Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Health is a precious good for the person and society to promote, conserve and protect, dedicating the means, resources and energies necessary so that more persons can enjoy it. Unfortunately, the problem still remains today of many populations of the world that do not have access to the necessary resources to satisfy fundamental needs, particularly in regard to health. It is necessary to work with greater commitment at all levels so that the right to health is rendered effective, favoring access to primary health care.” This was affirmed by the Holy Father Benedict XVI in the Message he sent to participants in the 25th International Conference of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry being held November 18 and 19, on the theme: “Caritas in Veritate -- For Equitable and Human Health Care”.
The Pope recalled that the Conference forms a part of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Dicastery and that “In our time we witness on one hand a care of health that risks being transformed into pharmacological consumerism, medical and surgical, becoming almost a cult of the body, and on the other, the difficulty of millions of persons to accede to conditions of minimal subsistence and indispensable medicines to be cured.”
Thus, Benedict XVI highlights that “important also in the field of health, integral part of each one's existence and of the common good, is to establish a true distributive justice that guarantees to all, on the basis of objective needs, adequate care. Consequently, the world of health cannot be subtracted from the moral rules that should govern it so that it will not become inhuman.” The Social Doctrine of the Church “has always evidenced the importance of distributive justice and of social justice in the different sectors of human relations,” the Pontiff noted.
“The Christian community, following in the footsteps of its Lord, has carried out the mandate to go out into the world 'to teach and cure the sick' and over the centuries 'has strongly realized the service to the sick and suffering as an integral part of its mission', of witnessing integral salvation, which is health of soul and body,” continues the Message that notes how the People of God should always unite their efforts “to those of so many other men and women of good will to give a truly human face to health systems.” The Pope then mentions that “health justice should be among the priorities of governments and international institutions.”
Alongside the positive results, in our day there also questions such as though regarding so-called “reproductive health,” which make recourse to artificial techniques of procreation entailing the destruction of embryos, or with legalized euthanasia. Benedict XVI mentioned that “love of justice, the protection of life from conception to its natural end, respect for the dignity of every human being, are to be upheld and witnessed, even against the current: the fundamental ethical values are the common patrimony of universal morality and the basis of democratic coexistence.” What is needed is “the joint effort of all...and above all is a profound conversion of an interior gaze. Only if one contemplates the world with the eye of the Creator, whose gaze is one of love, will humanity learn to live on earth in peace and justice, allocating with equity the earth and its resources to the good of every man and every woman.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 18/11/2010)
