Offline: An audience with the Pope

Abstract

The request was sincere. At a symposium held during the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, a serious and thoughtful discussion took place about the role of the church in health care. Richard Dawkins-like interjections against religion, no matter how soundly they might seem based in science, would not have been especially helpful. For the fact is that the Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental provider of health care in the world. In Africa alone, there are over 100 000 clinics and hospitals led by Catholic doctors and nurses, giving care to tens of thousands of people who would otherwise have little or no access to health services. Talking with one of the invited participants to the AIDS conference symposium, Ed Mills (a physician and scientist who works on AIDS in Africa), we thought it worthwhile to commission a Series on faith and health. He has now put together an enthusiastic team to review and analyse the contribution faith-based organisations make to global health. So with the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio to be “the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the bishops and of the faithful” on March 13, 2013, we hoped that the new Pope Francis might agree to an interview about his views on the Catholic Church's role in health. We have now received a reply from Fr Federico Lombardi, Director of the Holy See's Press Office.