At 12:30pm today (6:30am EST), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with those who are participating in the Plenary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Your Eminences,
Dear brothers in the Episcopate and the Presbyterate,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you on the occasion of your Plenary Assembly. I thank the Prefect for his kind words; and I greet all of you, Superiors, Officers and Members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I am grateful to you for all the work you do in the service of the universal Church, to aid of the Bishop of Rome and the Bishops of the world in promoting and protecting the integrity of Catholic doctrine on faith and morals.
Christian doctrine is not a rigid and closed system in itself, but neither is it an ideology that changes with the passing of the seasons; it is a dynamic reality which, remaining faithful to its foundation, is renewed from generation to generation and summarized in a face, in a body and in a name: the Risen Jesus Christ.
Thanks to the Risen Lord, faith opens us up to others and their needs, from the smallest to the largest. Therefore, the transmission of faith requires that its recipient be taken into account, that we know him and love him actively. From this perspective, your commitment to reflect in the course of this Plenary on the care of people in the critical and terminal stages of life is significant.
The current socio-cultural context is gradually eroding awareness about what makes human life precious. In fact, it is increasingly evaluated on the basis of its efficiency and usefulness, to the point of considering rejected lives or unworthy lives to be those that do not meet this criterion. In this situation of loss of authentic values, the binding duties of solidarity and of human and Christian brotherhood also fail.
In reality, a society deserves the status of civil if it develops antibodies against the culture of waste; if it recognizes the intangible value of human life; if solidarity is actively practiced and safeguarded as the foundation of coexistence.
When illness knocks on the door of our life, the need is always more present for us to have someone looking us in the eye, holding our hand, showing tenderness and taking care of us, like the Good Samaritan in the gospel parable (cf Message for the XXVIII World Day of the Sick, 11 February 2020).
The theme of caring for the sick, in the critical and terminal stages of life, calls into question the task of the Church to rewrite the grammar of taking charge and taking care of the suffering person. The example of the Good Samaritan teaches that it is necessary to convert the gaze of the heart, because many times the viewer does not see. Why? Because there is no compassion. It occurs to me that, many times, the Gospel, speaking of Jesus in the presence of a person who is suffering, says: he had compassion, he had compassion ... This is a refrain about the person of Jesus. Without compassion, the beholder does not become involved in what he observes and passes on; instead those who have a compassionate heart are touched and involved, they stop and take care of them.
Around the patient it is necessary to create a real human platform of relationships which, while promoting medical treatment which is open to hope, especially in those borderline situations in which physical evil is accompanied by emotional discomfort and spiritual anguish.
The relational - and not merely clinical - approach to the patient, considered in the uniqueness and integrity of his person, imposes the duty to never abandon anyone in the presence of incurable evils. Human life, because of its eternal destination, retains all its value and dignity in all conditions, including precariousness and fragility, and as such is always worthy of the utmost consideration.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who lived the style of proximity and sharing, preserving, up to the end, her recognition and respect for human dignity, and making dying more human, said this: Whoever, on the path of life, has even turned on only a torch in someone's dark hour has not lived in vain.
In this regard, I think about how well hospices do for palliative care, where terminally ill people are accompanied with qualified medical, psychological and spiritual support, so that they can live with dignity, comforted by the closeness of loved ones, the final phase of their earthly life. I hope that these centres continue to be places where therapy of dignity is practiced with commitment, thus nurturing love and respect for life.
I also appreciate the study you have undertaken regarding the revision of the rules on delicta graviora reserved for your Dicastery, contained in the Motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela of Saint John Paul II. Your commitment is in the right direction toward updating the legislation with a view to greater effectiveness of the procedures, in order to make it more orderly and organic, in light of the new situations and problems of the current socio-cultural context. At the same time, I urge you to continue firmly in this task, to offer a valid contribution in an area in which the Church is directly involved in proceeding with rigor and transparency in protecting the sanctity of the sacraments and human dignity that has been violated, especially that of little ones.
Finally, I congratulate you on the recent publication of the document drawn up by the Pontifical Biblical Commission on the fundamental themes of biblical anthropology. It deepens a global vision of the divine plan, which began with creation and finds its fulfillment in Christ, the new Man, who constitutes the key, the centre and the end of all human history (Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 10).
I thank all of you, Members and Collaborators of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for your precious service. I invoke upon you an abundance of the blessings of the Lord; and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you!
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to members of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Your Eminences,
Dear brothers in the Episcopate and the Presbyterate,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you on the occasion of your Plenary Assembly. I thank the Prefect for his kind words; and I greet all of you, Superiors, Officers and Members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I am grateful to you for all the work you do in the service of the universal Church, to aid of the Bishop of Rome and the Bishops of the world in promoting and protecting the integrity of Catholic doctrine on faith and morals.
Christian doctrine is not a rigid and closed system in itself, but neither is it an ideology that changes with the passing of the seasons; it is a dynamic reality which, remaining faithful to its foundation, is renewed from generation to generation and summarized in a face, in a body and in a name: the Risen Jesus Christ.
Thanks to the Risen Lord, faith opens us up to others and their needs, from the smallest to the largest. Therefore, the transmission of faith requires that its recipient be taken into account, that we know him and love him actively. From this perspective, your commitment to reflect in the course of this Plenary on the care of people in the critical and terminal stages of life is significant.
The current socio-cultural context is gradually eroding awareness about what makes human life precious. In fact, it is increasingly evaluated on the basis of its efficiency and usefulness, to the point of considering rejected lives or unworthy lives to be those that do not meet this criterion. In this situation of loss of authentic values, the binding duties of solidarity and of human and Christian brotherhood also fail.
In reality, a society deserves the status of civil if it develops antibodies against the culture of waste; if it recognizes the intangible value of human life; if solidarity is actively practiced and safeguarded as the foundation of coexistence.
When illness knocks on the door of our life, the need is always more present for us to have someone looking us in the eye, holding our hand, showing tenderness and taking care of us, like the Good Samaritan in the gospel parable (cf Message for the XXVIII World Day of the Sick, 11 February 2020).
The theme of caring for the sick, in the critical and terminal stages of life, calls into question the task of the Church to rewrite the grammar of taking charge and taking care of the suffering person. The example of the Good Samaritan teaches that it is necessary to convert the gaze of the heart, because many times the viewer does not see. Why? Because there is no compassion. It occurs to me that, many times, the Gospel, speaking of Jesus in the presence of a person who is suffering, says: he had compassion, he had compassion ... This is a refrain about the person of Jesus. Without compassion, the beholder does not become involved in what he observes and passes on; instead those who have a compassionate heart are touched and involved, they stop and take care of them.
Around the patient it is necessary to create a real human platform of relationships which, while promoting medical treatment which is open to hope, especially in those borderline situations in which physical evil is accompanied by emotional discomfort and spiritual anguish.
The relational - and not merely clinical - approach to the patient, considered in the uniqueness and integrity of his person, imposes the duty to never abandon anyone in the presence of incurable evils. Human life, because of its eternal destination, retains all its value and dignity in all conditions, including precariousness and fragility, and as such is always worthy of the utmost consideration.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, who lived the style of proximity and sharing, preserving, up to the end, her recognition and respect for human dignity, and making dying more human, said this: Whoever, on the path of life, has even turned on only a torch in someone's dark hour has not lived in vain.
In this regard, I think about how well hospices do for palliative care, where terminally ill people are accompanied with qualified medical, psychological and spiritual support, so that they can live with dignity, comforted by the closeness of loved ones, the final phase of their earthly life. I hope that these centres continue to be places where therapy of dignity is practiced with commitment, thus nurturing love and respect for life.
I also appreciate the study you have undertaken regarding the revision of the rules on delicta graviora reserved for your Dicastery, contained in the Motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela of Saint John Paul II. Your commitment is in the right direction toward updating the legislation with a view to greater effectiveness of the procedures, in order to make it more orderly and organic, in light of the new situations and problems of the current socio-cultural context. At the same time, I urge you to continue firmly in this task, to offer a valid contribution in an area in which the Church is directly involved in proceeding with rigor and transparency in protecting the sanctity of the sacraments and human dignity that has been violated, especially that of little ones.
Finally, I congratulate you on the recent publication of the document drawn up by the Pontifical Biblical Commission on the fundamental themes of biblical anthropology. It deepens a global vision of the divine plan, which began with creation and finds its fulfillment in Christ, the new Man, who constitutes the key, the centre and the end of all human history (Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 10).
I thank all of you, Members and Collaborators of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for your precious service. I invoke upon you an abundance of the blessings of the Lord; and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you!
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
No comments:
Post a Comment