04-27-2005, 04:00 AM
<b>Church denies burial rites to AIDS-hit!</b> ! <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Local churches in Kerala are denying customary burial to AIDS victims," said Sister Dolores, founder of the Cancer and AIDS Shelter Society (CASS). "In Kottayam itself, where there has been a spurt of AIDS cases in the last three years, once the church comes to know AIDS is the cause of death, the body is not allowed into the cemetery," she told TOI.
"Priests don't visit my house for customary prayers. They visit my neighbours, but they don't come to my house. When my child asks me why, I have no answer," says a 30-year-old woman whose husband died recently of AIDS. She preferred to remain unnamed. Even when they are alive, AIDS patients face social ostracism. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
"Priests don't visit my house for customary prayers. They visit my neighbours, but they don't come to my house. When my child asks me why, I have no answer," says a 30-year-old woman whose husband died recently of AIDS. She preferred to remain unnamed. Even when they are alive, AIDS patients face social ostracism. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->