To the V International Conference

of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers

LOVE IS THE KEY TO MENTAL HEALTH

11 November 1990

1.Eminent Ladies and Gentlemen, this meeting during the V International Congress sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers on "The Human Mind" is a pleasing and valuable opportunity for me to express and to restate the lively attention which the Church gives to following issues of health and health care. Therefore, I extend to you, scientists, doctors, researchers, intellectuals and pastoral personnel, my congratulations and encouragement, for with passionate commitment you are devoting yourselves to study the noblest and deepest theme: the human mind in which faith, by casting light on rational reason, helps us to discover one of the loftiest proofs for the divine origins of the human being. For you it is a reason for pride and for us one of admiration to mention the great and hard-won breakthroughs achieved during the century through increasing knowledge of the human psyche. The limitless field of neurosciences - extending from neurobiology to neurochemistry, from psychosomatic study to endocrinology - offers researchers the chance to draw near an especially incisive way to the threshold of the human mystery itself. It is a mystery which Saint Augustine expressed awesomely with his famous words: factus sum mihimetipsi quaestio "I have become a great problem for myself " (Soliloquy II,34).

2.The psalmist in reflecting on the inaccessible greatness of the human mind prayed thus: "If I look to the heavens, the work of your hands, what is a man, O God, that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care fore him? You have made him a little less than the Angels and crowned him with honour and glory. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet" (Ps 8:4-7; cf. Job 7 17f).

Therefore, the line of Christian thought is constant and consistent in closely associating the greatness of the human mind with a special divine intervention (cf. Gen 1:26). Latanzio explains that "God our Creator and Father has given the human being awareness and intelligence, so that in this way it might be seen that we are generated by Him who is Intelligence, Knowledge and Reason" (De Opificio Dei, I 1-2). Furthermore, is it not true that man himself reaches God through the power of the human mind? Going beyond the limits of the universe, the human being not only arrives assuredly at God, but can also enter into communion with Him through prayer which, according to the beautiful expression of Saint John Damascene, is nothing less that ascensus mentis in Deum: " a lifting up of the mind in God" (De Fide Orthodoxa, III 24).

Furthermore: through his resemblance to God, the human being, as the Second Vatican Council states, "is the only creature on earth that God has wanted for its own sake" (Const. Gaudium et Spes, 24) and therefore "all things on earth should be ordained to man as their center and summit" (ibid. 12). Thus a complete statement about the human mind, its function and capacities, lies in the right and duty to subdue creation and the mind itself to the end willed by the Creator (cf. Gen 1:28). It is the mind, therefore, which, while it is able to reach God, is simultaneously "ruler" over created things. These are two attributes of incomparable worth which set it above all other created things in the visible universe.

3.Neuroscience, which is the field you eminent Professors have chosen for your learned research which, we can rightly say, opens up new horizons on a daily basis, cannot ignore these basic and undeniable premises. In other words, to study the mind one can never bypass the whole truth about the human being, in the compact unity of the human's physical and spiritual being; even while operating on an experiential basis, your research can never ignore this second and qualifying dimension. The attempt to explain human thought and free will in a mechanistic and materialistic light inevitably leads to the denial of the person and the person's dignity, with consequences which have cast serious and tragic shadows upon human history in the past and in our own era as well.

Today we speak of "artificial intelligence", alluding to the extraordinary possibilities of "electronic brains". Still it is always helpful to remember that at the root of information systems and cybernetics is the higher factor of the human intellect which, precisely because of its spiritual character and its consequent inability to be reduced simply to a physical-chemical phenomenon, makes free judgements in its act of knowing, can also make choices as it comprehends and catches a glimpse of its ultimate destiny as it understands.

In that regard St. Augustine wrote: "God has given a mind to the human soul: in the baby reason and intellect are almost asleep, as if they did not even exist; as one grows older they must be awakened and developed so that the mind may be capable of learning science and doctrine, able to perceive truth and to love the good" De Civitate Dei, XXII, 24).

But in order to have a proper maturation and harmonious development of the human mind, thus bringing about total mental health in a subject, social relationships also have great importance. For the mediating element for a positive synthesis between the mind and life in society is love. Without love the human intellect is sterile and cold and inevitably ends up parched. St. Paul says that "faith itself works through love" (Gal 5:7).

Highest-level interdisciplinary dialogue, the exchange of knowledge and experiences, the constructive hypotheses which you have formulated in the course of this conference which is so representative of the various sciences which study the human mind will contribute towards a greater sensitivity on the individual and social levels, in regard to the vast and complex issues connected with this topic.

With the complementary contribution of modern pharmacology, medicine, psychology and psychiatry, treatments are being used which have longterm results and increasingly wide application. Regarding problems connected with the widespread prolongation of life pharmacological and psychotherapeutic advances of great significance have been achieved for sustaining the effective operation of the human mind.

This praiseworthy effort by science will produce ever greater results to the extent that the conviction regarding the human being's divine origin makes the whole human family one community of brothers and sisters through the bond of mutual love. Science offers endless and rigorously confirmed proof of the singular help which love can bring in terms of prevention and care in overcoming a good number of mental disturbances often caused by an incorrect ordering of one's life and by relationships which are wrong or missing.

4.In the past and still also at times today, various cultures have often reacted negatively to mental illness by isolating the mentally ill and marginalizing them. This is a drama sadly experienced above all by those who, in being aware of their own illness or having to stand by powerlessly as it worsens, experience a loneliness made more bitter still by the predominating culture of utility and by a mentality which, by denying that there is any value in suffering, at times burdens the mentally ill with the added weight of derision and disdain. And how could we not mention the ever greater number of persons who because of the longer life span see their state of substantial weakness and lessened intellectual alertness equated with that of the mentally ill or those with lesser mental disorders?

It must be clear, above all, that for themselves, for society and for the Church in particular the mentally ill are sick in the same way as those struck by any other sort of illness. Though the saying remains true that senectus ipsa morbus, the elderly possess capacities and gifts and residual energy which in part are a result of their experiences which constitute a real treasure for the younger groups in society.

5.Moving now to a consideration of the obligatory forms of assistance, I wish to stress the urgent need for strong preventive programmes. Medical science itself recognizes a very close relationship between the manifestation and the worsening of some illnesses and mental disturbances, for example, and the contemporary crisis of values. To cite one case which confirms that, one can mention the interdependence between AIDS, drug addiction and the disordered use of sexuality. How can we possibly be silent about the continued aggression against serenity and mental equilibrium brought about by social models which lead to human manipulation and to dangerous conditioning of human freedom?

Moreover, a good number of mental illnesses are often induced - and on a wide scale, according to irrefutable statistics - by ancient conditions of misery which have not yet been conquered, by malnutrition, lack of hygienic and sanitary services, degradation of the environment, etc. And unfortunately, as people have become aware of these intolerable situations, the structures and personnel are lacking to begin to practice suitable forms of prevention and effective repair and, in short, to embark on an aid effort which is worthy of the human person.

6.My heartfelt appeal, therefore, goes to public authorities, to scientists, sociologists, to persons of goodwill to make a commitment to undertake joint action to understand better the vastness and complexity of the problems of the mentally ill in order to set up effective means for intervention, through legislative provisions as well, with full respect for the integrity and dignity of the sick person.

The Church, which looks upon all sick persons with the same amount of attention and loving concern, extends an invitation to give preferential assistance to those who experience greater risk of marginalization and isolation because of certain illnesses. The Church addresses this invitation in a special way to religious orders and congregations, both of men and of women, who through the charism of their institute care for the mentally ill, especially those seriously so. In acknowledging and thanking them for the great amount of good they do in this area, she urges them to persevere with renewed zeal in their delicate and most noble form of service. The Church expresses equal appreciation and concern to priests devoted to that apostolate, to Associations, to groups of volunteers, to Church movements and to all those who, in making a really Christian choice, take on this meritorious commitment. Health-care workers, doctors, nurses, volunteers can experience and live out this arduous form of service as a privileged opportunity to elevate through medicine the greatness of their profession and mission.

I address a special word of esteem and love to those families who, while hard pressed by the mental illness of a relative, accept the task of assisting that relative with love, living through that sad situation with humble resignation but also with exceptional strength of spirit. May the Virgin Most Holy transform this valuable form of solidarity into a gift to the entire Church and all humanity. Christian love, witnessed to through serving those who suffer in body and spirit, draws a person closer to Jesus who in His incarnation chose the condition of a slave, of one marginalized and disdained (cf. Phil 2:7).

7.While suffering is a mystery, it is especially so when it strikes at the most noble human faculties and above all at the human mind. In submitting to this mystery, we are called to draw a life lesson from it which leads us to do good through suffering and to do good for the one who is suffering (cf. Apost. Letter Salvifici Doloris, 30).

Every illness directly or indirectly attacks the human mind which is the centre of a person's feeling and understanding. Eminent Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to address with deepest affection those who, through physical impairment, advanced age or terminal illness, are experiencing various factors which have weakened even to a serious extent their mental faculties. I hope that your study and research concerning this most noble aspect of man always considers the person in his or her wholeness, since no part of a person can be fully saved if the perspective is not the totality of his or her being.

With these wishes I invoke from my heart the help of the All-powerful Lord upon you, and I invite you to look back on the experience of these days as a positive and encouraging opportunity to strengthen your mutual relationships, to coordinate your contributions and to unite your efforts in service to people who are suffering.

May the Most Holy Virgin sedes sapientiae and salus infirmorum always be with you in your daily work; on it I implore the outpouring of heavenly graces through her intercession.