To the participants in a Congress of
Paediatric Cardiology
PERSEVERE IN YOUR
22 May 1984
On Tuesday, 22 May,
the Holy Father received in audience the doctors taking part in a Congress of
Paediatric Cardiology, organized by the “Bambin Gesù”
Dear
Friends,
I
greet you most cordially, and congratulate you on the noble commitment which
has brought you from all parts of the world to take part in a Congress devoted
to the care of children suffering from heart ailments.
There are many surgeons, and equally many paediatric cardiologists who
work together in order to relieve the sufferings of these children. Parents turn to them with full confidence,
entrusting their offspring to them in the certainty that they will give of the
best of their knowledge, their skill and their dedication, in order to send
their little patients home fully or at least partially cured of the defects
which had developed during the prenatal period.
Great progress in past
ten years
2. This branch of paediatrics and heart surgery
has made great progress in the course of the last ten years. After the preliminary examination at the
sickbed, it has now become possible to use methods of diagnosis which are
extremely advanced and highly reliable, enabling those whose task it is to
correct congenital heart defects to have an exact picture of what is needed in
order to achieve the most perfect results possible from anatomical and
functional restructuring, at the same time keeping surgical risks to a minimum.
After the completion of sophisticated analyses and the use of advanced
instruments in the diagnosis and correction of the defects involved, there
comes post-operative care, which itself is assisted by modern techniques and
equipment devised to save the lives of children who in many cases risk early
death if they do not receive treatment at exactly the right time.
It
is for this reason that medical men and women have studied the methods and
techniques for dealing with cardiac illness from the first moments of
life. Some of them, including some of
you here today, are studying the means of treating children still in their
mother's womb, with the development of methods capable of dealing effectively
with heart defects before birth, in some cases correcting them even without a
surgical operation.
3.
The efforts being made today will be crowned with success and will truly
penetrate the mystery of life if this research is approached with certain
attitudes. In the first place, with the humility of the scientist who knows a
great deal but who is also aware that he understands only a small part of the
mysteries he is dealing with. Then there
is a need for strength, dedication and courage, in order to continue with
studies that at times seem to be fruitless, or which on occasions prove to be
on the wrong path, but which with persistence will finally lead to a solution
of the problem in hand. And there is the
need for faith, which is a sure
support in the search for scientific truth through the phenomena of the life of
human beings and other living creatures.
4.
But all this research and all these efforts would be impossible if they were
not sustained by the teamwork that is one of the marks of this activity.
A
debt of gratitude is owed to all those involved in this sphere: obstetricians,
experts in child-care, paediatricians, anaesthetists, theatre staff and
technicians, laboratory personnel, nurses, ward staff - all those who ensure
the various hospital services, and without whom the great successes attained
today would not be possible. We also
know that their commitment often goes well beyond strict duty. Their love for their work, their dedication
and their sense of responsibility frequently impel them to make extra efforts
in order to ensure the success of an operation, to save a life and to restore
to its parents a child now happily cured.
Need for faith
5. How often surgeons and doctors themselves
experience the anguish of having to deal with cardiac disease of an extremely
complex nature. Sometimes they are able
to solve the problems involved, but on occasion the illness is so grave and
untreatable that even their great skill is unable to cure the ill or save the
child's life.
We
are deeply aware of the problems that face you in your mission as scientists
and doctors, and which at times become tragedies for your consciences as human
beings and believers. Only if your
conscience is sustained by strong faith can you take comfort from the
conviction that everything has been done for the ultimate good of the child.
At
such moments you will be encouraged by several factors to continue with your
researches and not to lose heart. You
will be sustained by the solidity of
your training, the certainty drawn from experience, your confidence in your own
abilities. You will be helped by your respect for human suffering and the
anxiety of your patient's families by your conviction of the value of the life of the sick child
entrusted to your skill. You will be
supported by your knowledge of the capabilities
of your collaborators. And you will have
faith in the help that is always
available even beyond human powers, a help that is ever more effective if it is
invoked before an important decision or a difficult operation.
Christian view
6. I
would like to close these reflections by offering you a thought that, on the
human and religious levels, can serve as a sort of summing-up.
In
the Christian view, God wishes man to collaborate with him in the still
continuing work of creation. An activity
like yours, which is devoted to helping small human beings to escape early
death and to grow up into healthy adults, is part of that collaboration on the
loftiest levels of the plan of the Creator.
The
nobility of your mission is in direct relation with a programme of love and
life that has placed man, every human being, every unique and unrepeatable
individual, at the pinnacle of creation.
This is a thought that can encourage you to go
forward with perseverance, especially at those inevitable times of defeat and
failure, an encouragement to invoke him who is the Lord of life and who asks
for the assistance of your minds, your hands and your hearts.
With these thoughts I invoke God's blessings upon your work, upon yourselves and upon your families.