VATICAN CITY, FEB 9, 2007 (VIS) - The Pope today received finance ministers from Italy, United Kingdom, Canada and Russia, for the presentation of the "Advance Market Commitment" project. The ministers were accompanied by Queen Rania of Jordan and by Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank.
Addressing them in English, the Holy Father said that the new project aims "at developing and producing vaccines against pandemic diseases, and making them available to poorer countries. ... [It] is meant to help resolve one of the most pressing challenges in preventative healthcare, one which particularly affects nations already suffering from poverty and serious needs."
"I wholeheartedly encourage your efforts for this new program and its goal of advancing scientific research directed to the discovery of new vaccines. Such vaccines are urgently needed to prevent millions of human beings, including countless children, from dying each year of infectious diseases, especially in those areas of our world at greatest risk.
"In this era of globalized markets," Benedict XVI added, "we are all concerned about the growing gap between the standard of living in countries enjoying great wealth and a high level of technological development, and that of underdeveloped countries where poverty persists and is even increasing."
"I assure you of the Holy See's full support of this humanitarian project, which is inspired by that spirit of human solidarity which our world needs in order to overcome every form of selfishness and to foster the peaceful coexistence of peoples. As I said in my Message for this year's World Day of Peace, every service rendered to the poor is a service rendered to peace, for 'at the origin of many tensions that threaten peace are surely the many unjust inequalities still tragically present in our world'."
AC/MARKET PROJECT/... VIS 20070209 (300)
Addressing them in English, the Holy Father said that the new project aims "at developing and producing vaccines against pandemic diseases, and making them available to poorer countries. ... [It] is meant to help resolve one of the most pressing challenges in preventative healthcare, one which particularly affects nations already suffering from poverty and serious needs."
"I wholeheartedly encourage your efforts for this new program and its goal of advancing scientific research directed to the discovery of new vaccines. Such vaccines are urgently needed to prevent millions of human beings, including countless children, from dying each year of infectious diseases, especially in those areas of our world at greatest risk.
"In this era of globalized markets," Benedict XVI added, "we are all concerned about the growing gap between the standard of living in countries enjoying great wealth and a high level of technological development, and that of underdeveloped countries where poverty persists and is even increasing."
"I assure you of the Holy See's full support of this humanitarian project, which is inspired by that spirit of human solidarity which our world needs in order to overcome every form of selfishness and to foster the peaceful coexistence of peoples. As I said in my Message for this year's World Day of Peace, every service rendered to the poor is a service rendered to peace, for 'at the origin of many tensions that threaten peace are surely the many unjust inequalities still tragically present in our world'."
AC/MARKET PROJECT/... VIS 20070209 (300)
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