Compassion for AIDS Victims

What could be more natural, more needed, more humane than a hospice where dying victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome could spend their last days with dignity? In deciding to create such a hospice in Los Angeles, Archbishop Roger Mahony has recognized the void in community response to this devastating disease, and has reached out a sensitive, healing hand to the gay community that suffers most from AIDS.

The proposed hospice, for which no location has yet been selected, would be the third established by the Roman Catholic Church for AIDS patients in the United States. One recently opened in Greenwich Village in New York City and a second will open this fall in San Francisco’s Castro district. Even though the church would run the Los Angeles hospice, the archbishop said that he felt it should be open to people of all faiths. AIDS Project Los Angeles runs a home in which several patients live, but it is not a full-fledged hospice and so the archbishop’s effort fills a great need.

A hospice provides medical care in a less institutional setting than that found in most hospitals, and often have few, if any, visiting restrictions. Their goal is to make the dying person comfortable and to provide emotional support for the patient, family and friends. AIDS is so far a baffling disease whose victims especially need this care and concern while scientists seek its cause and possible cure. Mahony’s commitment teaches that compassion, rather than fear, is the civilized approach.