Upcoming Vatican Conference dedicated to pastoral care of sick children

(Nov.12,2008):-The 23rd international conference of the Pontifical Council for the pastoral care of health workers will be dedicated to “the pastoral care of sick children." The conference will be held at the Vatican from November 13-15. Meanwhile, at Press Conference held on Tuesday, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the pontifical council said, “Over the last decade, more than four million children have died of AIDS. In Africa alone, 7,000 contract the virus, and more than 14 million children have been made orphans by the disease. More than 2 million children have been killed during armed conflicts, 6 million have been left crippled by war, tens of thousands have been mutilated by anti-personnel mines, while recently 300,000 child soldiers have been recruited.
In providing the "numbers" on the situation, Cardinal Barragán emphasized how "poverty remains the principal cause of childhood diseases. He said 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day, and even among the richest countries, one child out of six ,lives below the poverty level. He said “30% of children under the age of five suffer hunger or malnutrition, 250 million children under the age of 15 work, and 60 million of these work in dangerous conditions.Cardinal Barragan said " In these circumstances a question arises. What should the pastoral care of the sick children be like?” He said the upcoming conference will seek to provide an answer.
At the same Press Conference on Tuesday. in response to a question from a journalist concerning US President-elect Barack Obama’s support of embryonic stem–cell research, the Cardinal Barragan said - “Embryronic stem cells were believed to be “a panacea for everything”. However, recent research and experiments have not produced any positive results or potential cures. Instead, scientists have discovered success and real therapeutic promise from adult stem cells and umbilical-cord blood. Cardinal Barragan said such therapies and research using stem cells, must follow the same ethical criteria used with organ transplants – neither the donor nor the recipient’s life must be put at risk."