To the IV
International Conference
prevention
worthy of the human person
and
assistance in complete solidarity
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:
1.It is a particularly important moment for me to meet today with all of you in
this International Conference which the Pontifical Council for Pastoral
Assistance to Health Care Workers has promoted for the purpose of deepening the
interdisciplinary study of the complex problems related to the threatening
spread of AIDS.
In greeting you, I wish to express my heartiest
congratulations for your commitment to discuss this vitally interesting subject
on such a highly qualified level, and particularly, for having formulated its
analysis in a broader anthropological framework, examining the entire question
in the light of fundamental questions on existence: “TO LIVE: WHY?”
2.Compared with the many other infectious
diseases known by Mankind in the course of history, AIDS has by far many more
profound repercussions of a moral, social, economic, juridical and structural
nature not only on individual families and on neighborhood communities, but
also on Nations and on the entire community of peoples. In fact, although in
differing intensity and with varied characteristics, the great majority of the
world’s nations has been struck by the acquired immunodeficiency virus, and the
periodic announcements of the Health Authorities indicate an increasing extension.
It is right to recognize that, from
the initial stages, AIDS has provoked a serious commitment to team research
directed by eminent scientists, many of whom are present here today, and to
whom I wish to express my most heartfelt appreciation.
Thanks to their efforts, every day
there is greater light shed upon the various aspects relative to this complex
and widespread disease. In less than a decade, an important stretch of the road has been covered: molecular
biology studies have nearly made known the functions of the virus, the
virus-cell interactions and their consequent functional modifications. Other
retroviruses have likewise been discovered, and their functions relative to
AIDS and other diseases are the object of intensive study and evaluation.
3.It is not at all daring to affirm
that, once again, through the study of a dreadful disease, scientific knowledge
is broadening to cover a whole area, with important advantages afforded for the
treatment of other pathologies.
And, moreover, as our times are
characterized by the growing awareness that biological causes, environmental
conditions, and sociocultural components all strongly
influence the development and spread of infectious diseases, particular
analytical attention has been given to the way in which certain forms of interactional behavior within particular demographic types
or groups create and increase the risk of contagion from the acquired
immunodeficiency virus. The reference, already well known to all, is obviously
to the phenomena of drug addiction and the abuse of sexuality which leads to a
process that is expansionist at its base. The positive side of this more exact
knowledge is that the world population as a whole is called to assume its
proper responsibility with complete awareness.
4.Statistics indicate that it is the
generation of youth which is most stricken by AIDS. This threat which hovers
over the younger generations should alert everyone to personal commitment
because, humanly speaking, the future of the world depends upon the future of
its youth, and experience teaches that the
only way to foresee the future is to prepare it in the present.
The threatening spread of AIDS hurls
at all men a double-edged challenge which
the Church also wants to meet in fulfilling her due share: I am referring to
the prevention of the disease and to the
health care offered to those who suffer from it. Truly effective action in
these two areas cannot be developed without looking to sustain a common effort
which results from a constructive vision of the dignity of the human person and
his transcendent destiny.
The peculiar factors which have given rise to AIDS and its global
extension, and also a certain way of engaging the battle against this disease
reveal – as so appropriately the general theme of the Conference reminds us – a
worrisome crisis of values. Certainly not far from the truth is the affirmation
that, parallel to the spread of AIDS, there is a kind of immunodeficiency in
existential values that cannot but be identified as a real pathology of the
spirit.
5.AIDS prevention – to be worthy of the human person and at the
same time truly effective – must propose two objectives: to inform adequately and to
educate for responsible maturity.
The information, diffused in so many
different centers, must above all be correct and complete, beyond unfounded
fears as also beyond false hopes. Personal human dignity demands that each
person be helped to grow in affective maturity by means of a specific
educational process. Only with information and education which lead to a
transparent and joyous rediscovery of the
spiritual value of self-giving love as the fundamental meaning of existence, will
adolescents and youth be able to find sufficient strength to surmount high risk
behavior. Education for living one’s own sexuality in a serious and serene way
and preparation for responsible and faithful love are essential aspects of this
way towards full personal maturity. Prevention methods which instead promote
egoistic interests, deriving from considerations that are incompatible with the
fundamental values of life and love, can only end up being contradictory as
well as illicit, merely circling the problem without resolving it at its roots.
For this reason, the Church, sure
interpreter of the Law of God and “expert in humanity”, is concerned not only
with stating a series of “no’s” to particular behavior patterns, but above all
with proposing a completely meaningful
lifestyle for the person. She marks out with vigor and joy a positive ideal in whose perspective
moral behavior codes are understood and lived.
In the light of such an ideal, it is
extremely harmful to the dignity of the person, and therefore it is morally
illicit, to support as AIDS prevention any method which violates the
authentically human sense of sexuality, and is a palliative for those deep
needs which involve the responsibility of individuals and of society: and right
reason cannot admit that the fragility of the human condition – instead of
being the motive for greater care – be used as a pretext for yielding to a way
of moral degradation.
6.Secondly, if prevention be
understood in the constructive sense of the term as leading to the retrieval of
the full meaning of life and the exalting fascination of generous dedication,
it can only be to the advantage of a
greater and vaster commitment to assist AIDS patients, above all among the
younger generations. Those who suffer from AIDS, even in their unique
pathology, are entitled to receive adequate health care, respectful
comprehension and complete solidarity, just like every other ailing person.
The Church, imitating her Divine
Founder and Teacher, has always deemed as fundamental to her mission assistance
to those who are suffering. She now feels that she is called upon as
protagonist in this new area of human suffering, aware as she is that suffering
man is a “special way” of her teaching and ministry.
Consequently, many Bishops’ Conferences in different parts of the world have
published documents, issuing concrete directives to initiate, improve and
intensify the pastoral approach of hope in the action taken to prevent AIDS and
in the health care offered to those stricken by it, at times even opening
specialized AIDS care centers.
In the spirit of communion, and with
confident and intense participation in the sentiment of the whole Church, I
willingly take this opportunity to unite my voice to those of the other
Bishops, and exhort each and every one to assume his personal responsibilities.
7.Above all, I turn with grievous
immediacy to those who suffer from AIDS.
Brothers in Christ, who know the
bitter harshness of the Way of the Cross, do
not feel that you are alone. The Church is with you as sacrament of
salvation, to sustain you on your difficult path. She receives much when you
live out your suffering with faith; she is beside you with the comfort of
active solidarity in her members so that you never lose hope. Remember how
Jesus invites you: “Come to Me all of you who labor and are overburdened, and I
will give you complete rest.” (Mt 11:28).
At your side, dear ones, are the men
of science who are untiringly struggling to subdue and contain this serious
disease; and with you are all those who with generous voluntary dedication or
with diligent professionality sustained by the ideal
of human solidarity, wish to accompany you with every kind of attention and
care. But you can offer on your part something which is so important to the
community to which you belong. For the effort to give meaning to your suffering
is a precious call back to the highest of life’s values, which touches all men,
and a particular help which may even be definitive for those who are tempted by
despair.
Every day the prayer of the Church
is offered to Our Lord for you, especially for those of you who undergo the
illness in abandonment and solitude, for the orphans, for those who are weakest
and poorest; those whom the Lord teaches are considered as first in His
Kingdom.
8.I now turn to the families: In the family nucleus is children’s first school of life and of formation in life’s responsibility in
all its aspects, including those related to sexuality.
Parents, you can carry out the first
and most effective program of prevention by providing your children with
correct information, and preparing them for responsible choice of proper
behavior, both individually and socially.
As for those families who are living
from within the drama of AIDS, I want them to feel the special understanding of
the Pope, who is so very aware of the difficult mission to which they are
called. I pray to Our Lord that He grant them the generosity they need to be
able to continue to the end their mission, which, before God and society, they
have assumed as undeniable. The loss of family warmth and concern causes in
AIDS sufferers the diminishment and even complete loss of that psychological and spiritual state of
immunity which at times is as important as physical immunity in sustaining
the individual’s capacity for reaction. Especially
those families born under the sign of Christian matrimony have the mission to
offer a courageous witness of faith and love; not abandoning their dear one,
but rather caring for him, they should surround him with attentive care and
affectionate presence.
9.To teachers and educators: I appeal to you to become promoters in
close contact with the families, of suitable and serious formation of
adolescents and youth. Especially in Catholic schools, prepare an organic
programming of health education in which preventive measures are in harmony
with moral values in the development and formation of a just and authentic
lifestyle, fundamental guarantee of the protection of one’s own health and that
of others.
Educators, to you has been confided
the responsibility to guide the young generations towards an authentic culture
of love, offering in yourselves guidance and a model of faithfulness to the
ideal values which give meaning to life.
10.To the youth of every age and social state, I say: Make your thirst
of life and love be that thirst of life which is worth living, of a life of constructive
love. The necessary prevention
against the AIDS threat is not to be found in fear, but rather in the conscious
choice of a healthy, free and responsible lifestyle. Avoid types of behavior
which are marked by dissipation, by indifference, by egoism. Be, instead, protagonists in the construction of a just
social order upon which the world of your future will depend.
With generosity and creative
imagination, practice ever new forms of solidarity. Reject every kind of
marginalization; stand by those less fortunate than you, assist those who are
suffering, while you develop the virtues of friendship and understanding,
rejecting all forms of violence towards yourselves and towards others. May your
strength be hope, and your ideal, the universal assertion of love.
11.To those who govern and those responsible for social well-being: I
make an urgent appeal to address in every way the new problems posed by the
spread of AIDS. The actual and foreseeable proportions of this disease, as also
its close ties with certain behavior patterns which weigh heavily upon
interpersonal and social relations, demand that the Nations assume all their
responsibility with timeliness and courage, with clear ideas and upright initiatives.
In particular, the health and social authorities have the jurisdiction to
determine and execute a world-wide plan
for the fight against AIDS and drug addiction; within this programming,
there should be recognition, coordination and maintenance of all just
initiatives developed by private citizens, groups, associations and
organizations for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
Likewise, the struggle against AIDS
calls for collaboration among all peoples.
And because the demand for health and for life is the common denominator of all
men, may no political or economic interest divide the commitment of the Nations
which, united, are called to respond to the challenge of AIDS.
12.To scientists and researchers, with praise for their commendable efforts,
I extend my invitation to intensify and coordinate their labors, source of hope
for AIDS sufferers and for all of Humanity. As already stated: “It would be
illusory to claim ethical neutrality in scientific research and its
applications…Therefore, to maintain their own intrinsic significance, science
and technology require unconditioned
respect for the fundamental criteria of morality: they must be at the
service of the human person, of his unalienable rights, and of his true and
integral well-being, according to the project and will of God” (Instruction Donum Vitae, n. 2).
As yet, there is still no vaccine,
nor is there any effective medicine against the AIDS virus. May scientific and
pharmaceutical research discover the hoped-for remedy. For Mankind is imploring
your competence and your sensitivity, distinguished scientists and researchers;
it awaits your response in favor of life, above all, as fruit of your
collaboration and dedication.
13.During this interval in which we
await the definitive discovery, I invite the physicians and all health care workers involved in this delicate
professional sector, to transform your service into witness of helping love. As I said in Phoenix, U.S.A., to the
members of the Catholic Health Care Organizations, “You, both individually and
collectively, are the living expression of the Parable of the Good Samaritan” (Teachings, X, 3, 1987, p. 506).
Therefore, may your diligence be free of any discrimination! Be capable of
receiving, understanding and valuing the confidence which your ailing brother
has in you. Always seek, through caring and with discretion and love, to draw
closer to that mysterious and so human psychic and spiritual sphere of the
patient, from which living and healing energy may flow that will help the sick
person to discover, even in his condition, the meaning of his life and the
meaning of his suffering.
And you who are volunteer health care workers, who in ever-greater numbers devote
competence and availability to AIDS victims or are engaged in the work of
preventive education, join and coordinate your efforts, update your training,
promote activities outside as well to increase community awareness of the
problems linked to the reality and threat of AIDS. Be spokesmen for the
anxieties, needs, and expectations of those you are assisting.
14.To our brothers in the priesthood and to our brothers and sisters
consecrated in religious life: First of all to those of you who are
specifically dedicated to pastoral health care, my most fervent call that you
be heralds of the Gospel of Suffering in
this contemporary world. The Church’s history in health care abounds in heroic
personages: priests, religious brothers and sisters who in their compassionate
assistance to the suffering have exalted the doctrine and the reality of Love.
Your action, my dear brothers and
sisters, to be truly credible and effective, should always be sustained by
faith and nourished by prayer. You, who have embraced Christ as the only ideal
in your lives, are called to be Jesus’ presence in the world: Jesus, Physician
of souls and bodies. May those who receive your care perceive through your
actions the presence of Jesus, and the tender, maternal presence of the Blessed
Virgin Mary.
Listen generously to the call of
your Bishops; love and give preference to assist the sick; act under the sign
of self-denial and of love, so that “the Cross of Christ may not be made
pointless” (1 Co 1:17). Draw close to those who are the least, the most
abandoned of our brothers. Be hospitable, promote and sustain all the
initiatives which, in serving the suffering, exalt the greatness and the
dignity of the human person and his eternal destiny. Be witnesses to the
Church’s love for all those who are suffering, and of her preference for those
most tried by evil.
15.Lastly, I invite all the faithful to offer their prayer
to the Lord of life to help humanity to gain something also from this new,
threatening calamity. May God enlighten believers as to the true and ultimate
reason for existence in such a way that always and everywhere they might be
messengers of undying hope. May contemporary man know how to repeat the words
of Job to the Lord: “I know that You are all-powerful; what You conceive, You
can perform” (Jb 42:2). If today, in the face of the
impending plague of AIDS, we are still looking for an effective cure, we trust
that with the help of God life will finally triumph over death and joy over
suffering.
With this wish, I invoke the
blessing of Almighty God upon you and all those who spend their energies at the
service of this most noble cause for which you have come together at this
Conference.