During the 25th international congress of Catholic Pharmacists held on The new frontiers of pharmaceutical activity', in Rome on October 29, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a remarkable landmark speech on Catholic pharmacists' mission today.

The Holy Father strongly reminded pharmacists of their role to educate patients "in the correct use of medications" and in inform them of "the ethical implications of the use of particular drugs".

"We cannot anaesthetise consciences as regard, for example, the effect of certain molecules that have the goal of preventing the implantation of the embryo or shortening of a person's life." He explained clearly that "pharmacists must seek to raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death".

It is an ethical principle that all attempts to cure or experiment must be undertaken while bearing in mind the well-being of the patient, and not only the pursuit of scientific progress. As the Pope pointed out: "No individual may be used... as an object to undertake therapeutic experiments"... and that such experiments "must be carried out following protocols that respect fundamental ethical norms... the quest for the good of humanity cannot proceed at the expense of the well-being of the people being treated".

The Holy Father said that in the moral sphere "pharmacists are called to face the question of conscientious objection, which is a right that must be recognised for people exercising this profession, so as to enable them not to collaborate, directly or indirectly, in supplying products that clearly have immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia".

He also pointed out that it is important that pharmaceutical organisations practise "solidarity in the therapeutic field so as to enable people of all social classes and all countries, especially the poorest, to have access to vital medicines and assistance."