Autistic children and their families will get a chance to meet and interact with Pope Francis on Saturday, an initiative that is hoping to not only raise awareness about autism spectrum disorders, but also end the stigma and isolation that surrounds people afflicted with the disease, the Associated Press reported.
With more than 650 experts from 57 countries planning to attend an international three-day conference on autism this week, it is being regarded as the largest medical conference to occur in Vatican City, organizers from the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers said on Tuesday.
Francis, popularly known to get along around children with special needs, will deliver a speech along with punctuations of music and movement for the children in front of hundreds of admirers at the Vatican audience hall.
Specifically, the purpose of the conference and the papal audience is to "help break the isolation, and in many cases the stigma, that surrounds people affected by autistic spectrum disorders," Rev. P. Augusto Chendi of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers told reporters.
Additionally, families affected by autism require hope and attention as well, Monsignor Zygmunt Zimowski, the Vatican's top health official, said in response to why his office chose to focus on autism for its conference this year.
Even though cases of autism, a developmental disorder that affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills, have experienced a rise in recent years, information and diagnosis of the disease remain largely unknown in most areas of the world, including in the Vatican's own backyard of Italy, said Dr. Stefano Vicari, head of pediatric neuropsychiatry at the Vatican-owned Bambin Gesu hospital in Rome.
Apart from the awareness, parents of autistic children also require special attention, particularly for their pastoral care since they are at high risk of getting divorced due to the emotional and financial stress of dealing with their child's disorder, according to autism experts.
Speakers at the conference are expected to include researchers from the University of California as well as Bob and Suzanne Wright who co-founded Autism Speaks, among other advocates and experts from around the globe.
Meanwhile, Francis also condemned the right to die movement last weekend, stating that "playing with life" in ways such as abortion and euthanasia is sinful against God's creation and not an act of dignity, Catholic News Agency reported.
Deeming the acts as a "false sense of compassion," Francis stressed to a group of Catholic doctors that each human life, no matter in what condition, is meant to be sacred.
"We're living in a time of experimentation with life. But a bad experiment... (we're) playing with life," the Pope told an audience of 4,000 Catholic doctors gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall on Saturday.
