Anthony Fauci, Chelsea Clinton to speak at Vatican health conference

Vatican City, Apr 15, 2021 / 11:39 am (CNA).

Anthony Fauci, Chelsea Clinton, and Deepak Chopra are among the featured speakers at a Vatican conference being held in May on the interplay of mind, body, and soul in healthcare.

The Vatican announced the conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Cura Foundation April 15.

“Exploring the Mind, Body & Soul: How Innovation and Novel Delivery Systems Improve Human Health,” will take place virtually May 6-8.

It will feature the CEOs of large pharmaceutical companies, including Moderna and Pfizer, along with celebrities active in medical philanthropy, global health advocates, policymakers, physicians, and religious leaders.

The Vatican conference’s website lists more than 100 speakers including Kerry Kennedy, Cindy Crawford, John Sculley, Brandon Marshall, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, and Monsignor Dario Edoardo Viganò, prefect emeritus of the Secretariat for Communications.

“Together, they will focus on advances in medical innovation and seek to catalyze the creation of new, interdisciplinary approaches and partnerships for curing disease and improving health, wellbeing and understanding human uniqueness,” the conference website states.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will co-host the summit with Monsignor Tomasz Trafny and Robin Smith, president of the Cura Foundation and author of “Cells are the New Cure.”

A statement sent out by the Holy See Press Office said that the conference organizers will also promote a roundtable on “Bridging Science and Faith” that will explore “relationship of religion and spirituality to health and wellbeing.”

“The discussion will deal with the deeper meaning of human existence and seek areas of convergence between the humanities and the natural sciences,” it said.

This is the fifth international health conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the CURA Foundation. The fourth conference, “United to Cure,” hosted at the Vatican in 2018 had Katy Perry, Deepak Chopra, and Peter Gabriel as speakers.

The first conference in this series took place in Vatican City in 2011 and focused on advances in adult stem cell research.

This year will be the first time that it is taking place completely online. The Vatican announcement said that priests, pastoral healthcare workers, and students from pontifical and Catholic universities worldwide are invited to participate in the conference.