Pope Will Pray for AIDS Patients During His S.F. Visit

SAN FRANCISCO —  In an attempt to meet Pope John Paul II’s desire for a forum to express compassion for AIDS victims, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco announced Thursday that 100 AIDS patients and their families will be among those attending the Pope’s first meeting during his visit here in September.

Father Miles Riley, spokesman for the archdiocese, said the Pope will meet with 100 AIDS patients, their friends, families and caretakers in a gathering that also will include 800 others. Riley said the Pope will “pray for and bless” the AIDS patients, but will not speak to them individually nor touch them.

The decision to bring AIDS patients to see the pontiff follows on-again, off-again proposals for John Paul to visit an AIDS hospice.

Sensitive Issue

The issue is particularly sensitive here, where several homosexual and feminist groups have vowed to use the Pope’s visit to protest the Vatican’s strong stance against homosexual activity. Last week, several groups launched a campaign to keep the Pope out of the city’s largely gay Castro District.

Riley said the decision to appear before AIDS patients had “just been approved” by the Vatican.

Speaking at a press conference in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Riley said the plan to include AIDS patients at the Sept. 17 meeting was “a magnificent resolution to the challenge . . . of how we were going to get AIDS patients and the Pope together . . . and to focus on the tragic epidemic in a creative way.”

Catholic officials said the Pope has long expressed interest addressing the issue of AIDS while on his U.S. trip.

‘Public Relations Ploy’

But John E. Wahl, coordinator for a coalition of gay, lesbian, bisexual and feminist groups here, said the move was “a clear public relations ploy.”

Gay activists have no objection to AIDS patients “visiting with any religious leader they want,” Wahl said.

“But to wait until six years into the epidemic, and to make his first visit ever with someone with AIDS when he is in San Francisco is . . . an attempt to defuse the horrible, judgmental letter he published last October that damned our community,” Wahl said Thursday in a telephone interview.

The letter Wahl referred to was issued by the Pope’s head of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. It said that while gay persons deserve compassion, homosexual acts are an “intrinsic moral evil.”

Acknowledges Pressure

Riley said that “time considerations” on the Pope’s tightly scheduled nine-day U.S. trip were the main reason a hospice stop was ruled out. But he conceded that pressure from militant groups and security precautions also played a part in the decision.

The Pope will meet with the AIDS patients in the Mission Delores Basilica, just outside of the city’s Castro District, in a gathering that also will include 400 parishioners of the mission and 400 Catholic senior citizens who reside within the archdiocese.

The patients are to be selected from parish members of Mission Delores and the Church of the Holy Redeemer, which is in the Castro District. Both parishes have extensive ministries to the homosexual community.

Father John O’Connor, pastor of Mission Delores, said he and Father Anthony McGuire, pastor at Holy Redeemer Church, would “glean” the names of AIDS patients “who want to see the Pope and are physically able to. . . .

‘It’s a Good Solution’

“I think it’s a good solution, but the really sick ones might not be able to get there,” O’Connor said.

Riley, the archdiocese spokesman, said that while AIDS research is necessary, “we believe prayer is more powerful than medicine and so we want the Pope and the world to pray for AIDS.”

But activist Wahl, who chairs the social justice commission of the San Francisco Council of Churches, declared that “if this Pope were really concerned (about the spread of AIDS), his church would stop its opposition to education regarding the use of condoms . . . (as a measure to retard transmission of the AIDS virus).