Worldwide call to Ban use of the Word "leper"

Worldwide call to ban use of word 'leper' Mr Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy and Japanese Government Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy, has called for an end to the common usage of the word "leper", which he describes as "an extremely damaging term."Speaking at the launch in London, of the fourth Global Appeal to End Stigma and Discrimination Against People Affected by Leprosy, held to coincide with World Leprosy Day, he said that the word "carries the meaning of a pariah, or social outcast. Once that label has been applied it sticks for the rest of a person's life. The stigma remains even after he or she has been cured."Mr Sasakawa said that people affected by leprosy have demanded that the term not be used. "Unfortunately its use continues to this day in the newsmedia, including the UK media, impacting on the dignity and human rights of people with the disease."He appealed for an end of the use of this word. "Let it no longer be used as a term of derision and exclusion," he added.This year's Global Appeal has been publicly supported by leaders of religious faiths from around the world - appealing to the power and influence of religion to change deeply discriminatory attitudes in society as experienced by people affected by leprosy. Sixteen religious leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, the Chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulamas, the President of the Japan Buddhist Federation, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care at the Vatican and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, have signed the Appeal.Mr Sasakawa, who is also Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, pointed out that "since an affective cure became available in the mid-1980s, 16 million people have been cured of leprosy worldwide. But, if we include family members, perhaps as many as 100 million people face leprosy-related discrimination in some form, often on a daily basis."He added that his "lobbying of the United Nations has resulted in the UN Human Rights Council passing a unanimous resolution in June 2008, to eliminate stigma and discrimination against leprosy-affected people."The resolution was sponsored by 59 countries, including the UK.However "countries including the United States and the United Kingdom have regulations restricting the issue of work or residence permits to people with leprosy", which is in contravention of the resolution.Mr Sasakawa said that removing "discrimination from society requires the co-operation of society's most influential members. Therefore I ask the religious leaders who have signed this year's Global Appeal to convey its message to their believers and followers."
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Father Damien on TV

Father Damien did the most important work of his life in an isolated Hawaiian coastal colony, cut off from the rest of the island by steep cliffs, where people suffering from leprosy were cast off from society.
The stocky Belgian missionary priest never sought celebrity or fame. But what Father Damien de Veuster did in Kalaupapa, Molokai became a story of international impact. Later this year, he's expected to be canonized.
Coming up Sunday (Jan. 25) at 6pm, the TV show Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on PBS Hawaii looks back at the remarkable ministry of the man who spent more than a decade caring for Hansen's Disease patients who were banished to the settlement to die.
Damien's legacy lives in Hawaii, where it's not difficult to find families who remember a loved one who was seized by the government and who disappeared, to Kalaupapa. At the time, the disease was believed to be a sign of uncleanliness or sin. Some families lost a second loved one, when a spouse or other relative voluntarily went with the patient to serve as a caregiver, or kokua. Back then, it was typically a trip from which there was no return.
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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Vatican Statement for World Leprosy Day- Jan 25th.

A statement by Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, on the occasion of the 56th World Leprosy Day, which will be observed this Sunday:

This 56th World Day is thus a suitable opportunity to offer the human community correct, broad and capillary information about leprosy, about the devastating effects that it can have on people's bodies if they are not treated and on families and on society, and to stimulate the individual and collective duty to engage in active fraternal solidarity.Basing itself on the example of Jesus Christ, the physician of bodies and souls, the Church has always dedicated special care to people afflicted by leprosy. Down the centuries it has been present through the institutions of Congregations of men and women religious, and through voluntary health care organisations made up of the lay faithful, thereby contributing in a radical way to the full social and communal integration of such people.The Blessed Father Damian de Veuster, the untiring and exemplary apostle of our brothers and sisters afflicted by Hansen's disease, a lighthouse of faith and love, is the symbol of all those consecrated to Christ with religious vows who still today dedicate their lives to such people, making available all their resources for the overall wellbeing of those afflicted who are by leprosy in every part of the world.These, together with Blessed Damian, are writing the most beautiful pages of the missionary history of the Church. Inseparably linked to evangelisation in their care for the sick, they proclaim that the redemption of Jesus Christ, and his salvific grace, reach the whole of man in his human condition in order to associate him to the glorious resurrection of Christ.At their side very many volunteers and men of good will are involved in the organisation of solidarity at a practical level, making means and financial resources available to research institutes so that they can create increasingly effective forms of treatment by which to combat Hansen's disease.
Link to full Vatican Statement
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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