of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral
Assistance to Health Care Workers
into
the world of health care
15 March 2002
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the
Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. I am particularly pleased to have this
meeting during the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Health
Pastoral Care that offers you the occasion to examine and draft a new plan of
work for the next five years.
I greet the President of the Council,
Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragán and thank him for
his cordial words expressing your sentiments of esteem. I greet the Cardinals
and my Brothers in the Episcopate, the members, consultors
and experts of the Council, the Secretary and the Undersecretary as well as the
other officials, priests, religious and lay people. I thank you all for the
precious help you give me in such a critical area of our Gospel witness.
2. The great amount of work that your Council
has accomplished in the 17 years since its foundation confirms how necessary it
is that among the offices of the Holy See there should be one that is
specifically designated to manifest “the Church’s concern for the sick,
assisting those who serve the sick and the suffering, so that the apostolate of
mercy on which they rely may respond ever better to the new needs” (Apostolic
Constitution Pastor Bonus, art. 152).
Let us thank the Lord for the wide range and variety of pastoral activities carried
out in the field of health care around the world with the stimulus and support
of your Council. I encourage you to continue in that direction with zeal and
confidence, so that you can offer to the people of our time the Gospel of hope
and mercy.
3. Taking a cue from the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte, at your meeting you plan to reflect on the
best way to reveal the suffering and
glorious face of Christ enlightening the
world of health care, suffering and illness with the Gospel, sanctifying the sick and health-care
workers and promoting the
coordination of pastoral health care of sick persons in the Church.
During this Easter season, we contemplate
Jesus' glorious face after
meditating, especially in Holy Week, on his sorrowful
face. It is in these two dimensions that we find the core of the Gospel and
of the Church's pastoral ministry. I wrote in my Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte that Jesus “at the very moment when he
identifies with our sin, “abandoned” by the Father, he “abandons” himself into
the hands of the Father”. In this way he lives “his profound unity with the
Father, by its very nature a source of joy and happiness, and an agony that
goes all the way to his final cry of abandonment” (n. 26). In the suffering
face of Good Friday is hidden the life of God, offered for the salvation of the
world. Through the Crucified One, our contemplation must be open to the Risen
One. Comforted by this experience the Church is ever ready to continue her
journey to proclaim Christ to the world.
In health care and biomedical research the
choice must be the culture of life
4. Your plenary assembly focuses on programmes that aim at enlightening the entire world of
health care with the light of the sorrowful
and glorious face of Christ. In this perspective, it is crucial to reflect
more in depth on topics that are bound up with health care, sickness and
suffering, guided by a concept of the human person and his destiny that is
faithful to the saving plan of God.
The new
frontiers opened up by progress in the sciences of life and the applications
deriving from them, have put enormous power and responsibility in man's hands.
If the culture of death prevails, if
in the field of medicine and biomedical research those doing the research let
themselves be conditioned by selfish and Promethean ambitions, it is inevitable
that human dignity and life itself will be dangerously threatened. However, if
work in the important health care sector is shaped by the culture of life, under the guidance of right conscience, the human
being will find an effective response to his deepest longings. The Pontifical
Council will not fail to contribute to a new evangelization of suffering, that Christ takes on and
transfigures in the triumph of the Resurrection.
In this
regard, the life of prayer and recourse to the Sacraments are essential, for
without them the spiritual journey of the sick and of those who take care of
them becomes difficult.
5. Today, the sector of health care and
suffering face new and complex problems that demand a generous commitment from
everyone. The dwindling number of women religious involved in this field, the
difficult ministry of hospital chaplains, the problem of organizing a
satisfactory and effective health care apostolate at the level of the local
Churches and the approach to healthcare personnel who are not always in accord
with the Christian vision, form a plethora of complex and problematical topics
that you have certainly noticed. Faithful to its mission, your Council will
continue to show the pastoral concern of the Church for sick people, it will
help all who care for the suffering, and particularly those who work in
hospitals, always to respect the life and dignity of the human being. To
achieve such objectives it will be useful to collaborate generously with the
international organizations concerned with health care.
May the
Lord, the Good Samaritan of suffering humanity, help you always. May the
Blessed Virgin Mary, Health of the Sick, sustain you in your service and be
your model of acceptance and love. As I assure you of my prayers, I cordially
impart to you my Apostolic Blessing.