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Health

Aids: The Virus of Prejudice Assails More than the Disease Itself

The human body is the most extraordinary machine in the world. Nevertheless, it fails. However, with Love even medications produce better results.

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Our Brothers who suffer from the HIV virus and those who suffer from other physical, mental or spiritual illnesses need first Fraternal Love, allied with due medical assistance. If one feels humanely assisted, he or she will build up a very strong inner resistance that will help him or her recover or have patience to go through the pain. I have often said that the virus of prejudice assails more than the disease itself.

Clayton Ferreira

Paulo Evaristo Arns

Those who suffer from the abandonment of their old fellow group members, or of their friends from intellectual discussions or even of their most beloved ones, can find comfort in these words by Cardinal-Archbishop Emeritus of São Paulo, Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, an excerpt from his moving book Da Esperança à Utopia — Testemunho de uma Vida [From Hope to Utopia — Testimony of a Lifetime]: “The grace of God does not forget anyone, nor is it regulated by badges. It is enough to recall the second chapter of Genesis to feel how the breath of God infuses life into human beings and offers them Hope as their companion for a lifetime. (...) After all, the world belongs to God and God is present in every person’s heart, no matter how little he or she might feel It or express It out loud. (...) Utopia is the union of all hopes for the fulfillment of a common dream. If we realize this dream, we will have built a new reality”.

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Auguste Comte

Far from Fraternal Love – or Respect, if that is how some might like to call it –, Human Beings will never know how to live in a Solidary, Altruistic and Ecumenical Society, because their existence will be limited to a terrible “universe”, the miserly “universe” of selfishness. For this reason, the French thinker and sociologist Auguste Comte (1798-1857) wrote: “Living for others is not only the law of duty but also of happiness”. It is a lesson that no one should forget under any circumstances.

José de Paiva Netto is a writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), effective member of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and of the Brazilian International Press Association (ABI-Inter). Affiliated to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Writers of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Radio Broadcasters of Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). He is also a member of the Academy of Letters of Central Brazil. He is an author of international reference in the concept and defense of the cause of Ecumenical Citizenship and Spirituality which, according to him, constitute “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love.”