HIV-positive Catholics not receiving enough spiritual care - priest

Many HIV-positive Catholics are not receiving adequate pastoral care, despite the Catholic Church being in the forefront of the HIV/AIDS response, according to a Catholic priest.

"There is still much hesitation in the church to offer pastoral care to those living and dying with HIV/AIDS," Father Robert Vitillo, special advisor on HIV/AIDS to the Catholic charity, Caritas Internationalis, told delegates attending a four-day of workshop organised by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) in Kenya.

Although the church was conducting awareness campaigns and providing medical and other forms of help to those infected and affected, more needed to be done, Vitillo said.

"Church representatives need to speak openly about HIV/AIDS from the pulpit and in other preaching," the Catholic Information Service for Africa quoted him as saying.