Tea at Trianon: HIV: An African View

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, December 5, 2010

HIV: An African View

An interview with Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, founder of the African Jesuit AIDS Network.

The worldwide Church is the major caregiver for those who are HIV positive and those who are suffering from AIDS as well as also caring for those affected -- especially widows, orphans and others who are carrying the burden. So there is a wide range of work that the Church does.

If you look at it medically, perhaps worldwide, the Church offers 25% of AIDS services. My guess is that the average in Africa is closer to 40%, maybe even 50%. The further away you get from the big cities, the closer it gets to 100%. Often the only AIDS services in the remote areas are the Church clinics.

anothertwocents said...: Some people like to disparage the Jesuits for perceived failings, but I have time and time again been profoundly moved to discover Jesuits at those places where the suffering is profound, and few people would even think of wanting to help, be it a European Jesuit priest living with and for lepers in India, the Jesuits who care for these African AIDS patients, Jesuits living with the handicapped in L'Arche communities, and on and on.

Sometimes I think I wished that more people had such failings.; December 5, 2010 at 5:41:00 PM EST
Theresa Bruno said...: "Sometimes I think I wished that more people had such failings."~anothertwocents

I wish I personally had these failings. Instead I'm much to weak to care for those who need it.; December 5, 2010 at 10:06:00 PM EST