At 12:00 noon today, in the Sala Clementina at the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in Audience those who are participating in the Congress of the Italian Society of Oncology Surgeons. The theme for their encounter is Digestive Surgery: New trends and spending review. This Congress is organized by the Università La Sapienza in Rome and by the Saint Andrew's Hospital.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome all of you who are taking part in the Congress of the Italian Society of Oncology Surgeons, organized by the Sapienza University of Rome and Saint Andrew's Hospital. While I welcome you all, I think of all the men and women for whom you care, and I pray for them.
Scientific research has multiplied the possibilities for prevention and treatment, has discovered therapies for the treatment of more varied pathologies. You also are working toward this aim: commitment to a stringent system of values, aimed at providing a response to the expectations and hopes of many sick people all over the world.
Just because we can speak about full health, we must not lose sight of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, united in body and spirit. The Greeks were more precise: body, soul and spirit. And all in unity. These two elements can be distinguished but not separated, because the person is one. So even the disease, the experience of pain and suffering, does not only affect the corporeal dimension, but man in his entirety. This is the reason why there is a need for integral care, which considers the person in his entirety, uniting medical care - or technical care - with support for the human person, both psychological and social, because a doctor should care for the entire person: the human body, with the psychological, social and even spiritual dimensions. Spiritual assistance includes aid to family members of the sick person as well. For this reason, it is imperative that health care workers should be guided by an integrated human vision of sickness and know how to implement a fully human approach to the patient who is suffering (John Paul II, Motu proprio Dolentium hominum, February 11, 1985).
Fraternal sharing with the sick opens us to the true beauty of human life, which includes its fragility; in this way we can come to know the dignity and the value of every human being, in whatever condition he or she may find him or herself, from the moment of conception to that of natural death.
Dear friends, tomorrow we will begin Holy Week, which culminates with the Pascal Triduum, with the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Here, human suffering is assumed in its entirety and redeemed by God, by God who is love. Only Christ can make sense out of the scandal of innocent suffering. So many times, I call to mind the anguished question posed by Dostojevski: why do children suffer? Only Christ can make sense of this scandal. To him, crucified and risen, even you can always look as you go about the daily tasks that are yours. At the foot of the cross of Jesus we also meet his suffering Mother. She is the mother of all mankind, and she is always near to her suffering and sick children. If our faith should weaken, hers does not. May Mary sustain you in your work of research and in the actions of your work. And I am praying for you. I ask the Lord to bless you all. Thank you.
Address of His Holiness, Pope Francis
to participants in the Congress of the
Italian Society of Oncology Surgeons
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome all of you who are taking part in the Congress of the Italian Society of Oncology Surgeons, organized by the Sapienza University of Rome and Saint Andrew's Hospital. While I welcome you all, I think of all the men and women for whom you care, and I pray for them.
Scientific research has multiplied the possibilities for prevention and treatment, has discovered therapies for the treatment of more varied pathologies. You also are working toward this aim: commitment to a stringent system of values, aimed at providing a response to the expectations and hopes of many sick people all over the world.
Just because we can speak about full health, we must not lose sight of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, united in body and spirit. The Greeks were more precise: body, soul and spirit. And all in unity. These two elements can be distinguished but not separated, because the person is one. So even the disease, the experience of pain and suffering, does not only affect the corporeal dimension, but man in his entirety. This is the reason why there is a need for integral care, which considers the person in his entirety, uniting medical care - or technical care - with support for the human person, both psychological and social, because a doctor should care for the entire person: the human body, with the psychological, social and even spiritual dimensions. Spiritual assistance includes aid to family members of the sick person as well. For this reason, it is imperative that health care workers should be guided by an integrated human vision of sickness and know how to implement a fully human approach to the patient who is suffering (John Paul II, Motu proprio Dolentium hominum, February 11, 1985).
Fraternal sharing with the sick opens us to the true beauty of human life, which includes its fragility; in this way we can come to know the dignity and the value of every human being, in whatever condition he or she may find him or herself, from the moment of conception to that of natural death.
Dear friends, tomorrow we will begin Holy Week, which culminates with the Pascal Triduum, with the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Here, human suffering is assumed in its entirety and redeemed by God, by God who is love. Only Christ can make sense out of the scandal of innocent suffering. So many times, I call to mind the anguished question posed by Dostojevski: why do children suffer? Only Christ can make sense of this scandal. To him, crucified and risen, even you can always look as you go about the daily tasks that are yours. At the foot of the cross of Jesus we also meet his suffering Mother. She is the mother of all mankind, and she is always near to her suffering and sick children. If our faith should weaken, hers does not. May Mary sustain you in your work of research and in the actions of your work. And I am praying for you. I ask the Lord to bless you all. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment