Chicago Tribune (CT) - TUESDAY, July 23, 1996 Edition: NORTH SPORTS FINAL Section: METRO CHICAGO Page: 4 Word Count: 422
Terry Wilson, Tribune Staff Writer.

His topic, after all, was death, and there was competition from other workshops, a sunny afternoon and people's inclination to duck the subject.

He was right. His audience numbered nine.

"People still have a hard time facing death and planning for it," Turner said at his workshop at the 9th National Catholic HIV/AIDS Ministry Conference at Loyola University Chicago. "Because these people (at the conference) deal with death and dying, they can help families to deal with these issues."

In all, 300 people from the U.S. and countries that include Thailand, Ethiopia, England and the Dominican Republic, attended the group's conference, designed to allow those who care for people with HIV/AIDS to see what others are doing. They also came to recharge their strength in the high-burnout field.

"They come for information, for resources and to network," said Rodney DeMartini, executive director of National Catholic AIDS Network. "They also come to find some more hope and faith to go on. They ask, 'How can I keep being hopeful myself and keep offering hope for people who feel hopeless?' "

The conference had dozens of workshops on subjects from HIV-positive ministers to suggestions for helping people with sex addictions to keeping fathers involved as caregivers in families affected by HIV.

Turner's workshop dealt with preparing for death.

"When funerals were in the home, families were involved in the washing, the dressing and all final preparations," said Turner, who is studying to become a funeral director. "It was really personal. Now we've left it all to the professionals."

Turner said he hopes to bring the personal touches he has as a priest to the funeral business.

He encouraged everyone to plan ahead for the kind of funeral service they want. He also warned that there are no legal protections for unmarried companions when it comes to funeral arrangements. The only way to ensure agreements will be honored, he said, is to include them in a codicil to the dying person's will.

Terry Hargens, 44, of Monterey, Calif., who attended the session, has AIDS and has already planned his funeral. He said he has gotten his divorced parents to agree to divide his ashes for whatever services they wish to hold after he dies. But he said the workshop taught him to have a lawyer draft that agreement in writing.

"What they agreed to a few years ago might change," Hargens said.

DESCRIPTORS: RELIGION; MEETING; ISSUE

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