HEALTH CARE INTEGRAL TO CHURCH MISSION
9 February 1990
Dear brothers and sisters,
1.Today’s meeting with you takes on special
significance since it occurs during the first Plenary Assembly of your
Pontifical Council which, as you know, replaces the Pontifical Commission for
Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers.
My cordial greetings first of all to the
President of the Dicastery, Archbishop Fiorenzo Angelini, to Their
Eminences the Cardinals and my esteemed Brothers in the episcopate who are
members. It extends, then, to the Secretary and the Undersecretary, to the
priests, religious and laity, to the consultors and
also to the experts. All have contributed in a generous and praiseworthy way to
the vast and sensitive work which has been rendered with much efficiency by the
Dicastery in the first five-year period of its life.
For this I warmly congratulate each of you.
The mountain of work done in so
brief a time confirms the timeliness, or rather the necessity of the existence
among the Church’s central offices of a dicastery
specifically dedicated to pastoral assistance to the very broad and complex
world of health care. Yours is a dicastery which,
while “young” in its establishment and structure, is called to carry out tasks
that have always been primary and
constant in the life of the Church through all ages. “In fact the Church
throughout the centuries has felt strongly that service to the sick and
suffering is an integral part of her mission,” thus following “the very
eloquent example of her Founder and Master” (cf. Motu
proprio Dolentium Hominum, 1).
2.This Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Assistance to Health
Care Workers was not created merely to respond to emergencies which are
particularly felt today in Church life, but rather in order to face in a new,
better organized and more effective way the demands of our times, the problems
and the situations which touch directly upon the welfare of the human person
and society. In fact, even more than being seen as a specific sector within
total pastoral ministry, healthcare
ministry is a prerogative which cannot fail to accompany and complement the
evangelizing work of the Church. New frontiers opened by progress in science
and technology, the so-called socialization of medicine and growing
interdependence among people situate the issues of health and health care at
the center of a commitment to the
advancement of human rights; and among these and fundamental to them,
without a doubt, are those rights which regard the protection of life from
conception to its natural end.
Already in 1982, in speaking to the
Catholic doctors of all the world, I stressed the urgent need for the various
institutions established and supported directly or indirectly by the Church in
the healthcare field to develop a new set of operating norms. And I added:
“Coordination on the worldwide level could allow in fact for a better profession
and a more effective defence of your faith, of your
learning, of your Christian commitment in scientific research and in your
profession” (Insegnamenti,
1982, V, 3, p.674). That goes for all those who work, with different tasks and
functions, within the field of health and health care and intend to be guided
by Christ’s teaching and example, under the direction of the Church’s Magisterium.
In fact, from the time since Jesus
lived on this earth until our own day, the proclamation of the Good News has
always been prepared for and accompanied by a
preferential attention towards the suffering, under whose very guise God’s
Son wished to hide his presence (cf. Mt 25:36, 40).
In a timely fashion the Second
Vatican Council in the dogmatic constitution on the Church wanted to confirm
the relationship between evangelization and healthcare ministry: “Christ was
sent by the Father to “bring good news to the poor…to heal the contrite of
heart” (Lk 4:18). “To seek and to save what was lost”
(Lk 19:10). So, too, the Church encompasses with her
love all those afflicted with human weakness and she recognizes in those who
are poor and suffering the image of her poor and suffering founder. She does
all in her power to relieve their need and in serving them she strives to serve
Christ” (Const. Lumen Gentium,
8).
3.Planning and cooperation on the level of the Church and on that of
relationships among peoples is the
primary product of that solidarity
which is not only a human virtue, but which in the light of our faith “seeks to
go beyond itself, to take on the specifically Christian dimensions of total
gratuity, forgiveness and reconciliation. One’s neighbour
is then not only a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental
equality with everyone else, but becomes the living image of God the Father,
redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and placed under the permanent action of
the Holy Spirit” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, n. 40).
When such cooperation and planning
are realized in the field of health and health care, voice is given to the
weakest and most defenceless and the link is recovered among people which most fundamentally and
almost necessarily unites them, that is: love
of life.
Within this general purpose lie the aims which distinguish this dicastery and which have been defined in the Motu Proprio of
its establishment (loc. cit., 6). The whole of the activities of the Pontifical
Council in the past five-year period show the zeal, dedication and rigour with which its leaders, its Members and its generous
volunteer Collaborators – to whom I express my grateful appreciation and
deepest encouragement – have kept their fidelity to the guidelines contained in
the above-mentioned document. The breadth of the work done, its rich
expression, the various initiatives carried out to the full or already set in
motion, have placed in the spotlight three
special characteristics, which deserve to be emphasized: I am referring to
the integral vision of the concepts of health and health care which you are
affirming; the international perspective which your work has taken; and, within
the Christian world, the ecumenical dimension of your task.
4.The integral vision of the concepts of health care and health – the
former understood as politics, legislation and healthcare programming, the
other as physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing – takes in a whole
sphere of interests and undertakings which go well beyond the simple attention
for or care of the sick. This expression embraces, in fact, the very vast field of the demands
posited by healthcare education, and by preventive medicine, medical treatment
and rehabilitation, with their relative and inseparable implications of the
ethical, moral, spiritual and social orders. The health of the individual and
the health of the political community,
in fact, “are the necessary conditions and sure guarantees of the development
of “the whole individual and of all people”” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, n.
44).
In other words, just as healthcare
ministry is called upon to clothe with hope all other pastoral activity of the
Church, so the concern for the integral health of the individual and of the
social community implies that attention be paid not only to medical problems, but also to all
the anxieties, questions and expectations
which always “touch” the ailing person.
These and other topics, faced and
studied in depth in the course of this Plenary Assembly, take on a singular
pastoral importance. In effect, among the various issues under study by you
is also the task of preparing those who are called to the spiritual service of
the sick: a topic which is strictly linked to the matter under discussion in
the next Synod of Bishops. We can never stress enough the formative role which healthcare ministry plays in regard to
candidates for the priesthood and religious life; for them that formation is a
real school of life and a sure means of personal maturing and of generous
personal choices, since it is based directly on the example of Jesus, the
physician of souls and bodies.
5.The international
perspective of the Church’s activity was a deep concern of the Second
Vatican Council; the council especially invited Christians to cooperate with
generous efforts in the establishment of an international order (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n.
88). The result obtained from your Dicastery and the
plans proposed for taking further steps in this field confirm that the world of
health and health care presents unique opportunities for cooperation at the
international level. Further, the problems of health, understood in its widest
sense, are never foreign to the great issues of the international order, as
exemplified by the serious ecological problems.
The very topics treated in the
international conferences sponsored by your Dicastery
– from the issues of drugs to the humanizing of medicine, from longevity and
the quality of life to AIDS and consideration of the human mind as well, which
will be the object of another conference now in the planning stages – are so
closely linked to the problem of human rights and the persistence of imbalances
between different areas of the world, that it makes it clear that nothing leads
us to defend more the primary right to
life and to quality of life within the context of respect for the human
person created in God's image and likeness than does the right to health.
6. The ecumenical dimension, finally, which fortunately was already
foreseen at the time of this Dicastery’s
establishment, has allowed your work to be expressed with creativity and
dynamism, keeping it far away from the risk of becoming dry or bureaucratized.
If nothing promotes bringing people together like the need for good health,
regardless of their culture, condition, mentality and ideology, this same need
contributes effectively in the field of Christianity towards bringing together
members of different Churches and Ecclesial Communities in that spirit of
undivided love which marks, or should mark the true disciples of Christ in the
world’s eyes (cf. Jn 13:55; I Cor
13:1 ff.). This spirit of openness and dialogue has made possible as well forms
of close and useful cooperation with healthcare and paramedical institutions
not associated with the Catholic Church, but which are disposed to work with
her and - in many cases - have done so profitably.
I have observed with joy in your
reports the contributions made to this ecumenical dimension through the active
collaboration given by the Pontifical Representations, as well as by the
Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" and by
"Caritas" in all parts of the world.
7.Within the Church community the
task of your Dicastery is and always will be precious
and irreplaceable. As a proof, I am glad to recall the speed with which the
Pontifical Council sought from the Episcopal Conferences - receiving from them
a ready reception - the name of a Bishop
delegate for healthcare ministry; the start of the census, which has
already given birth to the first directory of Catholic healthcare institutions;
the massive task of providing constant information about the directives of the
Church Magisterium on the serious problems connected
to medical ethics and scientific research (information assured through "Dolentium Hominum - the
Church and World Health", the journal published in several languages, and
by other timely resources). I want also to recall the numerous meetings in various countries and at all levels; the development of aid to areas and places
in need of medical equipment, some of it sophisticated; the effort made to increase the awareness of the local
Churches and religious institutes concerning healthcare ministry; the constant
willingness to promote coordination with
other dicasteries of the Roman Curia in relation
to the healthcare world and its problems. All that constitutes a concrete
expression of that pastoral anxiety which, while contributing towards gaining
significant approval for Church activities, has widened as well the entire
involvement of the Church's healthcare ministry.
In every part of the world the
Catholic Church is present at the side of the suffering with her various
institutions; her history is rich with shining examples of holiness, of silent
and heroic dedication, of difficult yet certain conquests. It is not without
significance that the highpoints during the years of life of your young Dicastery have been the raising to the honours
of the altars of priests, religious and
laity who have exalted medical science and the healthcare ministry with
their Christian love.
Pastors, priests, religious and lay faithful
constitute a very important force in the service of health and health care.
Today, nevertheless, new problems are
raised for the Christian conscience, demanding of both those involved in
healthcare ministry and those who, by profession, work in scientific research
and in medical care, an educational updating, to which your Dicastery
is capable of offering an important contribution.
Announcing Gospel of suffering
8. Dear brothers and sisters, may
the awareness that the command to evangelize which was entrusted to the Church
is strictly linked to the announcement of the Gospel of suffering be a cause of growing enthusiasm in your tasks.
"In the messianic programme of Christ which is
at the same time the programme of God's Kingdom,
suffering is present in the world to free love from chains, to give birth to
works of love towards our neighbour, to transform the
whole of civilization into a civilization of love" (Ap.
Letter Salvifici Doloris, n.
30).
In this perspective, your Dicastery is called to be a "sign" of the
Church's mission to meet the human person in his suffering.
Receive, in the meantime, my
heartfelt encouragement to persevere with unchanging dedication in your work.
May the prayers of so many people - and so many of them in their suffering
entrusting themselves to the Lord's mercy and infinite kindness - serve to spur
you on. And may the Most Holy Virgin,
Seat of Wisdom and Health of the Sick, Mother of love and of suffering,
comfort of those who suffer and help of those who work in their service, enrich
your ministry with the marks of kindness, mercy, helpful tenderness and
inexhaustible generosity.
With these wishes I impart to you
from my heart the Apostolic Blessing.