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A Participant in College Leaders Program Shares Reflections on Conference
August 16, 2005
Oscar Abello is a student at Villanova University in Philadelphia. This is excerpts of an article written by Abello for a Villanova publication. Abello will serve as a member of the 2006 Conference Planning Team.
CHICAGO, July 26 - This past July several Villanova students were in attendance for the 18th Annual National AIDS Ministry Conference at Loyola University Chicago. Thanks to Campus Ministry and Catholic Relief Services and the National Catholic AIDS Network, our students attended free of charge. The conference is hosted by the National Catholic AIDS Network (NCAN), bringing together active AIDS ministry workers and advocates from around the country for five days of spiritual renewal, and exchange of stories from the past year.
The conference consists of a series of four workshop periods, during which those in attendance are free to attend any one of the five workshops presented per period. Workshops were complimented by Plenary, or Prayer/Information sessions, highlighted by gospel music directed by Stephen Lee of New Orleans, a board-certified music therapist and music director for a parish.
The annual theme for the conference this year was "Transforming Silence." Many of the workshops revolved around that theme of breaking the silence surrounding HIV/AIDS. Examples of workshops included a session on The Stigma of HIV/AIDS, presented by New Orleans native Darrin Harris, current Program Director for Love Alive Inc., a faith- based organization in New York City. Harris highlighted the, "willful ignorance of those who fail to realize that the Body of Christ includes all of us, and it is wounded."
Another workshop was titled "Women of Color Finding a Voice in Rural Communities." Co-presented by Onita Triplett and Dawn Campbell, both prominent AIDS Ministers in Louisiana, it consisted of a roundtable discussion among the various AIDS Ministers in attendance, on the topic of how to speak and relate to those particular women, who are often single mothers, poor, and deprived of needed resources and support systems. "One client," remarked Triplett. "Was so stubborn, I had to develop my relationship with her for a whole year, before I brought up the subject of AIDS."
One more notable example was a workshop presented by Mary Lou Hamlin. A legend in her own right as an AIDS Minister, she is currently the NY-Capital Region President for the NAMES Project Foundation in upstate New York. During this workshop, attendees helped craft a new panel for the Foundation's famed Quilt, part of which is coming to our campus for World AIDS Day on December 1st.
Other highlights of the Conference included the presence of an Acting Troupe from ContraSIDA, an organization in El Salvador that educates young men and women in the dangers of AIDS through the use of largely improvised skits by fellow young men and women. The Facilitator of this group, Sr. Mary Annel, M.D., received the Conference's Annual Lumina Award, for a lifetime of work in the community of AIDS Ministry.
The conference was also honored briefly by the presence of His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago. The Cardinal was on hand for a brief word of encouragement to the conferees, and also to be there for the official announcement of the new partnership between NCAN and Loyola University Chicago.
Further spiritual renewal was bolstered by a homily and plenary talk delivered by Conference Theologian Rev. Bryan Massingale, of Marquette University and the Black Catholic Theological Symposium. Rev. Massingale is a specialist in Roman Catholic Social Teaching. Besides teaching, he is consulting for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for, among other things, a forthcoming statement on the sin of racism
"The conference was nothing short of life-changing," Jon Messing, Class of 2007, commented. "The realities presented, the people present, and the stories told were absolutely a spiritual experience and I cannot thank Campus Ministry and Catholic Relief Services enough for that opportunity."
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