To the participants in a Catholic Doctors Congress on
"Medicine and Human Rights"
IT IS YOUR INDISPENSABLE
TO DEFEND, PROMOTE AND LOVE LIFE
1.I extend a cordial welcome to you all, dear
Catholic doctors who have come to
I greet you all affectionately, beginning with
Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi,
Archbishop of Genoa, and Professors Domenico Di Virgilio, Paul Deschepper and Gian Luigi Gigli, Presidents respectively of the above-mentioned
associations. And I greet Fr Feytor Pinto and Fr Valentini Pozaic, along with the
ecclesiastical advisers present.
I also extend my greetings to Archbishop Javier
Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council
for Pastoral Assistance to Health-Care Workers, an institution which I
entrusted with the task of encouraging and promoting the work of formation,
study and action carried out by the International Federation of Catholic
Medical Associations, especially in the context of the Jubilee Year. I lastly
offer my particular thanks to Prof. Domenico Di Virgilio, who has well
expressed the sentiments you share and your loyal fidelity to the Chair of
Peter.
2.The theme chosen for your congress - Medicine and
Human Rights - is very important, not only for the cultural effort it expresses
of combining medical progress with the ethical and juridical requirements of
the human person, but also for its timeliness because of actual or potential
violations of the fundamental right to life, on which every other personal
right is based.
Every day in your professional work you render
a noble service to life. Your mission as doctors puts you in daily contact with
the mysterious and wonderful reality of human life, prompting you to be
concerned for the sufferings and hopes of our many brothers and sisters.
Persevere in your generous dedication, showing particular attention to the
elderly, the sick and the disabled.
You have firsthand experience that in your
profession medical care and technical services are not enough, even if provided
with exemplary professionalism. You must also be able to offer the sick that
special spiritual medicine which is the warmth of genuine human contact. This
can restore the love of life to your patients, inspiring them to struggle for
it with an inner determination that is sometimes decisive for their recovery.
The sick must be helped to regain not only
their physical health, but also psychological and moral well being. This
presupposes that the doctor, in addition to his professional skill, also has an
attitude of loving concern inspired by the Gospel image of the Good Samaritan.
With every suffering person, the Catholic doctor is called to bear witness to
those higher values which have their firmest foundation in faith.
3.Dear Catholic doctors, you know so well
that it is your indispensable mission to defend, promote and love the life of
every human being from its beginning until its natural end. Today,
unfortunately, we live in a society dominated both by an abortionist culture,
leading to the violation of the fundamental right to life of the unborn, and by
a concept of human autonomy expressed in
the demand for euthanasia as self-liberation from a situation which for some
reason has become distressing.
You know that it is never licit for a Catholic
to be party to an alleged right to abortion or euthanasia. Since legislation
allowing such crimes is intrinsically immoral, it cannot represent a moral
imperative for the doctor, who will rightly have recourse to conscientious
objection. The great progress made in recent years in the palliative treatment
of pain makes it possible to provide
suitable care for the difficult situations of the terminally ill.
The many disturbing ways in which health and
life are attacked should be courageously addressed by every person who truly
respects human rights. I am thinking of the destruction, suffering and death
that afflict entire populations because of conflicts and fratricidal wars. I am
thinking of the epidemics and diseases that occur among populations forced to
abandon their lands and flee into the unknown. How could we remain indifferent
to the agonizing scenes of children and the elderly living in intolerable
situations of hardship and suffering, especially when they are denied even the
basic right to health care!
A vast field of action lies before you, dear
Catholic doctors, and I express my heartfelt appreciation to those of you who
courageously decide to dedicate some of their time to people in situations of
such dire emergency. Missionary cooperation in the health-care field has always
been open-hearted, and I fervently hope that this generous service to suffering
humanity will continue to grow.
4. As we enter the third millennium, men and
women, especially in the poorest countries, are unfortunately still deprived of
access to health services and the essential medicines for their treatment. Many
of our brothers and sisters die each day of malaria, leprosy and AIDS,
sometimes in the midst of the general indifference of those who could or should
offer them support.
May your hearts be attentive to these silent pleas! It is your task, dear
members of Catholic medical associations, to work so that every person,
regardless of his social or economic status, can exercise his primary right to
what is necessary for restoring his health and thus to adequate medical
care. Some of you are researchers in the biomedical sciences, which by
nature aim at advancing, developing and improving the conditions of human
health and life. I urgently appeal to them to make a generous contribution to
providing humanity with better health conditions, while always respecting the
dignity and sacredness of life. Everything that is scientifically possible is
not always morally acceptable.
When you return to your respective nations,
take with you a desire to continue with new zeal in your work of formation and
updating, not only in the disciplines associated with your profession, but also
in theology and bioethics. It is very important, particularly in the nations
with young Churches, to see to the professional and ethical-spiritual formation
of doctors and health-care personnel, who often have to confront serious
emergencies calling for professional skill and suitable preparation in the
moral and religious field.
5. Dear Catholic doctors, your congress is
providentially occurring during the Jubilee, a favourable
moment for personal conversion to Christ and for opening your hearts to those in need. May the fruit of your Jubilee celebration be
a deeper concern for your neighbour, a generous
sharing of knowledge and experience and an authentic spirit of solidarity and
Christian charity.
May our Blessed Lady, Salus infirmorum,
assist you in your complex and necessary mission. May
St Giuseppe Moscati be your example, so that you will
never lack the strength to bear witness with consistency, complete honesty and
absolute integrity to the "Gospel of life".
Thanking you again for your visit, I implore the Lord's constant benevolence
for you, for your families and for everyone entrusted to your care, as I
wholeheartedly impart to all a special Apostolic Blessing.