Who's priest are you?

AIDS victims denied burial space in Kerala; AIDS patients in Kerala are being turned back even after death by church: The Times of India, 27 April, 2005.

The white robed priest stood ram rod straight inside the gate of his church and was unmoved by the weeping woman outside.

She wept looking at the hearse inside which was the pale, thin body of her dead husband.

'Father!' she pleaded, 'please let me bury my husband.'

'No,' shouted the priest, 'he's got AIDS! He's a sinner!'

'He's dead,' she cried, 'now let his tortured body rest in peace.'

'Not here,' said the priest, 'I can not contaminate my graveyard with such as him.'

The white robed priest felt the presence of another next to him. He wondered where that person had come from. 'What seems to be the problem Father may I ask?' asked the man whose face shown with a divine glow.

'AIDS!' shouted the priest, 'AIDS!'

The weeping woman felt the man suddenly next to her. He gently put his hand and touched her arm.

'Don't touch her!' shrieked the priest, 'she could be infected!'

'Would you touch her for me instead?'

'No! Never!' screamed the priest.

'And yet you say you have taken the vows of a priest. To serve mankind?'

'To serve mass inside the church,' shouted the priest. 'To counsel my people, to guide them and teach them.'

'But not to touch such as these?'

'Who are you?' shouted the priest, 'with what authority do you question me?'

The strange man with the kindly face walked to the hearse and looked into the coffin where the body lay.

He put his hand on the cold forehead.

'Don't touch him!' shouted the priest.

'I have already done so.'

'Then I can not allow you inside these gates,' shouted the priest.

The man smiled and there was sadness in his eyes as he stroked the dead body and with the other held the frail from the weeping woman till her sobs stopped.

He then walked across to the priest. 'Open the gates my son.'

'No,' shouted the priest.

'Who's priest are you my son? If you are mine then this poor man has as much right inside as you.'

'No,' shouted the priest, 'he has AIDS! He can not lie with others.'

'Then maybe he can come home with me,' said the man.

'Where is your home?' asked the priest.

'Not inside your church,' said the man and then the priest and woman looked at an empty coffin and no one in sight.

'He has gone to God!' laughed the happy woman as the priest turned around and walked into a barren empty church, hollow, vacant, void...!