Mercy Global Concern - 2005

Vatican assembles women to discuss impact of Poverty and War
By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To discuss the impact of poverty and war on women and women's contributions to development and peace, the Vatican assembled an international group of women.

The Oct. 28-29 seminar at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace included only three male speakers, including Cardinal Renato Martino, council president, who welcomed the 77 participants. "We will stop to look at the face of today's women," he said. "Much more than the face of men, in many parts of the globe, theirs is a face marked by misery, poverty, exploitation, violence and the lack of any elementary respect for the basic rights of the human person."

"We will stop to consider the heart of today's women. Much more than that of men, theirs is a heart ready to promote a new humanism, a holistic humanism marked by solidarity for a more equitable, just and peaceful world," he said.

The 17 women who were scheduled to address the seminar included government officials from Africa, Europe and Latin America , U.N. officials, scholars, educators and women directly involved in serving refugees, people living with AIDS and women who had been trafficked. The meeting also looked at women's essential role within the family for educating children in skills and values, overcoming poverty and promoting tolerance, respect, reconciliation and peace. Mercy Sister Phyllis Hughes from Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, said: "I feel this is a new moment. The church really is becoming aware of women's gifts and not just talking about them." Sister Catherine Arata, a School Sister of Notre Dame, said the meeting was an opportunity to look at how much Catholic women -- especially women's religious orders -- have contri! buted to peace, justice and development, using their health and educational activities not only to give women skills, but to promote connections among them. In her presentation to the seminar, Sister Hughes spoke about women, AIDS and poverty. Especially in developing countries, she said, the issues of HIV infection, poverty, violence, food security, education, human rights and even armed conflict are interwoven. In sub-Saharan Africa and in the Caribbean more than 50 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are women, and "in South Africa , Zambia and Zimbabwe , more than three-quarters of all young people living with HIV are women," she said.

"They face risks socially, culturally and economically that men and boys do not," she said. And "one of the saddest" aspects of the problem is that often women and girls "lack control over engaging in behavior that could lead to infection." Rape and coerced sex, marriage at a young age to older men who have had many partners and social customs that do nothing to encourage men to be faithful to their wives all contribute to the epidemic's spread, Sister Hughes said.

"At the current infection and death rates, by 2020 there will be many fewer women than men in southern Africa , a condition that in itself leads to more violence against women," she said. "HIV is certainly about individual behavior," she said, "but curtailing the epidemic will require addressing the many imbalances that are beyond the control of the individual. The imbalance of resources, especially for treatment, and the 'more than half' burden borne by women and girls badly need mitigation."

Sister Hughes said the Catholic Church and Catholic-affiliated agencies have to coordinate their efforts more effectively so they do not end up competing for the same funds for HIV-AIDS treatment and prevention. The church must increase girls' access to education and the access of women to AIDS treatment, she said. And while the church has done a great deal to lobby for lower costs and g! reater a ccess to antiretroviral drugs, it should do more to support efforts to find an AIDS vaccine, she said. "A vaccine is the only truly effective way to protect women and girls from HIV infection," Sister Hughes said, because it would be effective even in situations where they have no choice over engaging in risky sexual behavior.