World AIDS Day is this Tuesday, 12/1. The Catholic Church, under Pope Benedict XVI, is calling for prayers and concrete action to comfort all those who are suffering from AIDS. Pope Benedict issued the appeal during his weekly Sunday blessing. Pope Benedict XVI also said that he hoped that with coordinated efforts, the HIV virus can be successfully cured.

Pope Benedict has been criticized by many governments and organizations when he spoke against the distribution of condoms in Africa in March. He said people should practice abstinence until they are married. The Pope when on to say that distributing condoms was not the answer to Africa’s AIDS problem and could make it worse.

Other religious groups around the globe are standing together in prayer to pray for all of those who suffer from AIDS.

Here are the stats on AIDS from the end of 2008:

- More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981.

- Africa has over 14 million AIDS orphans.

- At the end of 2008, women accounted for 50% of all adults living with HIV worldwide

- In developing and transitional countries, 9.5 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 4 million (42%) are receiving the drugs.

We should pray for all of those who suffer from the disease and the impact of those around them with the AIDS disease.

Please Pray for AIDS Victims.

Shortly after taking off, the Boeing airplane experienced some technical issues, and was asked to return back to the airport. During this stressful period, however, the pilot or the Aseman Airlines plane asked the passengers to pray for their safe return back to the runway. It worked! Landing back at Tehran airport after 45 minutes, all the passengers and crew were unharmed.