CAPS News 2025

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Director’s Message by Vincent Manning

Time to speak up alongside the crucified ones?

Is it time to protest? Has society become morally blind? Political leaders speak the language of blame. Ignorance shapes the views of ordinary people. The language of fear intended to divide us, stokes resentment that leads to destruction and violence: Against asylum seekers detained by the State in poorly managed hotels. Or the violence of blaming those who are in need of welfare. Blind to the situations of the poorest, many vote to punish them on the basis that they are undeserving, not like us, dangerous.

What has this to do with HIV? Like one third of all PLWH in this country, a majority of PositiveFaith members are in poverty, many are migrants or refugees. We also know what it is to feel like ‘outcasts’ – to undergo the added burden of social shame due to the belief that poverty and sickness are somehow linked to personal sin. To HIV stigma add racism and xenophobia, poverty, homophobia and vilification. This is the reality we encounter. The prejudices that afflict our members. The challenges which together we struggle to overcome.

Above I describe a society and dynamic which is antithetical to Christianity. In his first letter On Love for the Poor, Pope Leo XIV reminds us that “Jesus identified himself with the lowest ranks of society and… confirms the dignity of every human being, especially when they are weak, scorned, or suffering.” Quoting his predecessor St Paul VI he goes further: “the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if we can only set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry.” Is the transformation of society and Church really to be found amongst the poor?

Those of us who are Rich then, must beware the temptation to justify ourselves, blaming others for the exclusion and hardships they suffer. Rather, from those who have most much is expected (Lk: 12.48). We are responsible for what we do and what we fail to do. One day we will be held accountable (Mt: 25.3146). Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin calls us to speak up. To challenge the lies that portray the migrant, the refugee, the sick or those needing welfare, as dangerous, less-than-human and unworthy (see p26).

The Catholic teaching of the ‘preferential option for the poor’ is more than just a call for social justice or wealth redistribution. It is the belief that our closeness to God depends upon solidarity with those who are marginalised. “Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor…. This is not a matter of mere human kindness but a revelation: contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history. In the poor, he continues to speak to us.” (Pope Leo) John Sherrington (19472020) Passionist priest and founding member of PositiveFaith, understood this encounter with Christ in personal terms. “We are changed by the Crucified One and crucified ones of our world, and through them, we are challenged to reinterpret our lives in favour of them.”