To the XVII
International Conference
of the
Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers
IDENTITY OF CATHOLIC HEALTH CARE INSTITUTIONS
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and the
Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. I am glad to meet you on the occasion of the
17th International Conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Health
Pastoral Care.
I cordially greet each of you. I extend a
special greeting to Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragán,
President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care whom I thank for
the kind words of respect he spoke in your name and for his overview of the
goals of your conference. I am pleased that your Dicastery
promotes this annual initiative that is an important chance for reflection,
debate and dialogue between the ecclesial and the civil world on such a
priority goal as health.
The theme of the present Conference - "The Identity of Catholic Health Care
Institutions" - has great relevance for the life and mission of the
Church. In fact, in carrying out the work of evangelization, in the course of
the centuries, the Church has always associated the assistance and care for the
sick with the preaching of the Good News (cf. Motu proprio Dolentium hominum, n. 1).
2. Following closely the teaching of Christ, the divine Physician, several saints of
charity and of hospitality, such as St Camillus of Lellis,
St John of God, St Vincent de Paul established hospices for the recovery and
care of the sick, anticipating what would later become modern hospitals. The
network of Catholic social and health care institutions was gradually created
as a response of solidarity and charity by the Church to the mandate of the
Lord, who sent the Twelve to proclaim the
Kingdom of God and heal the sick (cf. Lk 9,6).
In this perspective, I thank you for the steps
you are taking to put fresh life into the Confederatio internationalis catholicorum
hospitalium (International Confederation of Catholic
hospitals) a valid organism for responding better to the many questions
that arise in the minds of those who are involved on many fronts in the world
of health care. For this reason, I encourage the Pontifical Council for Health
Pastoral Care to sustain the work realized by the Confederation so that the
service of charity that is carried out in Catholic hospitals will be constantly
inspired by the Gospel.
3. To understand the identity of such health care institutions fully, one must go to the
heart of what the Church is, whose supreme law is love. Catholic health care
institutions thus become powerful witnesses to the charity of the Good
Samaritan because, in caring for the sick, we fulfill the Lord's will and
contribute to realizing the Kingdom of God. In this way they express their true
ecclesial identity.
It is right to review from this point of view
"the role of hospitals, clinics and
convalescent homes.... These should
not merely be institutions where care is provided for the sick or the 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" (Encyclical
Letter Evangelium vitae, n. 88).
4. In the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte,
referring to so many needs in our time that challenge Christian
sensitivity, I recalled those who lack
even the most basic medical care (cf. n. 50). The Church looks with
particular concern to these brothers and sisters allowing herself to be
inspired by a new "creativity in charity' (cf. ibid.)
I hope that
Catholic health care institutions and public health care institutions may be
able to collaborate effectively, united by the common desire to serve the human
person, especially, the weakest and those who, in fact, are not socially
insured.
Dearly beloved, with such good wishes, I
entrust all of you to the motherly protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Health of the Sick, while, with every best wish for the fruitfulness of your
ecclesial service and your professional activity, I wholeheartedly impart to
you, to your families and to those who are dear to you, a special Apostolic
Blessing.