Catholic Pupils in Chicago to Learn About AIDS

Schoolchildren in the nation’s second largest Roman Catholic archdiocese will be taught about the fatal disease AIDS, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin said.

Bernardin disclosed the archdiocese’s plans in a 12-page pastoral letter issued Thursday, a day after U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop urged the nation’s schools to educate students about acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Bernardin said the archdiocesan Educational Services Department will design appropriate ways of making “accurate information about AIDS available to our schools and religious education programs.”

The letter, which comes a year after the cardinal appointed an archdiocese committee to study AIDS, did not spell out the age or grade when AIDS education would begin.

Training for Priests

In his statement, the cardinal said training about AIDS will be provided for priests, and he will appoint an archdiocesan Pastoral Care Coordinator for AIDS Ministry, which will serve as a liaison with other community groups.

The cardinal also pledged that no archdiocesan employee will be discriminated against because of AIDS.

He said blood testing for the AIDS virus “is neither accurate nor diagnostic nor predictive of the disease and is not to be used as an instrument for hiring persons working at any level of the archdiocese.”

In discussing religious reactions to AIDS, Bernardin rejected the notion that the disease is a “divine punishment” for homosexuality, as some ministers have contended.

Not Restricted to Gays

Bernardin noted that AIDS is not restricted to homosexuals, although they do constitute most of the victims of the disease.

“Secondly, God is loving and compassionate, not vengeful,” Bernardin wrote.

Paul Varnell of the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force said Bernardin took too long to make the announcement. He added that the city’s homosexual community is still unhappy over the role the archdiocese played in helping to kill a proposed gay-rights ordinance this summer.