Chicago Tribune - June 29, 2007
Margaret Ramirez, Tribune religion reporter, maramirez@tribune.com

Sanchez, pastor of Iglesia Mision del Valle in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, recalls the man came to her after a service about five years ago and said he was going to die. She hugged her friend and told him: "You're not going to die, you're going to live with this and I'm going to help you."

Since then, Sanchez has attended several training programs on HIV/AIDS education and began offering pastoral care to people with HIV through a nearby drug rehabilitation program. She preached about the disease in her church, visited hospitals and prayed with the sick before they died.

"Many people are looking for acceptance. They ask me if God still loves them," said Sanchez, a Pentecostal pastor. "Many have passed away. But, I think they passed away with some hope, a little more hope than they had before."

Sanchez is part of an emerging core of Latino pastors in Chicago who are becoming more involved in HIV education and prevention by planning special church services, providing free testing, forming support groups and offering spiritual care. Though many Latino churches initially were reluctant to respond to the AIDS epidemic, a new study of Latino congregations in Chicago found that more clergy have become involved, many of them motivated by a connection to someone with AIDS or by receiving pastoral training.

The study, released this month by the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies, was based on extensive interviews with 175 Roman Catholic priests and Protestant pastors in Chicago who lead congregations where Hispanics constitute a majority.

The researchers found that 86 percent of clergy at Chicago's Latino churches have known someone with AIDS. The majority of those people, 71 percent, were either church members or relatives of church members.

More than half of Latino churches were found to have engaged in some activity to address the AIDS crisis. But of those churches, only 14 percent offer comprehensive services for congregants living with HIV or AIDS. The remaining churches surveyed, or 48 percent, were not involved any AIDS efforts.

The study also found that if a church was heavily involved in HIV-related activities, it was likely the pastor knew someone living with AIDS. Edwin Hernandez, principal investigator for the study, said training was another key factor that pushed clergy to get more involved.

"Training makes a big difference," Hernandez said. "It mobilizes congregations to be more involved in HIV-related activities, makes them more sensitive to these issues. There is less stigmatizing going on. It really just opens the doors for a welcoming environment and for trying a ministry that perhaps has not been tried before."

Hernandez said the study provides potential lessons for public health officials who could partner with churches to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

"If there is any institution in the Latino communities, or African-American communities for that matter, that plays a critical role in terms of being the first place to access support or counseling, it's the church," he said. "If we can understand the important role that they play, and how they can even play a greater role, it could be part of the answer to both prevention and supportive efforts."

In Illinois, Chicago is the epicenter for HIV and AIDS. According to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, about 70 percent of reported AIDS cases statewide are in Chicago. Nearly 22,000 Chicagoans are living with HIV/AIDS, and it is estimated that more than 1,000 others become infected with HIV each year. Though blacks constitute a majority of AIDS cases, the disease's impact on Latino communities has become clear in recent years.

Every Chicago neighborhood has been touched by the AIDS epidemic, but Humboldt Park yielded much information for the Notre Dame study because the neighborhood has one of the highest AIDS rates in the city and a large concentration of Latino churches.

Rev. Luis Quinones, coordinator of faith-based programs for Chicago's AIDS Pastoral Care Network, provides training for clergy that includes basics on transmission of the disease, neighborhood health clinics that offer care, and counseling on the spiritual needs of people with HIV and AIDS. In the last four years, Quinones said the network has worked with more than 150 Chicago pastors.

"My experience is that pastors still don't have the right information," he said. "There is still the feeling that you can catch this through casual contact."

Joann Montes, an educator who provides pastoral training, said some pastors tend to judge people with HIV. Montes said she experienced that firsthand when she told her pastor she had contracted HIV from her husband. In response, the pastor asked Montes if she had had premarital sex. She said no, and he responded that he would pray for her. Soon after, Montes was stripped of her responsibilities as a Sunday school teacher and vocal director. She eventually joined another church.

"Churches know this is a problem but they still don't know how to deal with it," Montes said.

"They need to look beyond a person's circumstances so they can see who we are."

Sanchez said conquering those attitudes remains a challenge for Latino churches.

"We're trying to educate pastors to minister with empathy and not to be so condemning. The church has to work with those who have HIV, and not go into details about how they got it," she said.

"If we have a condemning spirit, then these people who need us are just going to walk away from the church."

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