It was there again in his voice, the tone that signals unabashed disapproval.

"Of course," he said, in the middle of a discussion about advances in medicine, "you don't support stem cell research."

Once again, I felt constrained to reply that I do indeed support stem cell research just not the embryonic kind.

But I knew that wouldn't matter. I knew that no explanation I could possibly offer - the great strides in research made with adult stem cells, the actual treatment of diseases with them - would change his view that where stem cells are concerned anyway, I am an antediluvian idiot.

He's only one of many forward thinking friends who wish that scientists could get their hands on an unlimited supply of human embryos and tinker with them. My friend is one of many who have bought into the great media fiction that human embryonic stem cell research is the only way to go.

Unfortunately, media coverage of these real advances is so scanty that I can hardly expect any of them to be current with the situation.

It's so scanty, in fact, that another friend who is usually quite up-to-date on life issues, remarked only last weekend that she was "blown away" by the news that adult stem cells are being used to treat some forms of kidney, pancreas and brain disease.

That news has been all over the Internet for a while but you have to go to specifically life-related or European sites to find it. You won't find it in the general mix of U.S. news.

I have this mild and modest hope that maybe the pope can change that, if only for a few days.

The media got really worked up over the annual late summer gathering between Pope Benedict XVI and his former students because the topic was evolution and intelligent design. The papers and airwaves were plastered with reports.

Most of them were off base according to those, such as Father Joseph Fessio, who, as a one-time student of the pope's, was actually part of the discourse, but hey - they made headlines, people tuned in.

I'm hoping the same media spotlight will begin shining today, Sept. 14, on the International Congress on Stem Cells that runs through Sept. 16 at the Augustinian Institute in Rome. After all, the pope has given his blessing to the event. He'll signal his support at a Papal Mass.

The conference will focus on the prospects for medical advances through stem-cell research and related bioethical problems. It is being sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life and co-sponsored by the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC) and the Jerome Lejeune Foundation.

The conference has drawn experts from Germany, England, Australia, Italy, the United States and Portugal.

Discussions are set to center on the clinical applications of various advances in stem-cell research. The final day of the conference will be devoted to the ethical issues involved, particularly in the use of stem cells obtained from human embryos.

Many of the presentations and much of the discussion will focus on regenerative therapy which holds so much promise for the treatment of patients suffering from degenerative diseases such as Parkinsons, Lou Gherig's disease and diabetes.

There is sure to be a lot of discussion about the fact that the only impressive results in that field have come from the use of non-embryonic or adult stem cells.

My friend believes that's because opponents of human embryo research have snapped the public purse strings shut.

Experts such as Dr. Gary S. Friedman, founder of the New Jersey Stem Cell Research and Education Foundation who supported the initiative of New Jersey's 15 Catholic hospitals to promote umbilical cord and placenta blood donations, consistently maintain that public money or no public money, efforts to harness embryonic stem cells for human trials will implode. He consistently maintains that's because tumor formation rates are extremely high in the ongoing studies.

"If you look in clinicaltrials.gov on the internet, you will see that all of the human trials, and there are hundreds of them, are non-embryonic." This is the kind of evidence that will be up for discussion at the Vatican.

Father Joseph Kukura, president of the Catholic HealthCare Partnership of New Jersey, who worked with New Jersey's Catholic Bishops on the cord and placenta blood initiative, is in Rome to attend.

So, even if the secular media doesn't provide adequate coverage, Father Kukura will be able to give a first-hand report to Monitor readers. So...stay tuned.