Jesuit Journeys
fall 2004

A Vatican statement this summer observed that global inequities endure through a “poverty of imagination among the more fortunate peoples of the world.” Such observations are consistent with remarks made several months earlier, at a Vatican press conference hosted by Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes. At that time, a Jesuit physician working in Kenya rebuked the “genocidal action of the cartel of pharmaceutical companies” he says refuse to provide affordable medicines in Africa while simultaneously recording huge profits.

While AIDS is no longer considered a fatal disease in Europe and North America, it continues to devastate Africa and disproportionately affect those who are poor, young, and female. An entire generation of workers, farmers, teachers, and parents is being lost.

Numbing statistics reveal that there are over 20 million AIDS orphans worldwide, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa where the average age in some countries is dropping below 15 years. Currently, over 42 million people have been infected. Of those, 8 million are expected to die this year of AIDS-related causes, while another 6 million will die from treatable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. Every day 18,000 new HIV infections occur, and rates now seem to be escalating in other regions.

In a world where money talks, religious investors are learning to approach this challenge from an ethical stance consistent with Jesus’ clarion example to care for the sick and with a belief that corporate adherence to Catholic social teaching is, in the long run, good for business. Yet, when confronting companies, the religious investor must realize that most business decisions are disproportionately driven by quarterly profits and stock valuations.

The World Bank contends that delaying aggressive action against AIDS in Africa will lead to a complete economic collapse in Sub-Saharan Africa, a prediction that raises serious business questions, among them: What will a collapse mean for future markets if entire regions are overwhelmed? How will apathy in this crisis damage corporate image? What of the looming AIDS crisis in the emerging economies in Russia, India, and China?

Because 29 of the top 100 economic entities are transnational corporations rather than countries, they are not subject to the same international laws and diplomacy as nations. These corporations (especially those operating in health care, food production, and the extraction and export of raw materials) wield tremendous influence over the quality of life of the poor and the voiceless.

Boosted by government aid for research and development, the top 10 U.S. pharmaceutical companies recorded nearly $36 billion in profits in 2002. And last November, the U.S. was the single dissenting vote when 167 countries supported a UN resolution asserting failure to provide available medicines to people with HIV/AIDS would create a global health emergency. The vote seems to indicate the powerful influence pharmaceutical companies exert on the nation’s international policy.

The 10 U.S. Jesuit Provinces are unified in their support of investor/shareholder activism to address access to life-saving medicines and the establishment of human rights policies for transnational companies.

I recently joined Sr. Doris Gormley, SFCC, socially responsible investing consultant to the Jesuit provinces, at the Abbott Laboratories annual shareholder meeting. There she delivered the case for the Jesuit-led resolution to the board and over 1,800 shareholders. Partnering with other religious shareholders as well as major institutional investors such as the California Public Employees Retirement System, the Jesuit resolution garnered more than twice the votes needed to continue the dialogue.

In fairness, transnational pharmaceuticals have made some targeted contributions and reduced the cost of anti-retrovirals to $500 annually in Africa. However, Sr. Doris compares their meager effort to re-decorating a kitchen when the house is falling down. The yearly income of the infected population is $300, which often forces families to choose between medicine and food.

UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis reflects that the situation “is mass murder by complacency…. The time for polite, even agitated entreaties is over.” He says, “This pandemic cannot be allowed to continue, and those who watch it unfold with a kind of pathological equanimity must be held to account. There may yet come a day when we have peacetime tribunals to deal with this particular version of crimes against humanity.”

How will our response to AIDS be judged by future generations? As we hold the solution in our hands, Christians might ask whether the way we respond is impoverished in light of the Gospel.

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