Challenging members of the Barry community to greater understanding regarding the continued spread of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Maria Cimperman, OSU, shared current statistics, accounts of conversations with infected persons from around the globe, and a vision for working with the HIV/AIDS pandemic formed through her research in virtue ethics and spirituality—a lens through which we might find a way to begin to deal with HIV/AIDS and the other issues it raises.
A recognized authority in the field of social ethics and author of When God's People Have HIV/AIDS: An Approach to Ethics, Cimperman referred the audience to the U.N. Millenium Development Goals, one of which seeks to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases by 2015. Considering that people living with HIV numbered 33.2 million in 2007, with 2.5 million newly infected persons that same year, it seems no real progress is being made toward reaching this goal. (For more statistical information, see the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.)
As Cimperman clearly articulated, however, the continued increase in new cases presents a conundrum: We know how to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS; what we don’t know is why there is resistance to testing and to implementation of preventative measures. She suggested we examine why people are not being tested—is it stigma or is it something else? Do the underlying reasons vary from one community to another? Answers are sometimes unexpected, at least from an outsider’s point of view —an increase in testing was seen among Haitians, for example, when they were made aware that medicine was available to treat the disease.
And while one might think that teaching about HIV/AIDS prevention from the standpoint of threat of death would be effective, perhaps that is not what is really needed. In one conversation Cimperman recounted, just the opposite was requested-- “Give us a reason for living, give us a reason for hope.” Taking this request to heart, Cimperman invoked the Christian imagination, focused on the future, the depth of the issue, and looked for a new way.
Viewing HIV through the lens of virtue ethics, she found that the virtue of hope itself, that very thing requested above, could be the answer. Hope, “a prime resource for the imagination,” Cimperman noted, can “give us a particular, sustained vision.” Furthermore, “hope is communal,” and it allows us to see the issue and the people involved compassionately. It enables us to look at the deeper issues behind new diagnoses of HIV and to examine, in Cimperman’s words, “What’s underneath that is not going to be solved by a condom?”
Cimperman moved into a discussion on the role of contemplation, noting to the delight of many in the audience, the Dominican emphasis on contemplation. “Hope,” she said, “engages us in contemplation.” Hope allows us to “sit with reality, with the tension between a belief in the possibility of change and a sense that change is not possible.” Sitting with the reality of a particular community we can imagine a “doorway wider than we have seen.” It can allow us to envision new possibilities, to approach resistance to HIV/AIDS testing and prevention through a culture or community’s reality and self-understanding, in its positive and negative aspects.
Through the lens of hope, we can approach the underlying issues that prevent people from protecting themselves and their children, whether from HIV/AIDS or another pandemic. And when these underlying issues are discovered, Cimperman noted, hope can move in justice and fidelity toward resolution.
Dr. Maria Cimperman, OSU, spoke to an engaged audience of 100 Barry faculty, staff, students and interested local community members on February 11, 2008. Her lecture was part of the Barry University St. Thomas / St. Catherine lecture series and was sponsored by Barry’s Council on Bioethics.
Dr. Cimperman is an Assistant Professor of Moral Theology and Social Ethics at Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, TX. Cimperman's work considers the integration of morality, spirituality and social ethics in light of contemporary issues of the day on both a local and global scale. Her book,When God's People Have HIV/AIDS: An Approach to Ethics, received an award from the Catholic Press Association. Her current research and writing projects include: "Toward a Contemporary Social Spirituality," "Religious Life for the 21st Century: Insights from the Giving Voice Generations" and "Women and AIDS."
Cimperman received the BA in English and Religious Studies from Ursuline College, an M.Div. at the University of Notre Dame, an STL from Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and the Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from Boston College. |
Dr. Maria Cimperman, OSU |
