Fr. Angelo D'Agostino, SJ, a doctor and missionary working in Kenya, visited our parish this weekend. He spoke about the orphanage he runs and how the AIDS epidemic will cause 40 million children to be orphaned in the next decade. The magnitude of this crisis is something the world has never seen. What can be done? Fr. D'Agostino asked first and foremost for our prayers. He was grateful for the generosity the parish showed the last time he visited, and greatly encouraged by the bill recently signed into law by President Bush.
You know what God might ask us when we get to Heaven?
"What about those orphans? What did you do for them?"
"They weren't my kids," someone might say.
"No, they were mine. What did you do?"
I am not being oppositional here, this is a genuine question: Other than contributing money, what can we on this side of the pond do? I live on a very tight income, and cannot contribute more than a drop in the ocean of their need. The AIDS crisis in Africa is an issue I have followed with great concern, but all I feel I can do is pray fervently for the victims.
I have quite a bit of knowledge in the area of international adoption, and can tell you that the extremely high costs and lengthy bureaucratic delays by various government agencies (here and there) discourage many people who would provide permanent, loving homes for many of these orphans. If the process were less daunting, many more children could be saved. Where this tangled adoption process is an international problem that barely appears on any government's radar screen, all we can do is lobby our own government and pray.