BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Pope Benedict to healthcare workers:
John Paul II bore witness with
his own suffering to his 'gospel of life'

November 26, 2011

"The important mission of the Church" in pastoral healthcare finds inspiration in the teaching of Blessed John Paul II, but especially in his testimony of the "slow Calvary, which marked his last years”, with a "vision of pain and suffering illuminated by the death and resurrection of Christ”, said Pope Benedict XVI Saturday as he greeted participants in the annual plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Healthcare.

The meeting, which is in its 26th edition, opened two days ago in the Vatican on the theme "Pastoral health care at the service of life in the light of the Magisterium of Blessed John Paul II".

In his address, Pope Benedict recalled the commitment of his predecessor to the sick, made concrete in the establishment of the Pontifical Council for Healthcare Workers in 1985, the Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris of 1986, and the Proclamation of World Day for the Sick 20 years ago.

"All his works are a Gospel of Life", he said, in which "Blessed John Paul II declared that the service to the sick person in body and spirit constitutes a constant commitment of attention and evangelization for the whole Church community, according to the mandate of Jesus to the Twelve to heal the sick (cf. Lk 9.2)."...



Here is a full translation of the Pope's address:

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Dear brothers and sisters:

It is a great joy to meet you on the occasion of the 26th International Conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Ministry to Healthcare Workers to reflect on the theme "Pastoral ministry for health in the service of life, in the light of Blessed John Paul II's Magisterium".

I greet all the bishops who are in charge of pastoral ministry for health care workers, who are meeting for the first time in Rome, by the tomb of St. Peter, to confirm collegially the ways that you have carried out your task in this very sensitive and important area of the Church's mission.

I thank the Dicastery for its invaluable service, starting with the President, Mons. Zygmunt Zymowski, whom I thank for the kind words he addressed to me, and his description of the work and the initiatives you have undertaken these past few days.

I also greet the Secretary and the Under-Secretary of the Council, both of them recently appointed, the officials and the staff, as well as the moderators and experts, officials of various health institutions, health care workers, and all who have worked to make this conference possible.

I am sure that your reflections have contributed to an examination in depth of Evangelium vitae (Teh Gospel of Life), a precious legacy from the Magisterium of Blessed John Paul II.

In 1985, he instituted this Pontifical Council to give concrete witness of that Gospel in the fast and manifold field of health. Twenty years ago, he established the celebration of a World Day for the Sick. And lastly, he set up the Good Samaritan Foundation as an instrument for new charitable activities for the poorest sick persons in various nations - and for which I make a renewed appeal for everyone to support it.

In his long and intensive Pontificate, Blessed John Paul II proclaimed that service to the sick constitutes a constant commitment of attention and evangelization for the entire ecclesial community, following Jesus's mandate to the Twelve to heal the sick (cfr Lk 9,2).

In particular, in the Apostolic Letter Salvifici doloris, on February 11, 1984, my venerated predecessor states: "Suffering seems to belong to man's transcendence: it is one of those points at which man seems to be in a sense 'destined' to surpass himself, and is called to do so in a mysterious way" (No. 2).

The mystery of pain seems to obscure the face of God, making him almost extraneous to, or even making him responsible for human suffering, but the eyes of faith are capable of looking at this mystery profoundly.

God was incarnated to come close to man, even in the most difficult situations. He did not eliminate suffering, but in the Crucified One who resurrected, in the Son of God who suffered to death, and death on the Cross, God reveals that his love descends even into man's most profound abyss to give him hope.

The Crucified Jesus rose, death was illuminated by the morning of Easter. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (Jn 3,16).

In the Son 'given' for the salvation of mankind, the truth of love is tested, in a way, through suffering, and the Church, born of the mystery of Redemption in the Cross of Christ, "must seek to meet man in a special sense along the path of his suffering. In this meeting, man becomes the way of the Church, a way which is among the most important" (Giovanni Paolo II, Lett. ap. Salvifici doloris, 3).

Dear friends, the service of providing company, of nearness, and of caring for our sick brothers, who are alone, often tested by wounds that are not just physical, but also spiritual and moral, places you in a privileged position to bear witness to the salvific action of God, his love for man and the world, which embraces even the most difficult and terrible situations.

The face of the Savior dying on the Cross, of the Son consubstantial with the Father who suffers as a man for us (cfr ibid.,17), teaches us to safeguard and promote life, in whatever stage or condition, recognizing the value and dignity of every human being created in the image and likeness of God (cfr Gen 1,26-27) and called to eternal life.

We witnessed this view of pain and suffering, illuminated by the death and resurrection of Christ, in the slow Calvary that marked the last years of Blessed John Paul II's life, to which we could apply the words of St. Paul: "In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the Church" (Col 1,24).

His firm and secure faith permeated his physical weakness, making his illness, which he lived for the love of God, the Church and the world, a concrete participation in Christ's way to Calvary.

His following of Christ did not spare Blessed John Paul II from taking up his cross every day to the very end, in order to be like his only Master and Lord, who from the Cross had become the focus of attraction and salvation for all mankind (cfr Jn 12,32; 19,37) and manifested his glory (cfr Mk 15,39).

In the homily during the Holy Mass of Beatification of my venerated predecessor. I recalled how "the Lord had stripped him gradually of everything, but he always remained a 'rock', as Christ willed it. His profound humility, rooted in his intimate union with Christ, allowed him to continue leading the Church and to give the world a message that was more eloquent when his physical strength failed him most" (Homily, May 1, 2011).

Dear friends, cherishing the treasure of the testament lived by Blessed John Paul II in his own flesh, I hope that you, too, in the exercise of your pastoral ministry and in your professional activity, you may discover in the glorious tree of the Cross of Christ "the fulfillment and the full revelation of the Gospel of life" (Lett. enc. Evangelium vitae, 50).

In the service that you render in the different areas of health ministry, may you experience that "only service to my neighbor opens my eyes to that which God does for me and to how he loves me" (Lett. enc. Deus caritas est, 18).

I entrust each of you, the sick, their families and all health care workers, to the maternal protection of Mary, and I gladly impart the Apostolic Blessing to all of you from the heart.

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Note about the photo above from the Sunday issue of the OR: Inset shows the OR's original photo in its copiable size - once again a questionable photo choice, in terms of both technical quality and content. Technically, the photo is obviously a washout, especially since about 70% of the photograph is devoted to the detail of the Sala Clementina, a hall distinguished by its brightly colored mosaic walls and floors, and rich frescoes - all of which come out pale and indistinct in this photo. As for content, surely there had to be more photos to choose from than this one whose predominant message seems to be "The event was held in a sumptuous hall, even though you can't really tell from this washed-out photo, in which everything besides the foreground is blurred!".