VATICAN - “IT IS IMPORTANT TO PROPOSE TO PEOPLE, YOUNG PEOPLE IN PARTICULAR, FIGURES AND EXPERIENCES THAT HELP THEM TO GROW AT THE HUMAN, PSYCHOLOGICAL, MORAL AND SPIRITUAL LEVEL”, POPE JOHN PAUL II ADDRESSES 18TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ORGANISED BY PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE PASTORAL CARE OF HEALTH WORKERS AND THE SICK

Vatican City (Fides Service) – This morning in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican Pope John Paul II granted a special audience to participants at the 18th International Conference organised by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers and the Sick. The theme of the Conference was depression.
In his address the Pope said that “the role of those who care for a person with depression and have no specific therapeutic task, consists mainly in helping the person to regain self esteem, confidence in their capabilities, interest for the future, desire to live.”
Thanking the participants he said: “Your work here has shown the different aspects of depression in their complexity: they range from acute illness, more or less permanent, to a passing state connected with difficult events, conjugal and family conflict, serious problems with regard to work, a state of solitude…-, which fracture or even break social, professional, or family relations. The illness is often accompanied by an existential and spiritual crisis which prevents the person from perceiving the sense of life.”
Lastly the Holy Father stressed the fundamental role of the different realities of support for those who suffer from this illness and he said “the phenomenon of depression reminds the Church and the whole of society how important it is to propose to people, young people in particular, figures and experiences that help them to grow at the human, psychological, moral and spiritual level.” (AP) (14/11/2003 Fides Service; lines:25 words:278)