Vatican official denounces military spending, depleted health care

Published: 2007-10-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Funneling resources toward military spending rather than providing basic health care to all citizens is making an already "sad landscape" even bleaker, a top Vatican official told the U.N. General Assembly. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Vatican nuncio to the United Nations, said Oct. 9 that the world community "seems to have been losing focus on the need to ensure the right to basic health care for all," although studies have shown even simple medical prevention can effectively and successfully improve the health and stability of society. The Vatican released a copy of his text Oct. 10. Archbishop Migliore said that "primary care is often neglected or replaced by more selective and even culturally divisive methods of health care." He said that "a saner health policy" would cover basic health care needs for all members of society and would help nations achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals, which include setting targets for reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating deadly diseases worldwide by 2015.

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