On
the occasion of the XXI FIAMC World Congress in
Catholic medical doctors are
called
to special gospel-based witness
in the world of suffering and health
1-4 September 2002
The
Secretariat of State
The
N. 517.644
To His Most
Reverend Excellency,
Msgr. Javier Lozano Barragán,
President
of the Pontifical Council
for
Health Care Workers
(for Health Pastoral Care),
the
Most
Reverend Excellency,
The Holy Father has learnt with great pleasure
that the International Federation of Associations of Catholic Doctors will
celebrate its Twenty-first World Congress in
From the point of view of its contemporary
relevance, the subject chosen is worthy of appreciation. Indeed, today, with
the advent of experimental medicine, the identity of the individual health care
worker is relegated to the individual and private sphere. Hence the need and
urgency for the medical doctor in general, and the Catholic medical doctor in
particular, to regain to the full his or her personal identity as a person who
loves life, which should be loved and defended always and in every context.
On this point, referring to the specific
identity and responsibility of health care workers, the Holy Father writes: ‘In
today’s cultural and social context, in which science and the practice of
medicine risk losing sight of their inherent ethical dimension, health-care
professionals can be strongly tempted to become manipulators of life, or even
agents of death. In the face of this temptation their responsibility today is
greatly increased. Its deepest inspiration and strongest support lie in the
intrinsic and undeniable ethical dimension of the health-care profession,
something already recognized by the ancient and still relevant Hippocratic Oath, which requires every
doctor to commit himself to absolute respect for human
life and its sacredness (Evangelium vitae, 89).
In addition to addressing questions that have
an obvious bioethical and pastoral relevance connected with the value of life –
stem cell therapies, forms of pain-killing treatment, AIDS, forms of dementia,
the ethical training of future medical doctors, natural methods – the Seoul
Congress will also award - out of acknowledgement and esteem for the Billingses - the FIAMC prize for 2002, seeking thereby to emphasise their important contribution to centres for the application of natural methods for the
regulation of fertility, centres that are still ‘a
valuable help to responsible parenthood, in which all individuals, and in the
first place the child, are recognized and respected in their own right, and
where every decision is guided by the ideal of the sincere gift of self’ (ibid., 88).
The moment has now come when Catholic medical
doctors are called to special gospel-based witness in the world of suffering
and health. The good intentions and the wise reflections of the Congress must
be followed by concrete actions of charity and solidarity taking Jesus, the
Good Samaritan, who during his earthly life dedicated himself to healing men
and women in the body and the spirit, as an example.
The Holy Father invites all those taking part
in this Congress to return to their respective countries more convinced of
their high mission at the service of health and the life of man from its
beginning to its natural end. Their task is to do what is possible for the
promotion of the culture of life, achieving an incisive presence in the debates
that permeate the medical profession, with faithful adherence to the Magisterium of the Church. In this way, the Congress of
Seoul will go down in history not as one of so many study meetings, but as a
Congress in which was matured an operational commitment to coherent
gospel-based witness at the service of those who suffer.
In the face of a secularised
world, which with the pretext of ‘understanding’ and ‘compassion’ in relation
to man tends to conceal or to weaken moral truth, the Holy Father invites
Catholic medical doctors to repropose such truth ‘in
its most profound meaning as an outpouring of God’s eternal Wisdom, which we
have received from Christ, and as a service to man, to the growth of his
freedom, and to the attainment of his happiness’ (Veritatis splendor, 95).
The hospital context, in which the Catholic
medical doctor exercises his profession-mission, needs to be renewed in the
light of the Gospel of suffering and life, so that through the actions and
daily work of the medical doctor the compassion and the mercy of Christ are
always alive and operating in that context. On this point John Paul II writes:
‘They {health care institutions} should not merely be institutions where care
is provided for the sick or dying. Above all they should be places where
suffering, pain and death are acknowledged and understood in their human and
specifically Christian meaning, This must be especially evident and effective
in institutes staffed by Religious or in any way connected with the Church’ (Evangelium vitae, 88).
The Holy Father encourages Catholic medical
doctors to pursue their solidarity-inspired commitment with new impetus, basing
themselves on the wise social doctrine of the Church.
They should not tire of sharing their learning and medical culture with those
Churches which are in need, and they should always seek to promote within the
FIAMC the universal diffusion of the good of ‘health’. In this way, Catholic
medical doctors will make a notable contribution to the pertinent and topical
debate on values, on which the phenomenon of globalisation
must be based if it does not want to lose sight of its purpose – man.
The Supreme Pontiff urges Catholic medical
doctors, following the example of the martyrs who founded the
In hoping and wishing those taking part in the
twenty-first FIAMC Congress fruitful work, the Holy Father wishes to express to
you, Most Reverend Excellency, and the other high officeholders of the FIAMC,
his keenly-felt and grateful appreciation of the commitment expended in this
form of apostolate. With these feelings, he sends you, and to those who work
with you and to all those taking part in the Congress, a special Apostolic
Blessing, a pledge of abundant outpourings of heavenly favours.
I take this opportunity to confirm my feelings
of high regard,
Yours most devoted in the Lord,
+ Angelo Cardinal Sodano,
Secretary of State.