VATICAN CITY, MAY 2, 2002 (VIS) - Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Ministry of Health were welcomed by the Pope today. In his talk to them, he underscored the "broad and articulated pastoral activity that is undertaken at a world level in the field of health care with the stimulus and support of your dicastery."
He noted that the assembly's objective is "how to better show the Face of Christ, in agony and in glory, illuminating with the Gospel the world of health, suffering and illness, sanctifying the sick and those in health care, and promoting the coordination of the pastoral ministry of health in the Church."
"The new frontiers opened by the progress of the sciences of life and the applications that derive from them," said the Holy Father, "have placed an enormous power and responsibility in the hands of man. If the culture of death prevails, if in the fields of medicine and biomedical research men allow themselves to be conditioned by egotistical choices or promethean ambitions, it is inevitable that human dignity and life itself will be dangerously threatened. If, on the contrary, work in this important sector of health is marked by the culture of life, guided by an upright conscience, man will find valid answers to his deepest longings."
Pointing to the "new and complex problems" facing the ministry of health care, the Pope urged the council to remain "faithful to its mission ... and always behave with respect for the life and dignity of the human being."
AC/PLENARY/CON-AVAVOS 20020502 (260)
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