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The Eastern Regional Technical Co-ordinator of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) Mrs Golda Asante has urged the church to pay attention to social issues that affects the wellbeing of Christians and the society at large.

This, she said would ensure that people understood social issues in relations with God.

She said issues like gender abuses involving bad treatment of spouses and their children following the death of a husband, child abuse in the name of spirituality and care for the elderly were all matters that people even in the church stood on, to perpetrate dastard acts against others.

According to Mrs Asante, many people do that out of ignorance and lack of knowledge and understanding and therefore the church could the pulpit and other platforms which are respected in the society to talk about some of these things in order to eliminate its occurrence.

The Regional AIDS Co-ordinator, who was speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Clinical and Pastoral Education (CPE) training in Koforidua, noted that in many instances widowed spouses and their children suffered because their husbands died intestate.

She urged the church to educate their members on the need to prepare their Wills, so that after their death their spouses and children would live in peace.

She said the church must support measures to eliminate HIV and associated infections.
Mrs Asante commended Monsignor Bobby Benson, Founder and Director of the Matthew 25 House for his support to the fight against HIV and AIDS over the years.

Monsignor Benson had also instituted the CPE to train chaplains to complement health in managing critical conditions of patients at hospitals and homes such as palliative care, gender issues, HIV and AIDS and other social matters such as helping people to write their Wills and caring for the distress and the vulnerable in society.

The training is opened to all who are interested in helping people in distress and many of those who have gone through the training have been doing well in supporting people living with HIV and AIDS in many parts of the country.

Reverend Father Callistus Ofori Barfi, a graduand, said his attitude and understanding of the HIV and AIDS had changed following the training and suggested that the CPE be made a requirement to priestly ordination as well as appointment for chaplains to hospitals.