Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) – United Nations, the Vatican and therapy communities join forces to fight a phenomenon which is medical and psychological, but also cultural, social, ethic and political. To mark UN Anti-Drugs Day, 26 June, representatives of the United Nations, the Catholic Church, countries which produce and consume drugs, Italian Therapy Communities are meeting in Rome to examine the problem of drug addiction not so much from the health aspect but from the cultural, social, ethic and political point of view.
The experts are attending a Symposium which opened on 23 June on the topic “Caring for others: drug-addiction experience and ethics”. The event is organised by the Italian Federation of Therapy Communities and the Progetto Uomo Institute of Research and Formation in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Health Workers. At the two day Symposium, a message from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to mark this year’s UN Anti-Drugs Day will be read out.
Speakers at the symposium include Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan, President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Health Workers, Tony Anatrella French psychoanalyst, expert on problems of adolescence, Ricardo Grimson, psychiatrist and head of the Argentinean government section for drug addiction, Bishop Angelo Bagnasco, secretary of the Italian Bishops’ Commission for Education, Agnes Heller, Jewish Hungarian philosopher, a survivor of nazi and soviet occupation, widely known in Italy for her studies on justice and freedom, moralist theologian Giuseppe Angelini, expert on cultural influence on social problems. The symposium will include special sessions highlighting particular experiences: backstage of the project for controlled distribution of heroin; evolution of the drug phenomenon in Eastern Europe; problems of rehabilitating immigrant drug addicts; experience of cocaine producing countries; situation in the Middle East, and in main opium producing countries since the recent war, situation of drug addiction in Africa.
In the opening speech on June 23, Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan recalled Papal teaching with regard to drug addiction, in particular Pope John Paul II’s teaching on the phenomenon of drug addiction, its causes, roots and motivations. He also mentioned a Congress on the subject organised in 1997 by the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Health Workers “Solidarity with life”, which was a clear and exhaustive response from the Holy See on the ethical degeneration and social disintegration caused by drug addiction.
Concluding his address Archbishop Lozano Barragan said: “The Church’s opinion on the immorality of drug abuse is clear: drug addiction is contrary to values and there can be no morality without values. At the root of the problem of drug abuse, production and distribution and trafficking, there is a lack of those authentic values which represent the full realisation of the human person. Many are the measures necessary for an effective battle against drug abuse, but one is fundamental and indispensable for reaching the objective: to restore in all its force the conviction of the transcendent and unique value of the human person and his or her responsibility for free self-realisation.” AP (Fides Service 23/6/2003 EM lines 44 Words: 562)
