Lourdes Report

Dear ProLife Colleague, AAPLOG represents you in a number of important venues.  One is major medical meetings.  So far this year, we have (in addition to our January CME meeting) represented you with a booth at the APGO-CREOG National Meeting and at the ACOG ACM.  Additionally, we have had a booth at the Korean-American Missionary Health Conf, at the CMDA National Conference, and at the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations in Lordes, France (where our representative also had a workshop  session.  On July 4,  we will be at the International CMDA meeting in Uruguay, also with a booth and workshop session. The following is the report by our VP Dr. Mary Davenport on the Lourdes meeting: REPORT FROM LOURDES The 23rd Congress of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations met in Lourdes in the southwest of France May 6-9, 2010. Lourdes is famous for the Marian apparitions which were reported in 1858 by Bernadette Soubirous, healing springs, and as a pilgrimage site for 5,000,000 pilgrims a year. Approximately 500 physicians and health providers from all continents attended the meeting, which takes place every four years. There was a delegation of 20 physicians from Indonesia, quite a few from the Philippines and other countries in Asia, some from Africa and the Americas, and many of course from Europe. We joined the many other pilgrims in candlelight processions and in a Sunday mass for 20,000 people. Thirty of the speakers reflected on the theme “Our Faith as Doctors”. The ecclesiastical advisor or FIAMC, Father Maurizio Faggioni, explained why the Shrine of Lourdes was chosen to host the event: “The encounter (took place) in Lourdes because for Catholic doctors Lourdes represents the incarnation of God’s mercy, and doctors are the ones who “show” God’s mercy.” In addition to the presentations on healing, there was a dynamic session on the physician’s role in protecting life. Professor Jozef Glasa, Institute of Medical Ethics and Bioethics from Bratislava, talked about contemporary challenges such as the new reproductive technologies. Ann Lastman, founder of Victims of Abortion, Australia, gave a moving presentation on the role of the Holy Spirit in healing from abortion. I gave a talk on “Unmasking the Global Abortion Agenda,” in particular about the well-financed effort to spread cheap, do-it-yourself misoprostol abortion to the developing world, legally or illegally. The doctors from the Phillippines were particularly interested in this subject, since a radical reproductive health law had been narrowly defeated recently in their legislature, and was an issue in their upcoming elections. We also had an AAPLOG booth at the Congress, which increased our exposure and was a good way to meet interested people. Physicians, particularly from developing nations, snapped up our articles on abortion complications such as suicide and preterm labor. Many of them were not familiar with this literature and they considered it a help in their efforts to fend off pressures for liberalization of abortion laws. There was much interest in an international pro-life medical journal, as well as the petition to support the 680 Korean doctors who stopped doing abortions. I am hoping some of the physicians from Eastern Europe and the Philippines will be able to join us for our AAPLOG conference in January. Mary L. Davenport, M.D. for AAPLOG