The 1989 Vatican AIDS conference, known officially as the Fourth International Conference of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, was a three-day academic symposium that ran from November 13 to November 15, 1989. Hosted by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers at the Synod Hall in Vatican City, it included over 1,000 delegates, including church leaders and the world's top scientists and AIDS researchers, from 85 countries. The theme was "To live: why? AIDS : Church and health in the world." Attendees gathered to develop a pandemic response that was total, spiritual, cultural, psychological, and medical.