Pope Visits Uganda AIDS Patients
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KAMPALA, Uganda — Pope John Paul II visited a lawn crowded with hospital patients Sunday, blessing AIDS sufferers in the African country worst hit by the disease.
He appealed to researchers seeking a cure to work urgently.
The Pope’s visit to Nsambya Hospital, where about half the patients have AIDS or an AIDS-related illness, was the most emotional moment so far of his eight-day trip in Africa, which began Wednesday in Benin and ends this week in Sudan.
As he made his way through the wheelchairs, patients and hospital staff collapsed to their knees, many of them crying.
He made the sign of the cross over two AIDS patients lying on hospital beds. They were too weak to do anything but follow him with their eyes.
In a message to the sick to mark the visit, the Pope appealed to “those who are working to find an effective scientific response to this illness not to delay. . . .”
At a stadium rally late Saturday, the Pope told young people that avoiding sex is “the only safe and virtuous way” to stop the deadly disease.
Some experts estimate that one of eight Ugandans is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
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