Bible
Love
your enemies - There are two kinds of love, involving the same general
feeling, or springing from the same fountain of good-will to all
mankind, but differing so far as to admit of separation in idea. The
one is that feeling by which we approve of the conduct of another,
commonly called the love of complacency; the other, that by which we
wish well to the person of another, though we cannot approve his
conduct. This is the love of benevolence, and this love we are to bear
toward our enemies. It is impossible to love the conduct of a person
who curses and reviles us, who injures our person or property, or who
violates all the laws of God; but, though we may hate his conduct, and
suffer keenly when we are affected by it, yet we may still wish well to
the person; we may pity his madness and folly; we may speak kindly of
him and to him; we may return good for evil; we may aid him in the time
of trial; we may seek to do him good here and to promote his eternal
welfare hereafter, Romans 12:17-20. This seems to be what is meant by
loving our enemies; and this is a special law of Christianity, and the
highest possible test of piety, and probably the most difficult of all
duties to be performed. |
Sermon on mount: New Living Translation (©2007) |
VERITATIS
SPLENDOR
3.
The Church's Pastors, in communion with the Successor of Peter, are
close to the faithful in this effort; they guide and accompany them by
their authoritative teaching, finding ever new ways of speaking with
love and mercy not only to believers but to all people of good will.
The Second Vatican Council remains an extraordinary witness of this
attitude on the part of the Church which, as an "expert in humanity",
places herself at the service of every individual and of the whole
world. The Church knows that the issue of morality is one which deeply
touches every person; it involves all people, even those who do not
know Christ and his Gospel or God himself. She knows that it is
precisely on the path of the moral life that the way of salvation is
open to all. The Second Vatican Council clearly recalled this when it
stated that "those who without any fault do not know anything about
Christ or his Church, yet who search for God with a sincere heart and
under the influence of grace, try to put into effect the will of God as
known to them through the dictate of conscience... can obtain eternal
salvation". The Council added: "Nor does divine Providence deny the
helps that are necessary for salvation to those who, through no fault
of their own, have not yet attained to the express recognition of God,
yet who strive, not without divine grace, to lead an upright life. For
whatever goodness and truth is found in them is considered by the
Church as a preparation for the Gospel and bestowed by him who
enlightens everyone that they may in the end have life".ENCYCLICAL OF POPE JOHN POPE II ON THE SPLENDOUR OF TRUTH 6 August 1993 [Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Latin,Polish, Portuguese, Spanish] |
Documents of the II Vatican Council
Lumen Gentium 16.
Finally, those who have not yet received the Gospel are related in
various ways to the people of God. In the first place we must
recall the people to whom the testament and the promises were given and
from whom Christ was born according to the flesh. On account of
their fathers this people remains most dear to God, for God does not
repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues. But
the
plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In
the first place amongst these there are the Mohammedans,
who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the
one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. Nor is
God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown
God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all
things, and as Saviour wills that all men be saved. Those
also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not
know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and
moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to
them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine
Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without
blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of
God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or
truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a
preparation for the Gospel. She knows that it is given by Him
who
enlightens all men so that they may finally have life. But often men,
deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than
the Creator. Or some there are who, living and dying in this
world
without God, are exposed to final despair. Wherefore to promote the
glory of God and procure the salvation of all of these, and mindful of
the command of the Lord, "Preach the Gospel to every
creature",
the Church fosters the missions with care and attention.
[Byelorussian,
Chinese,
Czech,
English,
French,
German,
Hungarian,
Italian,
Latin,
Portuguese,
Spanish,
Swahili]
|
Konstitusio
ya kidogma juu ya Fumbo la Kanisa
Paulo Askofu Mtumishi wa watumishi wa Mungu pamoja na Mababa wa Mtaguso mkuu ataka haya yakumbukwe daima 16.
Hatimaye wale ambao hawajapokea Injili huhusiana na taifa la Mungu kwa
njia mbalimbali[32]. Kwanza kabisa taifa lile, lililopewa maagano na
ahadi, ambalo katika hilo alitoka Kristo kwa jinsi ya mwili (taz. Rum
9:4-5). Hilo ndilo taifa lililo penzi kwa ajili ya Mababa zake, kwa
habari ya kule kuchaguliwa, kwa sababu karama za Mungu hazina majuto,
wala mwito wake (taz. Rum 11:28-29). Lakini mpango wa wokovu
huwakumbatia pia wanaomtambua Muumba, na kati yao wa kwanza Waislamu:
hao wakiri ya kuwa wanashika imani ya Ibrahimu, na pamoja nasi
wanamwabudu Mungu mmoja, mwenye huruma, atakayewahukumu watu siku ya
mwisho. Naye Mungu mwenyewe hayupo mbali na wengine wanaomtafuta katika
vivuli na sanamu Mungu asiyejulikana, kwa maana ndiye anayewapa wote
uzima na pumzi na vitu vyote (taz. Mdo 17:25-28), naye ndiye Mwokozi
anayetaka watu wote waokolewe (taz. 1Tim 2:4). Kwa maana wanaweza
kupata wokovu wa milele wale ambao, bila hatia, hawaifahamu Injili ya
Kristo wala Kanisa lake, lakini hata hivyo wanamtafuta Mungu kwa moyo
mnyofu, na kwa mvuto wa neema wanajitahidi kutimiza kwa matendo yao
mapenzi ya Mungu wanayotambua kwa njia ya sauti ya dhamiri[33].
Maongozi ya Mungu hayakatai kuwapa misaada inayohitajika kwa ajili ya
wokovu wale ambao, bila hatia yao, hawajaufikia ufahamu wazi wa Mungu,
nao wanajitahidi, kwa neema ya Mungu, kuishi maisha manyofu. Kwa maana
lolote lililo jema na la kweli lipatikanalo kati yao, lahesabiwa na
Kanisa kuwa kama matayarisho ya Injili[34], na limetolewa na Yule
amwangazaye kila mtu ili mwishowe apate uzima. Lakini mara nyingi
wanadamu, wakidanganywa na Ibilisi, walipotea katika mawazo yao,
wakaibadili kweli ya Mungu kuwa uongo, wakakiabudu kiumbe badala ya
Muumba (taz. Rum 1:21 na 25). Au tena wakiishi na kufa pasipo Mungu
hapa duniani, wanaelekea mwishoni kukata tamaa. Kwa hiyo Kanisa,
likikumbuka amri ya Bwana: “Hubirini Injili kwa kila kiumbe” (Mk
16:15), husitawisha kwa uangalifu mkuu misioni, kwa ajili ya utukufu wa
Mungu na wokovu wa watu hawa wote.( zaidi
)
|
Ubuntu is a term derived from the word "muntu," meaning a person, a human being. According to ancient African traditional wisdom, each individual possesses positive, loving qualities. These qualities represent our natural internal state of being, and when we express them we are being genuine, an authentic human being. To be otherwise is to be out of harmony, and to be out of harmony brings unhappiness to ourselves, others, and our world. The values of Ubuntu manifest in good deeds, things like being sensitive to the needs of others, being compassionate, forgiving, caring and generous. As these values are the basic foundation of each individual, they can guide us in how our life should be lived. They allow us to measure our actions in day-to-day life against our ideals. Do we practice Ubuntu and as a result live in harmony with ourselves and others, or are we living busy lives, deluded, self-centered, interested in only our own welfare, unable to practice love and compassion because we have lost our way? Ubuntu forces us to look at our actions to see if they match our values, for Ubuntu is measured in actions not good intentions. Ubuntu is the art of being a human being. It is the living of our humanness. It is the unfolding of our natural goodness. Each living human being has this opportunity to discover their basic goodness and to practice it. "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu." I am because you are. It is through you that I am a human being. Let's examine some of the pillars of Ubuntu living: 1.Caring: Caring is embracing others. Their needs become your needs. Their joys and sorrows become your joys and sorrows. It is the practice of concern and oneness, which Jesus expressed as "Love thy neighbor as thyself." It is putting the problems, interests and circumstances of others at a higher level of attention. For as Ubuntu teaches, "we are human through our interaction with others. Without others we are not human." From this perspective we should welcome our interaction with others regardless of whether they are pleasant or not, for all interactions allow us to express our humanness. 2.Empathy: Empathy is the ability to successfully enter into the emotional situation of another, to listen and feel genuine sympathy because you hear and feel what others share with you. You listen with your mind but you also feel with your body, and this feeling allows you to "see" the situation from a deeper perspective. When we cultivate the practice of empathy it deepens us and gives us access to more humanness with which we can help others. 3.Sharing: In the Ubuntu culture it is normal to share generously with others. "Mahala" is the traditional African practice that teaches that it is proper to give to others without expecting anything in return. Not everything needs to be done for money or gain. You work to support your family and if you prosper you share with others. Even if you don't prosper you must share because there is always someone else worse off than you. By sharing you express your humanness and find joy within because you awaken your heart. Heartless people have no joy, though they might have riches. People with heart have joy because they have discovered their humanness. To discover your humanness is to discover something great, a treasure unlike any other. Each day of our life gives us opportunity to discover and practice our humanness. 4.Respect: Respect covers many things. Respect for elders, children and all members of your community, respect for your ancestors, traditions, the ancient teachings and practices. Respect for oneself, for if one does not respect oneself how can one respect another? Respect for your environment and all living creatures. Respect for the Ubuntu way of life as a way to happiness and self-awareness. A human being from an Ubuntu perspective should be kind, generous, friendly, living in harmony with himself, the environment and others, and at one with the creator. "This is what Africa can teach the world," said Credo Mutwa, the respected Zulu Sangoma, "We have forgotten how to be human beings, and we must remember quickly if we are to save the world. Life is an instrument and we have lost the ability to play it. People live but they are not alive. We must use life and play it like an instrument and make beautiful music." John Kehoe |
RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE Respect for health Catechism of the Catholic Church |
vor den Oberbefehlshabern der Wehrmacht auf dem Obersalzberg 22. August 1939 "Unsere Stärke ist unsere Schnelligkeit und unsere Brutalität. Dschingis Khan hat Millionen Frauen und Kinder in den Tod gejagt, bewußt und fröhlichen Herzens. Die Geschichte sieht in ihm nur den großen Staatengründer. Was die schwache westeuropäische Zivilisation über mich behauptet, ist gleichgültig. Ich habe den Befehl gegeben – und ich lasse jeden füsilieren, der auch nur ein Wort der Kritik äußert – daß das Kriegsziel nicht im Erreichen von bestimmten Linien, sondern in der physischen Vernichtung des Gegners besteht. So habe ich, einstweilen nur im Osten, meine Totenkopfverbände bereitgestellt mit dem Befehl, unbarmherzig und mitleidslos Mann, Weib und Kind polnischer Abstammung und Sprache in den Tod zu schicken. Nur so gewinnen wir den Lebensraum, den wir brauchen. Wer redet heute noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier?" |
to the Wehrmacht Commanders-in-Chief, at Obersalzberg, 22 August 1939. Our
strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions
of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately and with a
gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of States. What
the weak Western European civilization alleges about me, does not
matter. I have given the order - and will have everyone shot who utters
but one word of criticism - that the aim of {translator: this} war does
not consist in reaching certain {translator: geographical} lines, but
in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in
the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill
without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race
or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who
still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?
|
A notion of Ausrottung in German and extermination in English, a well established goal of German policy against non-Germans: "Haut doch die Polen, dass sie am Leben verzagen. Ich habe alles Mitgefuehl fuer ihre Lage, aber wir koennen, wenn wir bestehn wollen, nichts andres thun, als sie ausrotten; der Wolf kann nicht dafuer, dass er von Gott geschaffen ist, wie er ist, und man schiesst ihn doch dafuer todt, wenn man kann." "Let's
beat the Poles until they despair of life. I have all pity for their
situation, but we can do nothing else, if we want to subsist, than to
exterminate them; the wolf cannot help having been made by God, and yet
one shoots him dead for it when one can."
moreOtto von Bismarck, a letter of 26 March 1861 to his sister Malwine, written from St Petersburg, Russia, where Bismarck was Prussian Ambassador. Source: "Gesammelte Werke", XIV/I page 568, quoted in Hans Rothfels, "Bismarck, der Osten und das Reich", page 75. "Ich
bitte Sie, das, was ich Ihnen in diesem Kreise sage, wirklich nur zu
hören und nie darüber zu sprechen. Es trat an uns die Frage heran: Wie
ist es mit den Frauen und Kindern? – Ich habe mich entschlossen, auch
hier eine ganz klare Lösung zu finden. Ich hielt mich nämlich nicht für
berechtigt, die Männer auszurotten – sprich also, umzubringen oder
umbringen zu lassen – und die Rächer in Gestalt der Kinder für unsere
Söhne und Enkel groß werden zu lassen. Es mußte der schwere Entschluß
gefaßt werden, dieses Volk von der Erde verschwinden zu lassen."
"I
ask you that what I tell you in this circle you will really only hear
and never talk about it. The question came up to us: What do to with
the women and children? – I decided to find a very clear solution also
in this respect. This because I didn’t consider myself entitled to
exterminate the men – that is, to kill them or to have them killed –
and to let the children grow up as avengers against our sons and
grandsons. The difficult decision had to be taken to make this people
disappear from the earth."
Heinrich Himmler's
statement at his Poznan, Poland, speech on 6 October 1943.Source:
Märthesheimer/Frenzel,
Im Kreuzfeuer: Der Fernsehfilm Holocaust. Eine Nation ist betroffen,
Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH Frankfurt am Main 1979, pages 112 to
114. Reference of quote: Heinrich Himmler, Geheimreden 1933 bis 1945,
edited by Bradley F. Smith and Agnes F. Peterson, Berlin 1974, pages 169 |
The Newsletter of
the World
Health Organization Global Programme
on AIDS ,
Year 1992 No 3,
pp.15-16
An Interview
with Zbigniew Halat
Dr
Zbigniew Halat,
an outspoken
epidemiologist of 42, grew up and studied in the city of Wroclaw, close
to Poland's border with Germany. Involved in the local organization of
Solidarity in 1980-81, he left Poland after the declaration of martial
law to study venereal and skin diseases in Kenya. From 1982 to 1984 he
organized a free clinic to treat sexually transmitted diseases - STDs)
in Nyeri, capital of
Kenya's Central Province, where he saw patients with what he now
believes were early symptoms of AIDS. After martial law was lifted in
1984, he returned to Poland to work in the public health system on
allergies, skin disease and immunization. In the autumn of 1987 he
launched one of Eastern Europe's first AIDS hotline counselling services,
and since April 1991 he has been responsible for environmental health,
disease prevention and control and the national health programme in Poland as a Deputy
Minister of Health and Social Welfare.
Despite considerable opposition, Dr Halat
advocates (* see here revised position)
condoms - not just abstinence - to prevent AIDS, and he is training an
army of midwifery and nursing students to spread the message of safe
sex to boys, girls and fellow teenagers of both sexes, partly through
the use of educational materials from GPA. (WHO also assisted Poland in
setting up its short-term plan on AIDS in 1990, and it is helping to
prepare a conference to reach a national consensus on AIDS.) Dr Halat spoke to Global AIDSnews
while on a recent visit
to Geneva.
Dr Halat,
how prevalent are AIDS
and HIV infection in your country?
Officially
there are said to be 2200 people infected with HIV, and 100 cases of
AIDS. In both cases, about 70 per cent of them are attributed to drug
abuse. I think all these figures are wrong. This is partly because male
and female sex workers, and men who have sex with men, tend to get help
in private clinics which have no procedures of notification. And there
is a lot of misconduct in such places - people taking blood samples,
for example, throwing it away and telling people they are uninfected.
We need to strengthen our medical system and open it as much as
possible to all groups in society. The true incidence of HIV and AIDS
in Poland will bc seen
only when we can fund a proper study and can organize a top-quality
unit. We do not have what is needed to make proper diagnoses. We don't
have the equipment to conduct a bronchoscopy,
for example, to look for PCP. (Editor's note: Pneumocistis
carinii pneumonia, a common AIDS
related illness.) In my opinion, most transmission of HIV in
Poland is through heterosexual sex.
If so, Poland
would differ in this from other European countries. How do you believe
this has come about?
It
goes
back
to the 1970s, when the then communist government first allowed Polish
citizens to travel to the West freely. Differences in the economic
levels of neighbouring
countries lead to prostitution and infection. And cheap sex brings with
it an enormous danger of HIV. Living in Poland is like living in the
Caribbean and being close to the USA. When Poles got the freedom to
travel in the 1970s - I was earning $ 10 a month at the time - many of
my fellow citizens went to Germany and sold sex to get money. Now, many
people come here for sex. They pay girls and boys for unprotected sex.
Young boys of 10 or 12 hang around outside buses from Germany offering
sex for very little money. Unfortunately, there are men and women who
find sex boring unless it is unsafe. And there are parts of western
Poland where many young people go to Berlin to be prostitutes. Male
prostitution is quite common, but not as common as female prostitution.
Also, the spread of bloodborne
diseases in our country is very dynamic.
One
in
1600
Polish women between the ages of 20 and 29 get the hepatitis B virus
(HBV) in hospital or outpatient clinics during their pregnancies. So
HBV in Poland is more common in women than men, whereas in most
countries, the reverse is the case.
Poland is
heavily Roman Catholic. Does this pose problems for you in spreading
the message of safe sex?
Religious
problems are a real obstacle, a real interfering fact. According to
Catholicism, a man should not deposit his semen anywhere other than in
his wife's vagina, so sexual fondling and masturbation to ejaculation
are out of the question. But we need to adjust our advice sensibly to
reality. Promiscuity exists in Poland as it does in other countries,
and you have to admit that sexuality is an issue for young people and
cannot be seen only as a sin.
So have you
run into problems with the Catholic Church?
If
you say
plainly that something endangers people, and if you repeat it enough
times, thc Church has
no objection. I say, let a priest be a priest, let a doctor be a
doctor. But priests are not the only people who pose problems. In 1991,
one of my fellow deputy health ministers said that condoms were only
for deviants. He was fired by the prime minister of the time, Mr Bielecki,
who was a liberal. And an education minister said recently that there
was no need for AIDS education. I said his comment was "very exotic".
What is the
position on AIDS education?
The
older
generation does not want to talk to another generation about sex. There
are some things which most mums and dads find it impossible to say.
Doctors are not good at AIDS education because they tend to medicalize the issue and use
words of Greek and Latin origin. And teachers get red faces about
condoms. In any case, in this time of transition from communism, when
there has been a swing to the authoritarian right, it is not possible
to incorporate AIDS education into the official curriculum. In my
opinion the best way is to use peer educators.
Who will
these peer educators be?
We
have an
army of young women - 13 000 secondary nursing students, 3000 of them
doing midwifery - who could be health educators. We started a peer
training programme in
1988 in Wroclaw with the headmaster of the local midwifery school. The
midwife peer educators, who are usually 19 or 20 years old, go into
local schools and talk to the pupils from the ages of 11 up, usually
separating the sexes until they are 15. The system is now very
well-known in the area. Other schools are asking for it, and parents
too. We find that young women can talk about sex much more easily than
young men with their peers, male and female. The educators tell the
group that it is natural for young people to have sexual urges, to
masturbate, and to fantasize. This gets them all relaxed. And then the
educators come in with the message: "But when it comes to intercourse,
use a condom and/or a virucide".
And they tell the girls it is important to know someone for more than
one day, and that they should check whether the boyfriend can fulfil his role not just as a
sex partner, but as someone they can talk to and enjoy other leisure
activities with. One aim is to delay first intercourse. I follow the
idea of abstinence as an ideal, but at the same time realize that it
can be too demanding.
How do you
plan to mobilize the whole army of nursing and midwife students?
We
have
set
up a programme called
Sami Sobie - "Ourselves
for Ourselves". It is headed by Dorothy Czyrek
and Ivonne Mackiewicz,
who were in the
first group of peer educators. We hope to make a short-cut to a new
generation of Poles using self made educational materials based on WHO
and Red Cross models. Fifteen girls from Warsaw and Wroclaw went to
Bristol in June to learn of British experiences, and with WHO support
we organized summer camps for 60 midwifery students and 60 nursing
students in August to train them as trainers to go into the schools.
They will go into the schools and show how to use condoms by putting
them on their fingers, and so on. (I do that whenever I go on
television.) The girls will also talk about general health promotion,
including what tobacco can do to you, not just about AIDS and sex. The
Polish population is dying from smoking and drinking and lack of
physical exercise.
What about
condom supply in Poland?
For
many
years, there was a factory in Poland which produced condoms with holes
and measured their elasticity with rulers. Now we have founded a new
Polish-German joint venture with quality technology looked after by
German specialists. We make all kinds of condoms, even flavoured ones, for oral,
vaginal and anal sex. And they cost the equivalent of 18 US cents for
three.
If your plans
for peer education come to fruition, the younger generation will be
well educated on AIDS issues. What about the generation of people who
came before them?
Opening
statement,
by Zbigniew Halat, M.D.
I understand that this is the second such meeting in Europe, and the
third in the World, organized with financial support from the Dutch
Government. I wish to express my gratitude to the Government of The
Netherlands for their commitment in this respect. I also want to put on
record my ppreciation of the fact that so many participants from the
countries in Eastern and Central Europe have been able to come together
here, in spite of all the practical difficulties we know most of you
experience at present. Some sixty individuals from countries in central
and eastern Europe have gathered here today including facilitators and
temporary advisers from seven Western European countries.
The tremendous interest to participate in the workshop is an indication
of the correct decision of the Global Programme on AIDS in the WHO
Regional Office of Europe to give priority to the planning and
development of AIDS hotlines in countries in central and eastern Europe.
This is a field where a tremendous amount of experience has accumulated
recently in countries in western and northern Europe over a relatively
short period of time. There is need to share knowledge of the success
and the failures that has been gained, so that we in the countries of
central and eastern Europe may profit by the experiences in western and
northern Europe, and adapt your knowledge to our own realities.
<>It is often said that, at present, the only vaccine we
have against transmission of HIV infection is information and
education. However, the AIDS pandemic has underscored what we have
known for a long time; that not every form of information influences
people, increases knowledge, changes attitude, or makes a difference in
changing behaviour. The AIDS pandemic has taught the world that there
are great differences between old-fashioned health propaganda and the
modern social marketing that is part of health promotion. It has
illustrated the importance of target groups having confidence and trust
in the source of the information. It has underlined that
representatives of target groups should have a say in how their peers
should be approached. It has shown the total superiority of one-to-one
transfer of information in a counselling setting, and targeted
campaigns should not be discounted as important consciousness-raising
elements of a total information, education and health promotion
strategy in HIV/AIDS prevention and control- However, before we start
attempting to transmit information to achieve behaviour change, we must
learn how to communicate effectively in a counselling situation.
Counselling in any setting demands listening skills and empathy.
Helpline counselling by telephone requires special skills. These skills
do not come naturally to most of us; they need to be learned.
When a person has overcome his or her reluctance to call an anonymous
telephone number and to start to talk to a stranger about sensitive
issues like HIV/AIDS, sex and drug use, they do not usually want to be
met by a person spewing out series of epidemiological statistics or
masses of biomedical facts. What they want to meet at the other end of
the telephone line is a sensitive, empathie person with active
listening skills; a person with ability to guide the caller to
decisions that are right for her or him.
< style="font-weight: bold;">Various ways have been
chosen in various countries and different settings to meet the needs
and demands of the hotline callers or "customers". In some cases great
stress has been put on the counsellors with professional training in
health or social sciences or services. In other cases the stress is on
volunteers with non-professional backgrounds; simultaneously stressing
the need for the helpline to enable the non-health (or social service)
professional to be really a professional counsellor rather than a
counsellor with a professional background» and achieving this through
intensive and extensive training» and on-the-job supervision.
Participants at this workshop will have the possibility to discuss the
pros and cons of various solutions to a number of challenges and
problems that have accumulated over the years of running AIDS helplines
and other specialist telephone hotlines in western and northern Europe.
< style="font-weight: bold;">In this, let us remind each
other, however, that the solution we choose for our own ventures must
build on acknowledgement of the cultural and traditional sensitivities
that are peculiar to each group targeted* Such sensitivities exist and
need to be recognized. Breaking down social, legal, cultural, religious
and traditional barriers may be needed concerning sexuality, sexual
orientation and sexual practices, as well as concerning illicit use of
alcoholj drugs and other substances. But in breaking down these
barriers we must be willing to acknowledge that they exist and respect
them for what they are, and on the other hand not be over afraid of
breaking taboos. The very fact that there exists in the countries of
Europe such variety of social» legal» cultural» religious and
traditional attitudes is in itself one of the things that make Europe
an exciting continent, and with increase in personal liberty in so many
-more countries» even more so at present than a few years ago. However,
in.relation to the AIDS epidemic the very expressions of freedom
paradoxically..put the population at risk calling for a firm public
health and social policy response with concerted action of voluntary
activities and statutory actions and duties.
There is an impressive array of participants and of advisers at this
workshop. I am convinced that together you will be able to find answers
on how to respond to this paradox of personal freedom and
health-endangering behaviour. You will not give us the ultimate answer,
but you cannot fail to give us important guidance. I wish you every
success in your deliberations.