Madam, – We want to thank The Irish Timesfor reporting on I nstability, Structural Violence and Vulnerability, published several months ago by Progressio.
Unfortunately, your report “Theologians urge church rethink on spread of HIV” (November 2nd) suggests that our essay was a critique aimed at the church. It was instead an attempt to weave together for the first time three concepts (instability, structural violence and vulnerability) which we believe will advance discourse on HIV/Aids because they underline the social realities that people at risk encounter in their daily lives. These concepts never appear in your article.
In a world where there is no real leadership in political, economic, social and religious ambits to combat the isolating tendencies of fearful (but powerful) communities, we proposed a comprehensive call for global leadership that would underline “our common global vulnerability”. Instead, your account reduces our article to an argument against “the church”. – Yours, etc,