AIDS: responding to the crisis. Pastoral care: helping patients on an inward journey

AIDS is unique in that it is terminal, transmissible, and surrounded by stigma. AIDS patients are often ostracized by those close to them and frequently they are alienated from religion. The pastoral care giver must provide a special ministry to AIDS patients, a ministry in which he or she accompanies the patient on a journey inward. This journey involves a broad range of feelings related to such concerns as social alienation, emotional isolation, and preparation for death. Its final destination, however, lies in the ultimate issues such as self-identity, the meaning of life, and individual destiny. To help the patient confront these issues, the pastoral care giver may first have to break through negative images held by many alienated persons with AIDS. These include the image of God as judge; the image of the Catholic minister as a celibate upholder of a rigid sexual code; and the perception that spirituality is the special preserve of "religious" persons.