Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 12, 1995                   TAG: 9503100037
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A VOICE THAT'S CRYING TO BE HEARD

Varsano had become a modern-day leper, infected with HIV. But his contagion would be considered "innocent" in any denomination. He caught the virus from his wife, who didn't know or didn't tell her husband that she was infected.

It wasn't until his wife's death in May 1991 that Varsano discovered she had been infected by a previous husband, and that he had caught the virus from her.

In a newspaper interview at Christmas 1993 Varsano talked with high expectations about his mission. He had the kind of credentials that should have made him attractive to all kinds of Christian congregations. He is a Jewish convert to Christianity, articulate, passionate about his faith and Christian obligation to the suffering in the world.

It was hard to get churches to open their doors, though a few, such as Lynn Haven Baptist, did.

Today, it's even harder for Varsano to get an invitation.

Varsano now has "full-blown" AIDS.

If churches were reluctant to have an HIV-infected man speak before, you should see how they act when they hear a man with AIDS wants to speak to them.

You'd think he had "the plague."

Of course, he does have "the plague" of our times. What makes it different from the bubonic variety is that it isn't easily transmitted. You can't get it just from being in the same room with an AIDS patient. You can't get it from shaking hands or even kissing someone with AIDS.

But despite years of public education, we - on the whole - continue to fear that AIDS will jump off those infected with it and kill us. We not only refuse to touch those who desperately need our caress, we even refuse to hear their voices.

I beg you today to hear Robert Varsano's voice.

"I've grown spiritually to where I'm waiting for the Lord to take me. I'll do whatever he wants to do with me.

"My faith has pulled me through a lot of things. I don't worry.

"I've been in the hospital five or six times since last year for AIDS-related things. But I don't let it get me down. I don't say, `Oh, God, this is it, I'm gonna die.' I just go with the flow."

Still, "it's really stupid the way some people act - like we're from Mars. They think they can't touch someone or be close to someone with AIDS.

"This disease is a real rip-off. Nobody deserves to have AIDS.

"I want to get back into the churches. My story moves people. I like that. I can help enlighten and educate them so they'll understand.

"People are totally ignorant of this disease. We have to break the stigma. Anyone can get it. The virus doesn't care who it's transmitted to. I wasn't doing anything morally wrong.

"Everyone who is infected is due Christian compassion and help. Once someone in the church gets this disease, they're not going to throw them away. They're not supposed to, anyway.

"We have to have more compassion, more understanding."

Though he expects to still be alive for three or four years as treatments for AIDS improve, Varsano knows nothing is certain.

"If I die during that period, I'm all the better. I'm saved, I'm going home. I look forward to going to heaven.

"While I'm here, I'm doing the best I can.

"One of the reasons I want to get out and speak is to educate people about the disease.

"That's the only purpose I have left in life."

If you'd like to get in contact with Varsano about speaking to your church or organization, write me at the features department, Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491, and I'll pass the request along.