The Wall Las Memorias Project Faith

AIDS Mural Vandilized and then Cleaned

2010-08-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

August 9, 2010

From : Richard Zaldivar, The Wall Las Memorias Project Executive Director
A few of us cleaned the mural at the AIDS Monument on Saturday...NO PERMANENT DAMAGE...wiping away the paint and cleaning the mural of the ignorance and denial is what we do when we outreach....It is more that symbolism it is because the AIDS monument is a focal point to address these issues....It is also a mirror for people to look into and see what they don’t like about themselves...That is why we built the monument....the battles goes on...Richard

July 28, 2010
Developing: The Wall Las Memorias AIDS Monument Vandalized
Karen Ocamb HIV/AIDS, Los Angeles Add your comment Print This Post

The Wall Las Memorias – an inspirational art project dedicated as a Latino AIDS monument on World AIDS Day in 2004 – has been vandalized. Apparently a mother went to see the name of her son on the Wall in Highland Park and found a section of the mural splashed in yellow paint.
The Wall’s founder Richard Zaldivar told me:
“The vandalism was done to the section of the AIDS mural that depicts a child saying, ‘I once knew a child with AIDS.’ And so it is really sad and very troubling that someone would use this opportunity to damage a piece of art that was created for the purpose HIV prevention and education to our community.
We are currently working with the police to see whether or not it was a hate crime. It seemed to be very targeted. There are six painted murals and only this mural was vandalized. So it was very targeted and focused.
I also really appreciate so many people from the community expressing their concern and sadness at this vandalism.”
Zaldivar says that if people want to be supportive, they can help create a discussion with the larger community around safety and other issues in the park. He requests that comments and suggestions be sent to jperez@thewalllasmemorias.org.
Additionally, Eddie Martinez says:
“We plan to try to clean it today at 2pm. We are going to try to use soap and water. If that does not work, we will need to call the company that produced the fabricated murals to see what the next steps are. We don’t want to further damage the murals. We have a team of volunteers and staff going to the monument today. People are welcomed to be there for support but we have enough manpower.”

Your support is greatly appreciated.

Let us know your thoughts and feelings regarding this story.

Pope Benedict XVI Thoughts on Abortion and Same-Sex Marriage

2010-05-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100513/ap_on_re_eu/eu_pope_portugal

FATIMA, Portugal – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called abortion and same-sex marriage some of the most "insidious and dangerous" threats facing the world today, asserting key church teachings as he tried to move beyond the clerical abuse scandal.
Benedict made the comments to Catholic social workers, health providers and others after celebrating Mass before an estimated 400,000 people in Fatima. The central Portuguese farming town is one of the most important shrines in Christianity, where three shepherd children reported having visions of the Virgin Mary in 1917.
Benedict's visit to Fatima on the anniversary of the apparitions was the spiritual centerpiece of his four-day visit to Portugal, which ends Friday. It was cast by Vatican officials as evidence that he had turned a page in weathering the abuse scandal, which has dogged him for months.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, pointed to the turnout in Fatima and said it was "very beautiful and encouraging" that pilgrims hadn't been deterred in expressing their faith despite months of revelations in Europe about priests who molested children and bishops and Vatican officials who turned a blind eye.
The faithful understand "the capacity of the church to effectively overcome — via conversion, penance and prayer — the dimension of real sin there is in our community," Lombardi said.
Benedict himself admitted to the "sins within the church" on the first day of the trip, his most explicit admission of Church culpability in the scandal. By Thursday, however, he had moved on to stressing core church teachings in the largely Roman Catholic country, where abortion on demand has been available since 2007 and where Parliament in January passed a bill allowing same-sex marriage. In addition, a judge in 2008 made it easier to obtain divorce even when one spouse objects.
Benedict told the gathering of lay Catholics that he appreciated their efforts fighting abortion and promoting the family based on the "indissoluble marriage between a man and woman" — the Vatican's way of expressing its opposition to divorce and same-sex unions.
Such initiatives "help respond to some of the most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good today," he said. "Alongside numerous other forms of commitment, such initiatives represent essential elements in the building of the civilization of love."
The admonition was a break of sorts from the continuous message Benedict has delivered in Portugal about the suffering of the world and church — a message which resonates in Fatima, where the sick and infirm flock seeking remedies for ailments.
In a special message to the sick during Mass, Benedict urged them to take heart, saying they should "overcome the feeling of the uselessness of suffering which consumes a person from within and makes him feel a burden to those around him."
"In suffering, you will discover an interior peace and even spiritual joy," he said.
His message struck a chord with many in the huge gathering, among them elderly and infirm people who, with their heads bowed, fingered rosaries.
Aurora Clemente, a 65-year-old cook from Portugal's northeastern tip, close to the border with Spain, said she had been coming to Fatima on May 13 for more than 30 years.
"Fatima makes miracles. When my son was seriously ill, I prayed to the Virgin of Fatima and he survived," she said.
"I find it very moving here. For me, this is the most beautiful place in the world," she said, sitting beneath a red umbrella on the fringe of the crowd.
Like Lourdes in France, Fatima attracts millions of pilgrims a year seeking cures. One of the rituals pilgrims perform at Fatima involves casting replicas of body parts — eyes, lungs, hearts — on sale at local shops into a big bonfire while reciting a prayer asking for healing.
Pope Paul VI visited Fatima in 1967. Pope John Paul II — who was shot in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981 — came three times before his death, believing that the Virgin's "unseen hand" had saved him.
During his third and final visit in 2000, the Vatican announced the "third secret" of Fatima: the third part of the message the Virgin is said to have told the three children: a description of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
The first two secrets of Fatima were said to have foretold the end of World War I and the outbreak of World War II and the rise and fall of Soviet communism.
After the third secret was revealed, the Vatican essentially implied the Fatima case was closed. But on Thursday, Benedict said its message continued to be relevant.
"We would be mistaken to think that Fatima's prophetic mission is complete," Benedict said in his homily during the Mass. Lombardi was asked if such comments were merely an effort to keep Fatima's fascination relevant to the faithful at a time when the Cold War and John Paul's assassination attempt are no longer front-burner issues.
"The term 'prophetic' doesn't mean an announcement of concrete facts that one sees in a crystal ball but rather knowing how to read history and events in the light of faith," Lombardi said.
___
Associated Press writer Barry Hatton contributed to this report.

What do you think?

Religious Leaders to Fight HIV Stigma

2010-04-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

Africa RSS Feed
Religious Leaders to Fight HIV Stigma
Spiritual leaders from around the world are meeting in The Netherlands to discuss their response to HIV/AIDS. Selah Hennessy spoke to African church leaders for VOA about how they can use their influence to fight the stigma surrounding the disease.
Selah Hennessy London 23 March 2010

From: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Religious-Leaders-to-Fight-HIV-Stigma-88933602.html

Reverend Patricia Sawo is a pastor at the Calvary Celebration Church in Kenya and the mother of 10 children.Sawo found out she was HIV positive more than a decade ago. She says before then she had been misinformed about the disease. "Before I was confronted with my own HIV status, I knew that HIV was a disease for the sinners, and that is how it was presented," she said.When she learned she was HIV-positive she lost her position in the church. But she learned more about HIV/AIDS and has retaken charge of her church and says she aims to teach her congregation the facts."There were people already in the church who were actually having HIV and who were hopeless and did not have anywhere to turn to," she said. "So my coming back into the church with the good news in itself started an automatic support group within the church. That Sunday that I spoke in the Sunday service, in the evening there were eight people who came to confide in me and just to tell me that they were there and they were living with HIV and we needed to find more information," she explained. Sawo is one of more than 40 religious leaders meeting this week in The Netherlands to discuss how faith groups can respond to the HIV pandemic. She says faith leaders must speak out and take action in order to wipe out the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. She says religious leaders must lead the way. "The religious leader is the person that you will find in the most remote village. Where there is no doctor, you will find a religious leader. Where there is no police post, you will find a religious leader and you will find at least a church or a mosque," said Sawo. Cape Town Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Reverend Thabo Makgoba, says faith groups have shown compassion for the sick and taken care of people living with HIV/AIDS. "But there are others that in messaging have not been that positive and constructive, and we in some instances perpetuated stigma. But the good thing about now is that we are aware that stigma kills and we want to commit to really caring and working with those that are HIV positive," he said. The religious response to HIV/AIDS has sometimes been hindered by issues such as HIV prevention methods, including the use of condoms, and attitudes towards people at increased risk of HIV infection, such as men who have sex with men.Makgoba says the meeting in The Netherlands is about opening dialogue about HIV/AIDS and getting religious leaders to talk openly about the disease. "We said we have a catastrophe in front of us that is ravaging our people. How do we collectively and as church leaders give leadership?" He asked.The United Nations says 70 percent of the world's people identify themselves as a member of a faith community. According to the World Health Organization, more than 40 percent of HIV related care in Lesotho and Zambia are provided by faith-based groups.

Noche de Las Memorias 2009

2009-12-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

With more than 500 people in attendance, AIDS educators and activists gathered at the AIDS monument Las Memorias in Lincoln Park to unveil names recently added to its granite panels and to remember those lost to AIDS. Among the names added is Pedro Zamora, the late AIDS activist who captured the hearts and minds of the American public and the world when he appeared on MTV’s “The Real World” series in 1994. As part of the evening’s ceremony, attendees were asked to launch a petition drive to honor Zamora’s legacy with a U.S. postage stamp.The Los Angeles City Council also declared December 1, 2009 as Pedro Zamora Day.
For sixteen years, Noche de las Memorias or Evening of Memories, has taken place at Lincoln Park and uniquely combines spirituality and faith, education and prevention, and advocacy as a means to reach the Latino and Los Angeles communities through culturally and relevant messages.

Will you sign the petition for a Pedro Zamora stamp?

Conference on Latinos, Faith, Culture, HIV & Mental Health

2009-11-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

October 26th, 2009 marked the 3rd Annual Conference on Latinos, Faith, Culture, HIV and Mental Health held at the California Endowment.

The day long conference addressed issues such HIV/AIDS, suicide among Latinos, alcoholism and depression to name a few. A presentation was provided entitled the "Theology of Sex"which looked at how sex and sexuality was viewed upon through the ages from a religious perspective.

The highlight of the conference was a release of the preliminary findings of the research project entitled "Voces de Fe y Cultura" which look at how religion and faith influences Latinos and HIV/AIDS.

For more information, go to our web site at: www.thewalllasmemorias.org

What did you think of the conference and some of the workshops?