To the IX
International Conference
of the
Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers
SPURS AND ENNOBLES
SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
26 November 1994
To
know, love and serve life was the theme of the Ninth International Conference
organized by the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health-Care
Workers. The Holy Father met the Conference participants on Saturday, 26
November, and spoke on the sacredness of life and the duty to defend it from
the moment of conception to its natural end. Here is a translation of his
address, which was given in Italian.
1.I am particularly pleased to conclude the sessions of
this Ninth International Conference, which the Pontifical Council for Pastoral
Assistance to Health-Care Workers has wished to devote this year to the subject
of life, in the threefold dimension of knowing, loving and serving, starting
from the right and proper, and very lofty assumption that in the measure in
which life is known it can be loved, and only if loved it is also worthily
served.
I greet Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini and thank him both for the sentiments he has just
expressed on behalf of everyone and for the dynamism with which he directs and
stimulates the Pontifical Council entrusted to him. My thanks extend to his
co-workers and also to the eminent scholars, researchers, and representatives
of States and Governments who have wished to honour this Symposium with their
presence and their scientific contribution.
Through a happy coincidence, together with the
Conference, today marks the start of the first plenary assembly of the
Pontifical Academy for Life, the body I instituted last February for the
purpose of fostering inquiry, information and instruction on all that concerns
the vast and complex problematic of advancing and defending human life in the
light of the extraordinary progress of science, irremissible ethical and moral
demands, and the contribution of Divine Revelation to knowledge of the mystery
of life.
I extend a warm greeting to the President of the Academy,
Professor Juan de Dios Vial Correa, and to each of
the distinguished members of this Assembly, which is especially dear to me. I
also feel the need to remember with deep gratitude the first President of the
Academy, the late lamented Professor Jérôme Lejeune,
recalling his generous and consistent dedication to the noble cause of the
defence of life.
2.The central topic of the first plenary assembly of the
newly-instituted Academy, "Rational Foundations for the Sacredness of
Human Life at All Stages of Its Existence" is linked to the subject of
this International Conference, in the confirmation of the close bond - both
ideal and operative - between the two institutions.
Respect for human life - as has rightly been observed -
has rational motivations which explain the universal agreement on the
fundamental human right to life. Indeed, for man, it is not one right among
others, but rather the basic right: "There is no other which touches the
person's very existence so closely! The right to life means the right to be
born and, in addition, to persevere in existence until its natural end. 'As
long as I live, I have the right to live'" (John Paul II, Crossing the
Threshold of Hope, 1994).
The Pontifical Academy for Life - stimulated by the
Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health-Care Workers itself, among
whose founding aims is to disseminate, explain and defend the Magisterium of the Church in the field of health policy and
care - proposes to work towards seeking a preliminary, but decisive,
convergence of all who, from the most varied and noble heritages, see the right
to life as the right which is the cornerstone of authentic civilization.
The enlightened copyist who in the 13th
century - as evidenced by the valuable document preserved in the Vatican
Library - wished to transcribe the Hippocratic Oath by arranging the text in
the form of a cross certainly recognized that rational argumentation on the
right to life had value as a preparation for the Christian conception of the
human person and the sacredness of life - indeed, for full recognition of the
mystery of life. Such recognition does not humiliate or circumscribe the
impetus of science, but spurs it on and ennobles it.
Church encourages scientific effort that respects human dignity
3.At this particular moment in history, marked by
contradictions which show all their negativity when compared with the demands
posed by respect for human life, the Church, while encouraging and supporting
science, is grateful to it for all the help she receives from it. The
ecclesiastical Magisterium, when entering into the
spheres which are the object of the research of men of science, does not do so
by virtue of a special scientific competence she possesses. "The Church
intervenes only by virtue of her Gospel mission: she has the duty to bring the
light of Revelation to human reason, to defend man and to safeguard "his
dignity as a person who is endowed with a spiritual soul and with moral
responsibility and who is called to beatific communion with God (Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum vitae, n. 1).
When, in fact, man is concerned, the problems go beyond the domain of science,
which cannot explain the transcendence of the subject or dictate the moral
rules deriving from the centrality and primordial dignity of the subject in the
universe" (John Paul II, Address to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences, 28 October 1994).
The questions dealt with in the course of this Conference
have further confirmed that the extraordinary results obtained by science, such
as, for example, the progressive discovery of a genetic map and the
increasingly precise information on the sequence of the genome, not only do not
contradict, but rather support the Church's doctrine on the sacredness,
inviolability, and grandeur of human life. The Church, for her part, invites us
to look confidently at the most lofty mission of science and encourages every
form of research which is respectful of man's dignity, for she sees in what we
could term the inexhaustible capacities of intelligence the reflection and
imprint of the intelligence of God. At a time when human life is experiencing
such serious and dramatic attacks, the Church, by virtue of her pastoral
mission, feels the duty to support scientific research in the awareness that
faith and science meet in that wisdom wherein God's design fully unfolds.
4.It is precisely in this perspective that the concepts
of knowing, loving and serving life take on all their cultural and operative
significance.
Science and
faith do not exhaust their relationship in the realms of the abstract knowledge
of the mystery of life, but introduce the intellect and heart into the
experiential knowledge of all the values which cluster around the reality of
living. They must work together to build up around the fundamental human right
to life the proper hierarchy of every other individual and social human right,
for the alternative to a culture of life is nothing but the negation of life
and, with it, of every other human right.
From this
integrally human knowledge there flows love for life, which is the first, most
intense, most universal and most widely shared form of love granted to man.
Progress in the field of science and technology translates into an impassioned
commitment of service to life in every human being, particularly if just
conceived or nearing death.
Both the best
knowledge of life and convinced love for it must lead to this service.
Knowledge and love, however, may appear to be powerless arms in the face of the
boundless request for service rising from the human race, subjected to the most
painful limitations in advancing and defending its first and fundamental right.
Hope can only be restored by choosing life
The recent Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops,
devoted to consecrated life and its role in the Church and in the world,
brought out the contribution of service to human life and its improved quality
that is made by the religious institutes which, through their original charism, have arisen and developed to serve man in all that
is most valuable and essential in him. The Magisterium
of the Church, spurred by the very "wonder" which the achievements of
science and technology prompt, does not cease to speak out everywhere on behalf
of this request for service.
Serving life is a basic measure of justice among men. The
Church, which has her unfailing example in her divine Master, Jesus, "who
came not to be served, but to serve" (Mt. 20:28), unceasingly asks God,
the giver of life, to raise up within her and in society new forces at the
service of life.
5.The hope I express on this occasion is that the
sessions of this Ninth International Conference and the conclusions reached by
the first plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life will be an
effective interpretation of the ministry of service to life, which the Church,
on the threshold of the third millennium, wants to express, promote and carry
out alongside every person of goodwill.
The civilization of our time, in its most authentic
impetus, moves in search of a synthesis of values capable of restoring hope.
But this cannot be achieved without a renewed choice in favour of life, where
everyone will be jointly engaged in defending and advancing this fundamental
value, at whose origin is the initiative of God himself, the "lover of
life" (Wis 11:26).
I
entrust you and your loved ones to him, and requesting his continued assistance
for your activities in the service of life, I bestow my Blessing upon you all.