St. John’s Alumnus Opens an AIDS Hospice in Guatemala
January 05, 2006 Inspired by the mission Vincentian Mission and encounters with members of the Vincentian Curia in Rome, St. John’s University alumnus Josiah Mooney and his wife Katherine are carrying out the Vincentian Mission of caring for society’s most marginalized and vulnerable people by working with the HIV-positive population in Guatemala as volunteers with Catholic Relief Services (CRS). In this impoverished, Central American country of 12 million people, Josiah is heading up St. Mary’s Hospice, a 20-bed AIDS hospice opening in January in the city of Coatepeque, on the Mexican border. His wife Katherine is educating the community about AIDS prevention and treatment, with the hope that her efforts will encourage the expanding HIV-positive population to get life-prolonging treatment.
Both of them are working with Project Life, an HIV/AIDS project run by the Maryknoll Sisters and the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala, and supported by CRS, the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community. CRS has relief efforts in 90 countries around the world. Project Life promotes HIV prevention among women, youth, and other vulnerable groups; it also advocates for the rights of the HIV-infected.
Josiah and Katherine Mooney, both from the small town of Tyler in eastern Texas, were married last March. Josiah, a 2001 graduate of St. John’s with a degree in political science, completed his master’s degree in international relations at the St. John’s Rome campus in 2003. Katherine brings a degree in early childhood education from the University of Texas to her work.
Combining Altruism with Social Justice
The Mooneys combine altruism with their commitment to social justice. They’ve signed on for two years as volunteers in Catholic Relief Services’ new program that, Josiah says, “provides avenues for American Catholics to live their faith while sharing their skills and talents with the poor.” The program is similar to the Peace Corps’, but is a faith-based program. Through Project Life, they’re bringing AIDS education and awareness to the 44,000 people of Coatepeque, many of whom are migrant workers or poor women and children. Reaching out to the community with compassion and understanding, Josiah is readying a new facility, St. Mary’s Hospice, to care for terminally ill AIDS patients.
In Central America, people spurn and ostracize those who are HIV-positive, he says. “People don’t test for AIDS here because of the stigma attached to being HIV-positive. Then they don’t get the treatment that could enable them to live for another 30 to 40 years! Part of Katherine’s work is to reach out to people who’ve tested positive and encourage them to begin treatment.”
Josiah will direct a staff of nine at the Hospice, as well as “doing everything from building the furniture, to fundraising and setting up a foundation,” he says. The Hospice will offer palliative care in a “spiritual and emotionally-supportive atmosphere” to terminally ill AIDS patients. The Project Life Program also employs many HIV-positive people, he explains, as the objective is to encourage the HIV-infected community to live as normally as possible, and to become self-sufficient.
“Learning the reality of HIV and AIDS, and their effect on the people of Guatemala, especially the poor, can be overwhelming and at times discouraging,” says Katherine. “But hope is found knowing that there are efforts in the country to counter the pandemic, and people are becoming aware of the virus throughout the country.”
The Mooneys say they were influenced by Mother Teresa’s example in choosing to work with the poor. “Through her readings and spiritual reflections, we learn that she viewed Christ’s face in the suffering and dying of the poor. It is for this reason that we have chosen to serve people dying of AIDS, believing that our marriage and future family will be blessed by the experience,” they conclude.
St. John’s Gave Him Perspective
“St. John’s cultivated in me a perspective and insight which made me want to work for change in the world,” he explains, adding that he’s received encouragement from Reverend Michael Carroll, C.M., the University’s executive vice president for mission and branch campuses, and from Vincentian leaders he met as a graduate student on the Rome campus. “While working on my master’s degree, I met Father Gregory Gay, C.M. [the Superior General of the Vincentian Mission] and Father Jose A. Ubillus, C.M., who inspired me and suggested that I get involved in social justice causes. I also studied with students from many countries, and they opened my mind to all kinds of problems in the world.” He finished his studies with a broader perspective, he says, than when he came to St. John’s as a freshman to be on the football team.
At the suggestion of Reverend Ubillus, who is Peruvian, he spent a year as an advocate for farmers and gold miners in Peru. There, he became fluent in Spanish. Last year, he was an academic advisor to a college back home in Tyler, TX, before marrying his wife Katherine and signing up as a couple with Catholic Relief Services. They’ll live in Guatemala for 18 months before returning to the U.S., where they’ll spread awareness about the new CRS volunteers’ program for the last six months of their tour of duty.
What’s next for this altruistic young couple? Perhaps working with CRS in Africa, where most of its programs are. “We want to encourage others to volunteer, and to assure them that they can’t get AIDS from working with people with AIDS,” he says.
“Their efforts show a great spirit of compassion, as well as dedication to others, energy and creativity—all in the spirit of St. Vincent de Paul’s legacy,” says Sr. Margaret John Kelly, D.C., executive director of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John’s. “The Catholic Relief Services is a worldwide organization with a great record of effectiveness. This couple chose a wonderful way of starting their married life, by choosing service to others.”
Donations may be made through the Catholic Relief Services Web site.
Tags: Anti-poverty strategies