The Person with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Animating Hope

In the year 2014, as well, the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care) is organising an inter-national conference (the twenty-ninth) and this will be held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 20-22 November in the Synod Hall of the Vatican. Its general subject will be: ‘The Person with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Animating Hope’.

Bearing in mind the notable impact of autism spectrum disor-ders, as well as the problems that exist both in the field of rese-arch and in the identification of pathological symptoms, which usually emerge in the early years of life with the direct involve-ment of the family but also of the world of schooling and, not least, of the Church community itself, this Pontifical Council was of the view that autism was a subject that could be addressed and examined on the occasion of its international conference.

As is highlighted in the programme, numerous experts in this field of study – scientists, researchers and specialists on the topic – have been invited for an interdisciplinary exchange and to study autism spectrum disorders from a medical, psychological, familial, social, pastoral and religious point of view.

During the two days of study the international conference will be organised around a number of principal topics, such as epidemiology and national and international health-care po-licies; research, prevention and therapeutic contributions; the early diagnosis and identification of autism spectrum disorders; pharmacological and behavioural therapy; the socio-cultural and educational aspects; and theological and pastoral approaches.

Promoting this initiative the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers thus intends to express sensitivity and nearness of the

Church to, and solidarity with, both the international and natio-nal scientific community and families, the world of schooling and the associations that care for people with this widespread syndrome of autism spectrum.

It is relevant to point out here that in the Message of our Pontifical Council which was published in the occasion of the World Autism Day of 2 April 2014, I wrote when announcing the holding of this conference that: ‘The complexity which the syndrome of autism spectrum presents to the scientific commu-nity, to families and to institutions concerned with education and social integration, can on that occasion, through the papers and contributions of researchers, experts and health-care wor-kers from all over the world, find a moment of dialogue and commitment. As Pope Francis observed in his recent apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium: ‘It is essential to draw near to new forms of poverty and vulnerability, in which we are called to recognize the suffering Christ, even if this appears to bring us no tangible and immediate benefits’ (n. 210).

On Thursday 20 November 2014 our international conferen-ce will begin with a celebration of the Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. This will be followed by the papers and contributions in the Hall of the Synod which will follow one another for the whole of Friday. In the morning of Saturday 22 November those taking part in the international conference will join people with autism spectrum disorders and their family relatives, those who accompany them, health-care workers, priests, men and women religious, and voluntary workers, in the Paul VI Hall for a me­eting of testimonies and prayer with the Holy Father Francis, along with a musical moment.

Bearing in mind the notable contribution offered by music for this specific pathology, it was believed advisable that this meeting with the Holy Father should also have the features of a ‘party’, thereby making easier the involvement and the participation of the people who will be present at the meeting, as a sign of the care, nearness and solidarity of the Church community.

Valuable testimony will also be offered by the exhibition of works by an autistic painter from Taiwan who has managed to become established as an artist on the international scene and who will also be present at our event.

We want to entrust the deliberations of this new organisatio-nal initiative to the protection of Our Lady of Sorrows who was near to the cross of Christ. In entrusting to her maternal help the afflictions that weigh upon autistic people and their family relatives in particular, as well the concerns that accompany the scientific world in the challenge that this pathology imposes, we pray that we will walk with her on the way of faith in order to unite our sufferings to the passion of Christ so that they become an occasion for graces and an instrument for evangelisation and salvation for everyone.

Zygmunt Zimowski

President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers

PRESS INFORMATION