AIDS is not the death sentence it used to be, according to Brother John Mary Kaspari.

When the Franciscan Brother of Peace started ministering to AIDS patients in the early 1990s, the house he and the other brothers ran for those who had the disease was a hospice setting. Today, people with AIDS are living longer, healthier lives.

World AIDS Day was Dec. 1. On the eve of the observance, Pope Benedict XVI urged the world community to persevere in its fight against HIV/AIDS. He also expressed his solidarity with those suffering from the disease.

As the face of AIDS has changed during the past 20 years, ministry to those who live with the virus is also evolving.

"The support system (today) is really very positive, and it's because of the community of people," said Sister Joanne Lucid, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

She is the director of AIDS ministry in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, which in 1986 was the first archdiocese or diocese to establish an office of AIDS ministry. The office continues its work today by providing resources to individuals and parishes as well as networking with other AIDS-based organizations.

Many parishes have taken their own initiative in AIDS education and ministry, Sister Joanne said.

In an interview with The Catholic Spirit, the archdiocesan newspaper, she noted that initially people in AIDS ministry were often met with discrimination because HIV/AIDS was associated with homosexual male promiscuity.

"It's a disease, that's all," she said, adding that people who have it "need support, compassion and understanding."

In the early 1990s, AIDS was a terminal illness, and the ministry involved preparing individuals suffering from it for death. At what was then called Samaritan House in Minneapolis, the Franciscan Brothers of Peace provided spiritual and physical care to residents with AIDS.

With the advent of a drug-combination therapy commonly called the "AIDS cocktail" in the mid-1990s, many people with HIV/AIDS have been able to suppress the virus, rendering the disease chronic but manageable.

Many lead relatively normal lives, but there are those who are not doing so well because they have to cope with medical complications that used to arise only shortly before death, according to John Whalen, director of Grace House in Minneapolis. Residents often suffer from dementia and physical debilitation.

"People are living longer with the illness," he said, "but they are actually not doing so well, so medical costs are growing."

Although awareness of the disease has grown, many people outside of high-risk groups still feel as if they are immune to contracting HIV, particularly young people and seniors, Sister Joanne said.

Allina Hospice chaplain Father Jim Cassidy agreed there is a need for ongoing education. "It's still a huge concern," he said. "People always from the very beginning ... wanted it simply to go away."

But it has not gone away, and "we need to remain committed in so many ways," he said.

In the Chicago metropolitan area, two Catholic groups are working to shed light on the impact of HIV/AIDS in the United States and educate people about treatment and prevention --- the 8th Day Center for Justice, a coalition of Catholic congregations in Chicago, and Canticle Ministries in Wheaton, Ill., sponsored by the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters.

The Chicago coalition usually focuses on political issues but on World AIDS Day it staged an event to educate people about the virus and the disease that can come from it.

People have a right to know that it is not just a disease that affects "gay white men," said David Allen, a representative from Canticle Ministries. In fact, in the U.S. the largest number of people with HIV/AIDS are black women.

He said Canticle Ministries has published a brochure that lists key items about methods of prevention and about AIDS testing. The brochure titled "Do You Know?" is aimed at college students because they are considered a particularly vulnerable population, he said.

Allen said the group hopes to establish a nationwide campaign to halt the spread of infection and push discussions on HIV to the same level at which mental illness and depression are addressed.

In Washington, the 8th Day Center for Justice Dec. 1 handed out postcards with a list of basic facts about AIDS, such as warnings about the danger of sharing needles and details about which populations are vulnerable to the spread of the disease.

As it pushes to reshape policies affecting the needy, the coalition is including HIV/AIDS among health issues it says affect the poor.

Internationally, the HIV/AIDS situation is more severe according to recent figures from UNAIDS, the U.N. program on HIV/AIDS. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS hit a record high of 40.3 million this year, according to the latest figures from UNAIDS, with new infections increasing at one of the fastest rates since the first case was reported in 1981. South Africa and India are the countries reporting the most number of HIV/AIDS cases.

---CNS