ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

254Rodica Ţuguistrong feeling that the role of the priest is to comfort the sick, and of those withHIV infection. Even more, the rank of a priest offers specific possibilities ofintervention because he enjoys a certain moral authority and respect in front ofthe people of the parochy ”his word is listened to” and because he can get thesick people closer to God, which will build, of course, a way of encouragingthose who are suffering. The moral authority of the priest is extended in thiscase, most of the time, into the community by encouraging them and alsocontributing thru his behavior with the sick, to make them more tolerant.Most of the points of view expressed by the participants at the focusgroups were as a result of some personal experiences and underlined the ideathat the sick person shouldn`t be marginalized 38 . The priests said this happensfrequently whereby the infected person has to bear discriminatory treatment andis stigmatized not only by themselves but even by their families. It was afrequent opinion that marginalization is extended not only to the sick and theirfamilies but even to the trained personnel who make contact with the seropositives.39 The pain of the sick is more intense when they are rejected by theirown family, as it happens in some of the cases told by a priest. 40Cases were presented of sick persons known in the parochy moredirectly who were accepted, up to certain point, by the community. 41 It seemsthat most of the time the children are more tolerant than the adults. Related tofear would vanish and a feeling of compassion would appear because clearly the sickness isincurable.” (priest Timiş)38 “Surely I would be overtaken by a feeling of compassion because it is a very harddisease, but under no circumstances I would “go away” from a sero-positive. I would be next tothat person, taking measures of precautions of course, to prevent the infection. The sick peopleshouldn’t be marginalized because this amplifies their suffering. Maybe the suffering is harderthan loneliness or anything else. The sickness in itself manifests, as far as I know, in its last period.Other than that, the children manifest normally in the society. In the moment in which that childcan not go to school, because the community doesn’t receive him and the teacher also doesn’treceive him because she doesn’t know the ways of transmission for the HIV virus, that child wouldfeel left aside and that would be much more troubling for him. For as long as he lives, he shouldlive normally.” (priest Iasi)39 “When I met the first time (institutionalized sero-positives) I wasn`t scared at all. Iwas very well informed about the methods of work. The only observation that I have had, becausethe event was broadcasted on tv, the people who work there shouldn`t appear on tv. There weresome ladies and a lady doctor for whom I have a great deal of admiration, but today or tomorrowthey can be seen on the street and be confused with AIDS infected people. So they will be alsomarginalized because the first impression is they are a „suspect” of AIDS.” (priest Timiş)40 “First they are isolated, and this is happening in our society when a sick person of anincurable disease is discovered. That person is known and isolated by their friends and even bytheir families. I know a situation in which someone lives in a family but in a separate bedroomand not even the children talk with each other. I think that is the most serious problem for them(for the sero-positives) to be excluded by their friends, by society and even by the family, which ismuch more painful.” ( priest Bucharest)41 “There is a sero-positive girl in my parochy who is married and has a child. I knowthat she is not breast feeding him. I have her child. There were two children which I had to baptizethat evening. As they had set down, the first to be baptized should have been the girl of the HIVinfected. The mother of the other child didn`t said anything. “ (priest Constan ţa)