RIGHT EXERCISE OF POWER PROMOTES PERSONAL AND COMMUNAL GOOD

VATICAN CITY, NOV 17, 2001 (VIS) - This morning in the Paul VI Hall, John Paul II received the participants in the 16th International Conference promoted by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, on the theme: "Health and Power."

In his discourse the Pope emphasized that "in health care, as in every area, the exercise of power has good results when it promotes the integral good of the person and of the entire community."

The Holy Father affirmed that "In the world of health, different kinds of power interact: from economic and political power to that linked to means of communication, from professional power to that of the pharmaceutical industries and of national and international organisms." If, on the one hand "the immense possibilities which exist for bettering service to life and health are emphasized, on the other hand, the risk is highlighted of power exercised in a way which does not respect life and mankind."

"In the face of a widespread culture of indifference and, sometimes, of disdain for life, before the unscrupulous search for predominance by some over others, with the consequent marginalization of the poor and the weak, it is more than ever necessary to offer sound criteria so that power in the world of health is placed in every situation at the service of the dignity of the human person and the common good.

"I welcome the opportunity," the Pope continued, "to make an urgent appeal to those in this important field who hold roles of responsibility so that, in a spirit of constructive collaboration, they will work to promote an effective culture of solidarity, taking account of the conditions of those who live in countries marked by worrying material, cultural, and spiritual poverty.

"In this sense, I make myself the spokesman of every sick and suffering person, as well as of the peoples wounded by poverty and violence, so that a future of justice and solidarity arises for them as well and for all of humanity."

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