Dolentium Hominum N

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54 – Year XVIII – No. 3, 2003

JOURNAL OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH PASTORAL CARE

CARDINAL JAVIER LOZANO BARRAGÁN, Editor-in-Chief CORRESPONDENTS BISHOP JOSÉ L. REDRADO, O.H., Executive Editor REV.FELICE RUFFINI, M.I., Associate Editor REV. MATEO BAUTISTA, Argentina MONSIGNOR J. JAMES CASSIDY, U.S.A. REV.RUDE DELGADO, Spain REV.RAMON FERRERO, Mozambique REV.BENOIT GOUDOTE, Ivory Coast EDITORIAL BOARD PROFESSOR SALVINO LEONE, Italy REV. JORGE PALENCIA, Mexico REV. CIRO BENEDETTINI REV. GEORGE PEREIRA, India DR. LILIANA BOLIS MRS.AN VERLINDE, Belgium SR.AURELIA CUADRON PROFESSOR ROBERT WALLEY, Canada REV. GIOVANNI D’ERCOLE, F.D.P. DR. MAYA EL-HACHEM REV. GIANFRANCO GRIECO REV. BONIFACIO HONINGS EDITORIAL STAFF MONSIGNOR JESÚS IRIGOYEN REV.JOSEPH JOBLIN DR. COLETTE CHALON REV. VITO MAGNO, R.C.I. MRS.STEFANIA CASABIANCA DR. DINA NEROZZI-FRAJESE DR. ANTONELLA FARINA DR. FRANCO PLACIDI DR. MATTHEW FFORDE REV. LUCIANO SANDRIN REV.BERNARD GRASSER, M.I. MONSIGNOR ITALO TADDEI DR.GUILLERMO QWISTGAARD

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Spedizione in a.p. - art. 2, comma 20/c, legge 662/96 - Roma Contents

4 XII World Day of the Sick TOPICS Programme 14 Respect and Lack of Respect 5 Message of His Holiness for the Disabled Person John Paul II for the in Contemporary Culture Twelfth World Day of the Sick H.Em. Card. José Saraiva Martins 11 February 2004 John Paul II 21 Illness, Suffering and the Cross as Places of Encounter and 9 Letter in which New Evangelisation the Holy Father John Paul II H.E. Mgr José L. Redrado, O.H. Announces to His Excellency Mgr. Javier Lozano Barragán his Appointment as a Cardinal TESTIMONY of the Holy Roman Church 2 42 Commission for Healthcare 10 Letter of Appointment Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India as a Cardinal Deacon Report of Activities and Assignation of the Church for the Year 2002-2003 of St. Michael the Archangel Rev. Alex Vadakumtala

11 Homily on Taking Possession 48 The Pastoral Care in Health Week of the Cardinal Deaconry Nampula, Mozambique, of the Parish of St. Michael 9-14 june 2003 the Archangel in Pietralata Fra. Ramón Ferreró, O.H. H.Em. Card. Javier Lozano Barragán 50 Pastoral Care in Health in the Vicariate of San José in the Amazon during the Twentieth Century Dr. Carlos J. Chavera Bianchi 54 The Tiber Island: on the Island of Health for Five Centuries Prof. Salvino Leone

The illustration in this edition are taken from the catalogue of the exhibition: “Ave Crux Gloriosa, Croci e Crocifissi nell’arte dall’VIII al XX secolo” edited by Pietro Vittorelli, Abbazia di Montecassino

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003

XII World Day of the Sick

MONDAY, 9 FEBRUARY 2004 This day is limited to the representatives of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe

09.00 Celebration of the Eucharist 11.00 ‘Pastoral Care in Health’: His Eminence Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care (the Holy See) 12.00 The Situation of Pastoral Care in Health in Every Country of Europe (seven minutes for each paper) 13.00 Lunch 16.00 The Situation of Pastoral Care in Health in Every Country of Europe (follow-on) 18.00 Comments and proposals on how to 4 improve pastoral care in health in Europe (forum chaired by the Vatican Pontifical Council) 19.00 End of the session 21.00 Marian torchlight procession

TUESDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2004 This day is open to everyone

08.30 Celebration of the Eucharist (Basilica of the Immaculate Conception) 10.30 ‘The New Paradigm: Bioethics that is Closed and Bioethics that is Open to the Transcendent’: Paper by His Eminence Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care (the Holy See) LOURDES, FRANCE, 14.30 ‘Applications in the Field of 11 FEBRUARY 2004 Biogenetics’: Rev. Arnaud de Vaujuas, lecturer at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse, medical doctor 15.30 ‘The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION The Immaculate and the Sick at Lourdes’: Rev. André Cabes, Doctor of Theology, formerly chaplain at Lourdes; Dr. Patrick Conception Theillier, Director of the Medical and Health Office of Lourdes 17.00 Eucharistic procession, anointing of in the Christian Roots the sick, and blessing.

of Europe WEDNESDAY, 11 FEBRUARY 2004 Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

09.30 Solemn welcoming of the Special To renew pastoral care in health in the world Envoy of the Holy Father and in particular in Europe (France) Reading of the Papal Message through the celebration of the 150th Celebration of the Eucharist (Basilica anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of St. Pius X) of the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Angelus at the Grotto

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Message of His Holiness John Paul II for the Twelfth World Day of the Sick

LOURDES, FRANCE, 11 FEBRUARY 2004

To Our Venerable Brother Javier Card. Lozano Barragán President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care

1. The World Day of the Sick, an event that each year is held in a different continent, on this occasion has a special meaning. It will take place, in fact, in Lourdes, in 5 France, the place where the Virgin appeared on 11 February 1858, and which since that time has become the destination of very many pilgrims. Our Lady, in that moun- tainous region, wanted to manifest her maternal love in particular towards the suffering and the sick. Since then she has continued to make herself present with constant care and concern. This sanctuary was chosen because 2004 is the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. It was, indeed, on 8 December 1854 that my predecessor of happy memory, Blessed Pius IX, with his dogmatic Bull Ineffabilis Deus, declared that ‘the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her Conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine re- vealed by God’ (DS 2803). In Lourdes, speaking in the dialect of that place, Mary said: ‘Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou’.

2. With these words did not the Virgin perhaps also express the bond that connects her with health and with life? Although death entered the world because of the original sin, God, by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, preserved Mary from every stain of sin, and salvation and life came to us (cf. Rom 5:12-21). The dogma of the Immaculate Conception introduces us into the heart of the mystery of Creation and of Redemption (cf. Eph 1:4-12; 3:9-11). God wanted to give life in abundance to His human creature (cf. Jn 10:10), on the condition, however, of a free and loving response to this initiative of His. In rejecting this gift through the dis- obedience that led to sin, man tragically interrupted the vital dialogue with his Cre- ator. To the ‘yes’ of God, the source of the fullness of life, was opposed the ‘no’ of man, motivated by proud self-reliance, foreboding of death (cf. Rom 5:19).

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 The whole of mankind was heavily involved in this closure to God. Only Mary of Nazareth, by virtue of the merits of Christ, was conceived immune from original sin and totally open to the divine plan, so that the heavenly Father could realise in her the project that He had for men. The Immaculate Conception foreshadowed the harmonious intertwining of the ‘yes’ of God and the ‘yes’ that Mary would pronounce with total self-giving when the angel consigned to her the heavenly message (cf. Lk 1:38). This ‘yes’ of hers, on behalf of mankind, reopened the doors of heaven to the world, thanks to the incarnation of the Word of God in her womb through the action of the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:35). In this way, the original project of the creation was restored and strengthened in Christ, and in this project she, the Virgin Mother, also found a place.

3. Here is to be encountered the keystone of history: with the Immaculate Concep- 6 tion of Mary began the great work of the Redemption, which was actuated in the precious blood of Christ. In him every person is called to fulfil himself or herself to the full perfection of holiness (cf. Col 1:28). The Immaculate Conception was thus the dawn that promised the radiant day of Christ, who, by his death and resurrection, would re-establish full harmony between God and mankind. If Jesus is the spring of life that defeats death, Mary is the caring mother who meets the hopes of her children by obtaining for them the health of their souls and bodies. This is the message that the sanctuary of Lourdes constantly re-pro- poses to the devout and to pilgrims. This is also the meaning of the corporeal and spiritual healings that take place in the grotto of Massabielle. Since the day of her apparition to Bernedette Soubirous, Mary has in that place ‘treated’ pains and illnesses, restoring to so many of her children the health of their bodies as well. However, she has worked much more surprising miracles in the spirits of believers, opening their spirits to the encounter with her son Jesus, the true answer to the deepest hopes of the human heart. The Holy Spirit, who covered her with his shadow at the moment of the Incarnation of the Word, transforms the spirit of the innumerable sick people who turn to her. Even when they do not obtain the gift of corporeal health, they can also receive a gift that is much more important: the conversion of their hearts, the source of peace and inner joy. This gift transforms their existence and makes them apostles of the cross of Christ, the vexillum of hope, even in the hardest and most difficult trials.

4. In my apostolic letter Salvifici doloris I observed that suffering belongs to the historical experience of man, who must learn to accept it and overcome it (cf. n. 2: AAS 576 [1984], 202). But how can he do this if not by virtue of the cross of Christ? Human suffering finds its deepest meaning and its salvific value in the death and

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 resurrection of the Redeemer. The whole weight of the tribulations and pains of mankind is epitomised in the mystery of a God who, in taking on our human nature, humbled himself to the point of making himself ‘a victim of sin ’ (2 Cor 5:21). On Golgotha he took on the faults of every human creature, and in the loneliness of abandonment, cried out to the Father ‘why have you forsaken me?’ (Mt 27:46). From the paradox of the Cross comes the answer to our most disquieting questions. Christ suffers for us: he takes upon himself the suffering of everyone and re- deems it. Christ suffers with us, giving us the possibility of sharing our afflictions with him. Joined to the suffering of Christ, human suffering becomes a means of salvation. This is why the believer can say with St. Paul: ‘It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church’ (Col 1:24). Pain, accepted with faith, becomes the door by which to enter the mystery of the redemptive suf- 7 fering of the Lord: a suffering that no longer takes away peace and happiness because it is illuminated by the splendour of the resurrection.

5. Mary, a very special participant in the sufferings of the Son, made mother of humanity, and ready to intercede so that every person may obtain salvation, suffered in silence at the foot of the Cross (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Salvificis doloris [11 February 1984], 25: AAS 76 [1984], 235-238). At Lourdes it is not difficult to understand this singular sharing of Our Lady in the salvific role of Christ. The miracle of the Immaculate Conception reminds believers of a fundamental truth: it is possible to achieve salvation only by meekly sharing in the project of the Father, who wanted to redeem the world through the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son. Through baptism the believer is placed in this salvific plan and is freed from original sin. Illness and death, although they continue to be present in earthly existence, nonetheless lose their negative meaning. In the light of faith, the death of the body, a death defeated by the death of Christ (Rom 6:4), becomes the necessary passageway to the fullness of immortal life.

6. Our time has made great steps forward in scientific knowledge about life – that fundamental gift of God of which we are the stewards. Life should be welcomed, re- spected and defended from its beginning until its natural end. With life should be defended also the family, the cradle of every unborn life. Nowadays, reference is currently made to ‘genetic engineering’, alluding there- with to the extraordinary possibilities that science offers today as regards intervention in relation to the very sources of life. Every authentic advance in this field can but be encouraged, but as long as it always respects the rights and the dignity of the person from his or her conception. Indeed, nobody can arrogate to themselves the

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 faculty to destroy or to manipulate indiscriminately the life of a human being. A specific task of workers in the field of pastoral care in health is to sensitise those who work in this delicate sector so that they feel committed to always placing themselves at the service of life. On the occasion of the World Day of the Sick, I wish to thank all the agents of pastoral care in health, and in particular the bishops who are responsible for this area in the various Bishops’ Conferences, chaplains, parish priests and other priests involved in this field, Religious Congregations and Orders, voluntary workers and all those who tirelessly offer coherent witness to the death and resurrection of the Lord in the face of suffering, pain, and death. I would like to extend my gratitude to health care workers, medical and paramedical staff, researchers – especially those who devote themselves to creating new pharmacies – and to those who are responsible for the production of drugs and medicines 8 that are also accessible to our poorer brethren. I entrust all of them to the Most Holy Virgin, venerated in the Sanctuary of Lour- des in her Immaculate Conception. May she help every Christian to bear witness that the only authentic answer to pain, suffering and death is Christ, our Lord, who died and rose again for us! With these sentiments I willingly send to you, venerable Brother, and to those who are taking part in the celebration of the Day of the Sick, a special Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 1 December 2003

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Letter in which the Holy Father John Paul II Announces to His Excellency Mgr. Javier Lozano Barragán his Appointment as a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church

To Our Venerable Brother Javier Lozano Barragán Arcbishop-Bishop Emeritus of Zacatecas President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care

9 By this letter We announce to you that during the course of the consistory that will be held on 21 October next you will be called to be a part of the College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. To bear witness to Our special benevolence, honoured by the importance of this great dignity and adherence to the Church, We associate you more closely to Our Ministry for the good of the Universal Church.

What is announced to you by this Letter must remain a strict pontifical secret, until the moment that it is made public, on the twenty-eighth day of this month, at mid-day, Roman time.

We most willingly impart to you the Apostolic Blessing of the Lord as a sign of Our good will.

From the Vatican City, 26 September 2003, in the twenty-fifth year of Our Pontificate,

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Letter of Appointment as a Cardinal Deacon and Assignation of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel

John Paul II Bishop Servant of the Servants of God

To Our Venerable Brother JAVIER LOZANO BARRAGÁN, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, elected Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Health and Our Apostolic Blessing. 10 Having believed it right to place you, Venerable Brother, endowed with excellent qualities and well-deserving in the Church, in the College of the Cardinal Fathers at this consistory, by the power of Our Apostolic authority We appoint you Cardinal Deacon

With all the rights and duties that belong to the Cardinals of your order, assigning to you in this Alma Urbe the famous temple of

ST MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

Whose Rector, Clergy and those attached to it We paternally exhort, when you take possession of it, to welcome you with joy and to love you with devoted reverence.

In addition, We keenly congratulate you because, elected to the Senate of the Catholic Church, you will be able to help Us in attending to things of supreme interest and to honour the Roman See, while We pray the most beneficent God to enrich you with His gifts and to confirm you with His grace and His help.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the seal of the Fisherman, on the twenty-first day of the month of October in the year of the Lord 2003, the twenty-sixth year of Our Pontificate.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Homily on Taking Possession of the Cardinal Deaconry of the Parish of St. Michael the Archangel in Pietralata

29 NOVEMBRE 2003

For me it is truly a great honour to take pos- not a concept that belongs only to civil life, it session of this Cardinal deaconry in the parish is something that is essential to Christianity: of St. Michael the Archangel in Pietralata. without solidarity one can understand neither A little more than a month ago the Holy Fa- original sin nor the Redemption. We must ther John Paul II granted me the Cardinal’s practice solidarity in particular towards those hat. In the document containing my appoint- who are most in need, towards the poorest ment he spoke to me about granting me this amongst us. Solidarity does not know fron- grace in order, amongst other things, to create tiers; it extends to the whole of mankind and a closer union with him. Well, the Holy Father embraces all men as brothers. The problem is the principle of the unity and the strength of that today afflicts the great cities is loneliness, the whole Church because he is the Primate of feeling isolated in the middle of the multitude. the Catholic Church and the Bishop of Rome. Accompanying, affection, friendship towards 11 To take possession of this parish attests to the everyone, the free giving of oneself: this is a close union with the Holy Father as the Bishop way of becoming worthy of being Roman of Rome and means making him especially Catholics, the diocesans of the Holy Father present amongst you. John Paul II. The odious distinction that de- The fact that your Bishop, John Paul II, is fines immigrants from outside the European the principle of the unity and the strength of Community as second-class people is not the whole of the Church means that his leader- Christian. ship of love must be an example of Christian The strength of the Holy Father as Primate life in this parish. You should also be model of the Catholic Church is his faithfulness to Christians who imitate the principle of unity Christ the Lord, who died and rose again, the and strength of the Holy Father. only salvation and the only solution to the very With respect to unity, so many things could great problems of our time. be said. Unity is not specifically uniformity Today so many saviours present themselves. but rather the joining together of those that are Very often, at all levels, it is thought, for ex- different. We may think of the unity of the ample, that economic prosperity is the ideal families of this parish. Each family has differ- solution to life as a whole; other people think ent members but all of them must join together that health is the absence of illness and also in mutual service. The parents must complete think that it is the most that one could wish each other, they must accept their various for; others imagine that to enjoy the present kinds of differences, but they must also join moment with the greatest possible pleasure is these differences together to mutual benefit. Parents must know how to cultivate in their own children the specific personalities of those children, but without wanting them to be a reproduction of their parents; and they should ensure that the siblings help each other and join together in the love and respect that is due to the parents. Families must also help each other; they should not live as complete strangers in the same apartment block but should seek to make friendship grow up amongst them, and in particular when they find themselves in difficult situations. And in families a privileged place should be given to the elderly: they should not be abandoned to their own loneliness as though they were something that was no longer useful because no longer productive. Unity means solidarity with all the people of the parish and with the whole city. Solidarity is

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 the most that one could wish for – one may And in the phrase that I have just quoted he think here of discotheques, of drugs; other said to them: ‘you have envied no one, you people aspire to security in relation to violence have taught others, I believe that what you and terrorism; others, again, believe totally in have taught and sent is certain’. the gaining and exercise of power and influ- You, therefore, should be the mirror of the ence; and there are so many other things. Then Pope for the whole Church. In the secularised there are those who turn to forms of the so- environment in which we find ourselves, you called new spirituality; they turn their faces to should be strong in Christ who died and rose the thinking of other religions or to oriental es- again, the only path by which to give meaning oteric practices, or even to ecology trans- to life and to be able to defeat death. formed into a religion. But we well know that May the Lord by intercession of the Most the only route to happiness is Christ himself. Holy Mother, at this beginning of this period This involves irremovable faithfulness, which of Advent in which I take possession of my is given to us by being based on the solid rock Cardinal deaconry, increase in all of you, and of Christ, who made Peter his representative especially in those who belong to this parish of and visible rock, and John Paul II. St. Michael the Archangel, a special love for This faithful response to all these contempo- the Holy Father, and thus a faithful imitation rary questions, this response that parents must of his ministry as the rock of the unity and give from the beginning of the lives of their strength in the Church! children, and which afterwards they must con- I repeat once again that I feel very honoured 12 tinue together with schools and the Church, is to have received this parish, and thus all of the strength that Roman Catholics learn from you, as a Cardinal deaconry entrusted to me by their Bishop, the principle of strength of the the Holy Father to represent him amongst you. whole of the Catholic Church. May God help you with all His blessings and In this way you, Romans, will be worthy of graces, and may St. Michael the Archangel, the statement made by St. Ignatius of Antioch your patron saint, protect your families and in the year 106 AD: ‘Neminem umquam in- continue to be your guardian throughout the vidisti, alios docuisti, ego vero quoque forma whole of your loves! Amen. esse volo quod docetis et praecepitis’.1 He was referring to the Church in Rome, and after His Eminence Cardinal JAVIER LOZANO BARRAGÁN praising it because he presided over it from President of the Pontifical Council within the region of the Romans, he spoke for Health Pastoral Care about his communion with it: as it had as a The Holy See bishop a successor of Peter, whom its members followed, he was the source from which Nota sprang the doctrinal strength of the Church. 1 RJ 53; MG 65,688.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Topics

Respect and Lack of Respect for the Disabled Person in Contemporary Culture

Illness, Suffering and the Cross as Places of Encounter and New Evangelisation Respect and Lack of Respect for the Disabled Person in Contemporary Culture*

The resolution passed by the for, mentally disabled people, They lived is an economy general assembly of the United who were seen as ‘brothers and described as a ‘pure subsis- Nations which established lords’. They slowly penetrated tence economy’, and as a result 1981 as the ‘international year the minds and the behaviour of there were no cultural, politi- of handicapped people’ with the human communities that cal, religious or other institu- the slogan ‘full participation they touched, and imposed tions. During this age what and equality’1 definitively themselves on, the attention of consideration could be felt for knocked down that wall of sep- the general public. a member of a family who was aration and civil loneliness of handicapped? One need only millions of citizens for whom imagine. ‘culture’ since time immemori- The stages of a change Roundabout the date indicat- al had represented a kind of in- ed in the previous paragraph, tellectual process of being shut Placing my trust in experts human society engaged in a up in a ghetto. and researchers in the field of notable leap forward by be- 14 This was a slow but constant history, I think that it is advis- coming transformed from a process and according to some able to engage in a brief survey ‘hunter and gatherer’ society this radical change began of how the way in which man into an agricultural society. about two hundred years ago,2 lives and sees things changes The ‘Neolithic revolution’ in- when at the height of the and becomes adapted to new volved populations that learnt French Revolution of 1848 the realities and needs in a way to cultivate the land and to do- ‘law on mental health’ was that is conditioned by the evo- mesticate animals, thereby lay- passed. lution of the habitat in which ing the foundations for a new In my opinion this first ef- he is immersed. way of transforming resources fective and important blow Man writes his own history into more suitable life possibil- against this indecent wall by interacting with nature. The ities, and thus of generating should be shifted back in time. resources that nature possesses wealth. And it is with real pleasure and are there to be transformed into Human society became keenly felt pride that I see our ‘life possibilities’. And it is al- sedentary, creating large urban fellow countryman João Ciu- ways and only man who cre- concentrations and an impor- dad, better known as S. João de ates these ‘possibilities’ by tak- tant ‘culture’ – the economic Deu (St. John of God) as the ing resources as his starting sector – which generated sur- real and first initiator of this point. The ‘resources’ are nat- plus wealth and which is long march when, while at the ural whereas the ‘possibilities’ termed the ‘primary sector’. height of a dramatic personal are cultural and historical.4 This ‘revolution’ lasted a long experience as a patient in a When a human being finds a time because no ‘new discov- hospital, he prayed as follows: new way, or better still, a ‘rev- ery’ intervened in relation to ‘Jesus Christ give me the time olutionary’ way, of transform- the transformation of ‘natural and the grace so that I can have ing natural resources into life resources’. a hospital where I can gather possibilities, he activates an A good and reliable source the abandoned poor and the important cultural and histori- that provides information mentally ill and serve them as I cal change. In a brief fashion I about how this ‘culture’ treated would like…’3 will now follow this historical handicapped people is the He was certainly not the first pathway that man has taken. Holy Bible, which on a num- Good Samaritan in history but First of all there was ‘prehis- ber of occasions refers to con- he was certainly the first to cre- toric society’, which lasted for temporary behaviour and be- ate a stable organisation of about three million years. liefs. men consecrated to God who From the origins of human so- By way of example, we may thought and acted as he did, ciety until about 10,000/6,000 refer to the meeting between and who were also well trained BC the populations of this era Jesus and ‘the man blind from professionally and in the name did not know how to transform birth’. The question of the dis- of the ‘Good News’ brought to resources into possibilities, and ciples – ‘Rabbi, who sinned, he the ‘old world’ and the newly as a result they did not know or his parents, that he was born discovered so-called ‘new how to create wealth. They blind?’ – reveals to us in an un- world’ a new revolutionary ap- were more what one might call equivocal way what the belief proach towards, and esteem predators on natural resources. of the time was. This belief

* Address given by His Eminence Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, on the occasion of the seventeenth national meeting on pastoral care in health dedicated to the subject ‘the disabled person in our society’, Fatima, 25-28 November 2003

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 was also born out, or rather ex- gine of this economy and the activity that have made possi- pressed in exaggerated form, producer of wealth, an idea ble the march forward of pro- by the reaction of the Pharisees that in turn generated a new found changes. to the ironic observations of view of health – ‘health as a As regards the field of health the man who had been cured: commodity of consumption’. and health care, we can ob- ‘what, they answered, are we This was an important step serve that today the ‘welfare to have lessons from thee, all but perhaps one that had little state’ sees health as ‘wellbe- steeped in sin from thy birth? that was ‘human’ about it. ing’, and the World Health Or- And they cast him out from However, this was the launch ganisation has defined health their presence’ (Jn 9:2-34). pad which set in motion the as a ‘state of perfect, physical, This was a culture, unfortu- process of adaptation of ‘cul- mental and social wellbeing nately, which lasted for a long ture’ to the ‘human’ model of and not the mere absence of ill- time, abandoning itself to fan- things: it became interested in ness’. tastic and imaginary reasons the members of society be- that provided explanations for cause after a certain fashion the presence of handicap. they belonged to the sphere of Handicapped people today It was only in the middle of ‘consumption’. the eighteenth century, with the Described in such terms, this The most recent statistics of so-called ‘industrial revolu- does not inspire noble motiva- the relevant organisations tell tion’, that a significant change tions! However, it created the us that there are more than six took place in this area. This path by which to reach objec- hundred million people with profound transformation oc- tives that are very human and some form of handicap on the curred when man replaced hu- began a process of strong soli- planet, that is to say about 10% man or animal traction with darity and attention towards of the world’s population. Of 15 mechanical traction in the people who are handicapped. these, two-thirds live in devel- world of production, and creat- A notable advance took oping countries. And only 2% ed increasingly advanced ma- place after the Second World of handicapped children in chines. A society thus came in- War. The international body these countries have access to to existence that was based up- that placed a large number of education or benefit from ser- on the development of the nations around a table, but vices that are suited to their ‘secondary’ economic sector. which unfortunately had not needs.6 As regards the concerns of been able to avoid the terrible The celebration of the ‘inter- this paper, it should be borne in catastrophe of the war, was national year of disabled peo- mind that during this period ple’ in 1981 necessarily se- ‘health care’ also changed as a cured the attention of individ- result of two principal new de- ual communities and set in mo- velopments. On the one hand, tion an unstoppable chain reac- there was the placing of hospi- tion. tal care within the realm of The beginning of this path- medicine with the result that way towards that special ‘inter- hospitals moved from being national year’ can be located in charitable institutions to being the year 1971 and the resolu- centres of medical care. On the tion of the general assembly of other hand, there was the birth the United Nations which was of public health care and of entitled in French ‘déclaration health care policies, and thus des droits du deficient mental’.7 the increasing involvement of Article 1 of this declaration the state in the world of health states categorically that these and health care.5 people have the same funda- At this time ‘health’ was mental rights as all other hu- seen as a commodity of produc- man beings. It then goes on to tion: the healthy man could list those rights that have an es- work; the sick man could not! pecial importance for these After the First World War, people, for example education, human society took another professional training, and reha- step forward and generated the bilitation. The general assem- ‘post-industrial revolution’ af- transformed into the present- bly said that it was aware of the ter the creation of the motor day United Nations Organisa- need to protect the interests of engine and thus the intensive tion – the UN. Over the years these people and that it was al- use of oil. this organisation has expanded so ready to appoint a tutor who The revolutionary way of its membership and it may now could express their require- transforming natural resources be said that it contains all the ments and needs. into life possibilities, on a scale representatives of the nations A subsequent resolution of never before imagined, that that now exist in the world. the United Nations speeded up this involved, led to the so- This has generated a long se- the advance – the ‘déclaration called ‘tertiary sector or ser- ries of specialised offices with- sur les droits des personnes vice sector’ economy. in the UN concerned with the handicapèes’ of 9 December ‘Consumption’ was the en- individual spheres of human 1975.8

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Together with the statement ‘culture of the economy’ that défenseurs et les organismes that these people have the has been indicated in this paper qui les représentent doivent same civil and political rights as ‘the tertiary sector or ser- participer activement avec les as other human beings (par. 4), vices sector’, which sees Etats à la planification et à la it lists the economic and social ‘health as a commodity of con- mise en oeuvre de toutes les rights that have a special im- sumption’. This is in order to mesures ayant des incidences portance for the development give peace of mind to those sur leurs droits civils, poli- of their capacities and their so- people who are closely linked tiques, économiques, sociaux cial integration (par. 6) and to disabled people through et culturels…’12 states that they have the right family ties. to see their own needs and re- This would be without doubt quirements taken into consid- an act of justice, but also an act The ‘cultural’ change: eration at all levels of econom- of great intelligence, because the new paradigm ic and social planning (par. 8). in this way this ‘work force’ 1981 witnessed an irre- would be maintained in good At this historical moment, versible development and the shape. Otherwise, for obvious this approach involving care move from a model based up- reasons, the disabled people for disabled people and their on ‘protection’ to a model belonging to it would be re- integration into human society based upon ‘rights’. duced in numbers – if not actu- constitutes a positive answer to In 1982 the United Nations ally condemned to a forced the question posed in the title proclaimed the decade 1983- suspension of work – with seri- of this paper, that is to say the 1992 the ‘international decade ous damaging effects for the question of ‘respect’. of the disabled’ with a resolu- economy. The international agree- 16 tion entitled ‘le programme ments of the member States of d’action mondial concernant the United Nations, which pro- les handicapées’.9 duce laws in their own respec- This ‘international decade’ tive countries, are an effective finished with the creation of vehicle for the generation of the ‘world day of the disabled’ cultural changes in their own which was to be celebrated on societies. 3 December of every year.10 In those countries that rapid- This resolution invited all the ly adapted themselves, the en- governments of the member forcement of a law that recog- States to celebrate this ‘world nises disabled people as people day’ by engaging in suitable who contribute in potential initiatives to make the whole of terms to the economic and so- their populations aware of the cial growth and development advantages and benefits that of the whole nation sets in mo- would accrue to all people and tion the possibility of gradually to society as a whole through eliminating the preconceived the integration of disabled peo- idea that they are passive re- ple in all spheres of social, eco- ceivers and a burden on society nomic and political life. as a whole. Laws, however, on In addition, it asserted the their own, do not eliminate the need to ensure that disabled propensity of people to engage people and their organisations in discrimination towards their take part in all the decisions The eighty-eighth general neighbours. that affect them, including the assembly of the United Na- ‘Change requires liberation organisation of their own tions therefore: ‘Exhorte les from the past; freeing our- ‘world day’. It also invited gouvernements, les organisa- selves from attitudes and ideas people to find a way to link its tions intergouvernementales et that for far too long a time have celebration every year to an les organisations non gou- described disabled people in a important international event, vernementales à accorder une mistaken way. The advance of and listed some such events protection spéciale aux filles change is slow because it re- that were to take place shortly et aux femmes handicapées, quires each one of us personal- afterwards. aux personnes âgées handi- ly to bury our own prejudices, Since then until the present capées et aux personnes souf- our own fears, and our own day, general assemblies of the frant d’incapacités liées au severities. United Nations have been con- développement et de troubles However, in the contempo- cerned with this field and have mentaux, l’idée étant de les in- rary era this has become a passed important resolutions tégrer dans la société et de strong active proposal. Perhaps directed towards removing protéger et promouvoir leurs the change from commisera- every obstacle to the imple- droits fondamentaux’.11 In the tion to acceptance, from igno- mentation of the rights that ‘Régles pour l’égalisation de rance to knowledge, and from have been recognised. chances des handicapés’, it not doing to doing, is more sig- Special emphasis should be wrote, ‘Soulignant à nouveau nificant. The basis of the hope given to those measures that que les handicapés, leurs père of every disabled person and of are clearly located within that et mère, leurs tuteurs, leurs the members of his or her fam-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 ily is provided by this slow but et de vaincre la discrimination The ethical imperative constant change’.13 à l’égard des handicapés et de of ‘respect’ This lucid analysis by Msgr. promouvoir leur participation Cribbin, the director of the Na- intégrale et effective à la so- Unfortunately, and not with- tional Catholic Office of the ciété’.15 standing the notable radical United States of America, The production of literature change that has taken place at should be fully supported. on this field is vast and ranges high levels, such as the United However, one cannot deny from highly specialised litera- Nations, one has to observe that radical changes have taken ture of a technical and legisla- that a ‘counter-culture’ against place in ‘culture’. It is no small tive kind to literary works de- ‘differently abled’ people con- thing to observe that in lan- signed to sensitive people in tinues to exist. guage as well there has been a this field. This is a reality which was constant attempt to utilise more In recent decades well- realistically described by the suitable phrases. Today ‘differ- known figures, rendered ‘dif- document issued by the Secre- ently abled’ predominates, ferently abled’ because of acci- tariat of State of the Holy See which is not only an example dents of various kinds, have for the international year of the of ‘politically correct’ lan- had a notable impact and com- disabled of 1981: ‘even the guage but also an indicator of manded attention. Public opin- best legislation, however, runs the arduous search for a termi- ion has not been indifferent to the risk of not having an im- nology that brings out the what happened to a ‘Formula pact on the social context or of progress that society is achiev- 1’ driver who had won the not bearing all its fruit if it is ing in relation to people who in world championship on a num- not taken on board by the per- some way have a physical or ber of occasions, or to what be- sonal conscience of citizens mental limitation. fell a prominent basketball and the collective conscience 17 The reality of the incalcula- player because of a simple fall, of society’. ble number of non-governmen- or to the fate of a film star who ‘Handicapped people, their tal organisations that are com- had previously played the part families and their relatives are mitted to defending the rights superman (also because of a a part of the great human fami- of ‘differently abled’ people simple fall), or to the destiny of ly. However great, unfortunate- and to supporting them in all a young English star of a song ly, their number may be, they their actions has been an incon- festival for young people who constitute a minority group trovertible sign of an extended was struck by a moment of dis- within the community. Be- and limitless radical change in traction while she was in a car cause of this sole fact alone, ‘culture’. These NGOS are that was moving slowly. And the danger exists that they will much to be praised and have a one could go on with the list not win sufficient attention. To great power of penetration, and refer to many others who this may be added the fre- things recognised by the Unit- have met with similar misfor- quently spontaneous reaction ed Nations which has officially tune. of a community that psycho- stated – when observing the These are dramatic stories logically rejects and represses large number of initiatives in about people, about popular what does not fit into its cus- this field that are now under- idols, who in a few minutes toms and habits. Man does not way – that in addition to being lost their power and shook want to be confronted with the work of governmental or- consciences by drawing atten- forms of existence that visibly ganisations this is also the tion to a reality that is near in reflect the negative aspects of work ‘ainsi que par les organi- physical terms but so very dis- life. And thus originates the sations non gouvernementales, tant from people’s minds and phenomenon of marginalisa- pour renforcer les droits des hearts. tion and discrimination as a handicapés et promouvoir l’é- And if we also want to cast a sort of mechanism of rejection galisation des chances des glance at the visual media, at and defence. However, man handicapés par eux-mêmes, cinema and television, we can and society are really human pour eux-mêmes et avec leur observe a slow but constant when they enter a conscious concours, dans tous les change which has shifted away and willed process of accep- secteurs de la société’.14 from the long years of a pre- tance, as well, of weakness, of And the UN believes that sentation designed to remove solidarity, and of participation, this is especially important as ‘pity’, if not commiseration, to even in the sufferings of their regards advancing public opin- move towards presenting peo- neighbour. Thus the reaction to ion in this area: ‘Encourage les ple who are well integrated in- this tendency of rejection and gouvernements et les organisa- to daily life and often have defence must take the form of tions intergouvernementales et highly specialised tasks that educating people.’16 non gouvernementales à con- frequently solve dramatic situ- Educating and sensitising is tinuer à prendre des mesures ations. This is certainly fiction the constant concern of the in- pratiques, notamment des cam- but it is clearly useful in modi- ternational bodies when they pagnes d’information menées fying some people’s attitudes, legislate in favour of the dis- par les handicapés, pour les people who are not inclined to abled. We may quote the whole handicapés et avec leur con- take on board the messages of the following paragraphs: cours, afin de faire mieux con- that the international commu- ‘2. Les Etats devraient lancer naître et comprendre les ques- nity has been sending over re- et appuyer des campagnes tions d’invalidité, de combattre cent decades. d’information sur les handi-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 capés et sur les politiques this sensitive reality as well, only the individuals of a soci- adoptées en leur faveur qui which is a ‘daily co-existence’, ety or of a country but the propagent l’idée que les handi- much depends on this ‘life pos- whole of mankind, both now capés ont les mêmes droits et sibility’ produced by ‘natural and in the future. Lastly, it is les mêmes obligations que resources’, and it is certainly also a medical theory. Indeed, leurs concitoyens, ce qui justi- the case that if it is not directed the Hastings Centre has been fie les mesures visant à lever towards producing ‘peace and working in recent years on a les obstacles à leur intégra- serenity’ in the human consor- project called ‘sustainable tion. — 3. Les Etats devraient tium it will not perform any health’. encourager les médias à part of its primary purpose. Sustainable growth must of présenter les handicapés sous necessity be global. Hence the un jour favorable; les organi- importance acquired by the sations représentant les in- A ‘third industrial concept of globalisation dur- téressés devraient être con- revolution’? ing this stage’.19 sultées sur ce point. — 4. Les How can today’s ‘culture’, Etats devraient faire en sorte Experts and researchers in which is with so much difficul- que les programmes d’instruc- world economics have for ty securing respect for the dif- tion publique reflètent sous some time been giving voice to ferently abled person, seek to tous leurs aspects les principes warnings about the excessive maintain that respect in the d’intégration et d’égalité.’17 use of ‘human resources’. presence of this worrying fu- And this is also your con- Since November 1971 there ture scenario hanging over hu- cern, as the Director of the has existed a report signed by man society? Commissão Nacional da Pas- the so-called ‘Club of Rome’. 18 toral da Saude tells us: ‘there Its title is ‘the limits to are still many people who cul- growth’. This report calls at- ‘A Christian revolution’ tivate exclusion, at the same tention to the excessive ex- time excluding themselves ploitation of resources and thus This survey of the major from problematic reality, and to a fall in quality of life. In stages that have marked the they are afraid to show them- some quarters reference is historical evolution and devel- selves and to participate, and made to the advent of the ‘third opment of man and his way of they want at the same time to industrial revolution’, piloted relating to his fellow men, exclude those people who have and directed by the electronic even though necessarily car- small disabilities’. and the digital, which should ried out in a rapid way, has These pockets of resistance, begin the stage of ‘sustainable brought out that the end is not even though they are large in development’. political but existential because number, cannot weaken the In 1991 the study group re- it reveals the discovery of new ‘culture of respect for differ- ferred to above issued ‘another ways of transforming natural ently abled people’ that has report with the title ‘beyond resources into life possibilities now become established in our limits’. According to its thesis, during different periods of his- society. We should, if this is mankind has gone beyond the tory. possible, think of new and limits of growth, and at the There is a non-political such more effective strategies present time is immersed in a discovery dedicated to trans- which, even if they do not development that cannot be forming ‘natural resources’, eliminate these pockets of re- sustained infinitely or for much which for two thousand years sistance, will at least make longer’.18 have been transforming ‘hu- them more visible and above This hypothesis, which pre- man resources’, understood as all not in the least harmful to dicts the non-sustainability of ‘persons’, into ‘quality of life the exercise of acknowledged the development of the first possibilities beyond all barri- human rights and to the world and the underdevelop- ers’. achievement of the psycholog- ment of the third world, pro- This was the discovery inau- ical peace not only of individ- poses a global change towards gurated by Jesus Christ, the ual disabled people but also to so-called ‘sustainable develop- Word made Flesh, who, in re- all of that part of the human ment’. sponse to being asked which family which gravitates around This is certainly an ‘eco- was the greatest command- them. nomic theory’ but it is also a ment, answered: ‘Thou shalt In this undertaking the mass political theory, and one which love thy God with thy whole media must be very good alis from certain points of view heart and thy whole soul and lies. We should lower the im- worrying. For this reason, the thy whole mind. This is the position of the efficiency-wor- United Nations has adopted it greatest of the commandments, shipping model of humans as its own political philosophy. and the first. And the second, with the potential of superman! But this theory is not only this; its like, is this, thou shalt love We should lower the exalted it is much more because it nec- thy neighbour as thyself. On tones of supreme beauty at any essarily touches upon the these two commandments, all cost, which is seen as the only sphere of ethics. the law and the prophets de- way of ensuring that one is ap- ‘The doctrine of sustainable pend’ (Mt 22:37-40). preciated and valued. development affirms that in de- It was the Teacher who Is this a utopian dream? Per- cision-making processes one stopped beside the paralytic haps…but in this ‘culture’, in should take into account not who had been at the side of the

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 pool of Bethsaida for thirty- those who have met the Lord real opportunity to play an ac- eight years because he had and radiate that witness from tive role in the family, society found no kindly person who person to person, from family and the Church… would put him in the waters to to family, and from community The disabled person, there- reacquire his physical force; to community. fore, should not be left alone. the Teacher who said to him: We can say that we are privi- No one more than the Christian ‘rise up. Take up thy bed, and leged to live at a time when hu- is able to understand the duty walk’ (cf. Jn 5:1-18). man society has finally recog- of engaging in such an altruis- It was the was the man who nised, and legislated to the ef- tic action. Indeed, St. Paul, broke through the pressing fect, that ‘differently abled when speaking about the wall that kept him in a chaotic people’ are fully entitled to en- Church, the mystic Body of embrace and paid attention to joy all the rights attributed to Christ, reminds the Christian the imploring voices of the two every member of the human that ‘if one part is suffering, all blind men on the road to Jeri- consortium, and has definitive- the rest suffer with it’ (I Cor cho who were submerged by ly eliminated the concept of 12:26). This revelation illumi- the chorus of the complaining ‘welfarism’. nates human society from on voices of people who were an- A ‘law’, however, is an ele- high as well and makes us un- noyed by their appeals for ment that is extraneous to the derstand that within structures help. human being, and it is not suf- solidarity must be the real gov- ficiently strong to shape and erning criterion of relation- modify his way of relating to ships between individuals and the rest of the world, which is groups… outside him. Strong values are The family, the state and the necessary, values established Church – structures that carry 19 not out of fear but out of love, within them human co-exis- so that there is respect for the tence – are asked to make a spirit of laws. special contribution to ensure A Christian community is that the culture of solidarity de- really active in this sphere to velops and disabled people can the extent to which it manages become authentic and free pro- to be a witness to the mission tagonists of their own exis- of Jesus Christ: communicat- tence’.20 ing the joyous new that God the Father takes care of each one of His creatures, that He Conclusion lives amongst them, and that He kneels before each creature And it is on the basis of who suffers more than others. these indications of the Magis- Because we are immersed in terium of the Holy Father that this world, and we have as our we can formulate some lines companions on our journey, for action. and in the construction of the – Always, everywhere, and human community people, in all cases our action should who use a different terminolo- involve an affirmation and a gy, we may say that the differ- defence of the fact that every ently abled person needs soli- ‘differently abled person’ en- These brief references do not darity, co-participation and joys all the rights that are at- in the least seek to say some- sharing. tributed to every member of thing new; everything that In ending the proceedings of the human society. could be known is known. the seventh international con- – Our actions should gener- They are only a brief invitation ference organised by the Pon- ate and develop concrete to subject what is known to a tifical Council for Health Pas- ‘equal opportunities’ where more careful analysis and re- toral Care on the subject ‘dis- disabled people can place at flection. abled people in society’, the the service of the community Both so that the Christian Holy Father John Paul II said: the qualities and talents of community can be purified ‘although in this field much which they are the bearers both within of elements that disturb has been done notwithstanding in professional contexts and behaviour that is consistent the difficulties and the obsta- (even more) in moral and reli- with what the Divine Teacher cles, much remains to be done gious contexts, where, indeed, meant by that commandment, so that the cultural, social and they have a special sensitivity and so that the Christian com- architectural barriers that pre- and capacity when it comes to munity can ask itself about vent disabled people from understanding the deep and how it can have an even more reaching their legitimate aspi- founding values of human be- ‘incisive’ impact on contempo- rations can be definitively ings. rary ‘culture’. overcome. We should act so – The Christian community Evangelisation does not seek that they feel welcomed into should be permeated by that to invent strategies – it is the the community to full effect ‘charity’ described in such visi- witness to life and hope of because they have been given a ble terms by St. Paul: ‘if one

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 part is suffering, all the rest ciety, cancelling thereby the 3 F. DI CASTRO, Storia della vita e sante opere di Giovanni di Dio (Ediz. suffer with it’ (I Cor 12:26). voice that gave rise to the ‘wel- Fatebenefratelli, Milan, 1989), p. 52. Charity is not ‘pityism’! fare’ model. 4 D.G. GUILLEN, ‘Medicina e cambia- This term, even though inap- Given that this conference is mento culturale’, Dolentium Hominum, n. 46 p. 51, Pont.Cons. Pastorale della propriately used, refers to a celebrated within the frame- Salute, Vatican City, 2001. false feeling of participation in work of the ‘European Year of 5 Idem, p. 55. the suffering of other people. the Disabled’, we would do 6 Cf. G. QUINN and T. DEGENER, ‘Droits de l’homme et invalidité’, HC- The charity of the Christian is well not to forget the incontro- NUDH (Edit. Nations Unies, New York the charity indicated by St. vertible historical fact of two and Geneva, 2002), p. 1 Paul: ‘Rejoice with those who thousand years of the presence 7 Résolution 2856 (XXVI) de l’Assemblée générale de Nations Unies, rejoice, mourn with the mourn- of that ‘charity’ that has been 20 décembre 1971. er’ (Rom 12:15). described in this paper and 8 Résolution 3447 (XXX) de l’Assem- Because of the ‘service’ that which permeated human soci- blée générale de Nations Unies, 9 décem- bre 1975. was entrusted to me by the ety by placing its roots in the 9 Résolution 37/52 de l’Ass. gén. de Holy Father, I know about ex- minds and the hearts of the N.U., 3 décembre 1982. tensive evidence concerning members of that society. 10 Résolution 47/3 de l’Ass. gén. de N.U., 14 octobre 1992. brothers and sisters who, in 11 Résolution 56/115 de l’Ass. gén. de these last two centuries in par- His Eminence Cardinal N.U., 19 décembre 2001, n. 12. ticular, have exalted this ‘char- JOSÉ SARAIVA MARTINS, 12 Résolution 48/96 op.cit., Annexe – Prefect of the Congregation for the Préambule. ity’ and thereby made them- 13 T.F. CRIBBIN, ‘Affermazione per un selves credible witnesses be- Doctrine of the Faith, cambiamento”, Dolentium Hominum n. cause they made the love of The Holy See. 22, p. 118, Pont. Cons. Pastorale della Salute, Vatican City, 1993. Christ for creatures who are 14 Résolution 56/115 de l’Ass. gén. de 20 forgotten and abandoned by N.U., 19 décembre 2001, n. 1. human society an ‘existential 15 Idem, n. 6. 16 Secretariat of State, ‘To All Who dimension’ of their own. Notes Work for the Disabled’, Holy See, 4 May God be thanked that to- March 1981, Enchiridion Vaticanum n. 7 day the people who rule over 1 General Assembly U.N., Resolution (EDB, Bologna, 1982), pp. 1138-1170. 31/123 of 16 December 1976. 17 Résolution 48/96 op.cit., I. Condi- and guide States have legislat- 2 Résolution 48/96 de l’Assemblée tions préalables à la participation dans ed to the effect that the ‘differ- générale de Nations Unies, 20 décember l’égalité, Regle 1. Sensibilisation, §. 2-4. ently abled person’ has the full 1993 – Annexe, “Regles pour l’égalisa- 18 D.G. GUILLEN, op.cit. p. 57. tion des chances des handicapés”, Intro- 19 Ibidem. ‘right’ to enjoy the ‘civil duction – Historique et conjoncture 20 Dolentium Hominum, n. 22, p. 8, rights’ of every member of so- actuelle, n. 3. Vatican City, 1993.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Illness, Suffering and the Cross as Places of Encounter and New Evangelisation*

INTRODUCTION no real evangelisation unless from Jesus when in the syna- one proclaims the name, the gogue of Nazareth he pro- My paper is divided into teaching, the life and the mys- claims: ‘The Spirit of the Lord three parts. In the first part I tery of Christ. Such a procla- is upon me; he has anointed will try to describe what evan- mation provokes in the person me, and sent me out to preach gelisation is, its context, and its who is listening to it a conver- the gospel to the poor, to re- purpose. In the second part I sion, an adherence (Evangelii store the broken-hearted; to bid will direct attention to the Nuntiandi, 23 and 24). the prisoners go free, and the meaning of the new evangeli- d. To evangelise is to give blind have sight; to set the op- sation and its connections with concreteness to witness, to pressed at liberty, to proclaim a the world of the sick. In the commit oneself with one’s own year when men find accep- third part I will present a num- life, to celebrate the Word of tance with the Lord’ (Lk 4:18- ber of texts of the Church that God, to participate in it (faith is 19). point out that suffering is a commitment and mission: one b. The Good News that place of encounter. In the lives, one celebrates, and one comes from Jesus when in or- 21 fourth part, which is longer participates). der to accredit his evangelising than the others, I intend to e. The person who has been mission, his messianic and bring out how the Good News evangelised becomes in his or salvific presence, he says to passes by way of the cross her turn an evangeliser – he or the disciples of John: ‘Go and through suffering both in the she is an apostle, a witness. preaching and the reality of Christ and in the new historical phase, that is to say in our time, 2. One evangelises which must undergo a retrieval in many ways2 of the original flame. In this way, suffering and illness are a a. Evangelisation by procla- place of encounter, a moment mation: ‘the kingdom of God of conversion and of salvation. is near at hand, repent’ (Mk 1:14-15); Jesus with the Samaritan woman (Jn 4) and with the disciples of Emmaus PART ONE: (Lk 24). EVANGELISATION: b. Evangelisation by calling: METHODS ‘invite (everyone) to the wed- AND PURPOSE ding’ (Mt 22:9). c. Evangelisation by attrac- ‘And he sent them out to pro- tion: without missionaries be- claim the kingdom of God, and ing sent out, the crowd ran to heal the sick’(Lk 9:1-6). there (Acts 5:16). d. Evangelisation by irradia- 1. What evangelisation is1 tion: ‘like a burning lamp’ (Jn 5:35); ‘you must let them see a. To evangelise is to bring from your honourable behav- the Gospel – the Good News – iour what you are; they will tell John what your own ears the Good Announcement praise God for you’ (1 Pt 2:12). and eyes have witnessed; how (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 18). e. Evangelisation by conta- the blind see, and the lame b. To evangelise is to pro- gion: ‘came to bring fire’ (Lk walk, how the lepers are made claim with one’s life (the silent 12:49); ‘win them over… by clean, and the deaf hear, how proclamation), and with wit- example’ (1 Pt 3:1-2). the dead are raised to life, and ness, this salvific presence of the poor have the gospel God (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 21). preached to them. Blessed is c. To evangelise is to reveal 3. So that everyone may be the man who does not lose what is hidden, to proclaim it saved: this is the Good confidence in me’ (Mt 11:4-6). through speech, to give reasons News of the Gospel c. The Good News comes for our having hope (Evangelii from Jesus as the Gospels Nuntiandi, 22). There can be a.The Good News that comes themselves bear out in practi-

* Address given by His Excellency Msgr. José Luis Redrado, O.H., Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, on the occasion of the National Meeting of the Diocesan Delegates, Madrid, September 2003.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 cal fashion: ‘And when the sun my blood for the new and eter- ing the Novena for the prepara- was going down, all those who nal covenant, shed for you and tions for, and celebration of, had friends afflicted with dis- for everyone as a remission of the fifth centenary of the evan- eases of any kind brought sins’. gelisation of the fontinent of them to him: and he laid his South America (cf. Giovanni hands upon each one of them, Paolo II, ‘Fedeltà al passato di and healed them’ (Lk 4:40). fede, sguardo alle sfide del pre- ‘Listen all those who have ears PART TWO: sent, impegno per una nuova to hear with’ (Mk 4:23). ‘And THE NEW evangelizzazione’, in Insegna- they anxiously said to one an- EVANGELISATION menti, VII, 2 (1984), pp. 885- other, we have brought no 897). bread. Jesus knew it, and said, 1. The first person to speak Since then, this illuminating what is this anxiety, that you about a ‘new evangelisation’ reference has become increas- have brought no bread with was His Holiness John Paul II. ingly frequent in the Magis- you? Have you no sense, no He referred to it for the first terium of John Paul II, as well wits, even now?’ (Mk 8:16- time during his first apostolic as during the recent synods 17). visit to Poland, on 9 June and in many actions by bish- d. The proclaiming of the 1979, when speaking in Nowa ops’ conferences.3 Gospel is joined to the actions Huta: ‘The new cross of wood and presence of Jesus amongst has been raised not far from 2. ‘Vatican Council II’, Pope the sick, an almost inter- here… With it we have given John Paul II said in 1985, ‘was a sign, which is that on the the foundation and the launch threshold of the new millenni- of a gigantic work of evangeli- 22 um… the Gospel is pro- sation of the modern world… claimed once again. A new What is the ‘new evangelisa- evangelisation has begun, al- tion’ and what is it not? The most as though there was a new evangelisation is first of second proclaiming, even all a movement that concerns though in reality it has always the Church herself, her inner- been the same… And we ask most identity. It is above all everyone that it should bear else the affirmation of the pri- fruit, like the first – indeed, macy of evangelisation in rela- even more’ (Insegnamenti di tion to all the other tasks of the Giovanni Paolo II, II/I (1979), Church. It is not a new p. 1505 s., cf. La Civiltà Cat- ‘gospel’, nor is it, as some have tolica VI (1991), pp. 325-336). wanted to see it, an adjustment, The Pontiff spoke about the an adaptation of the Gospel to new evangelisation in a broad- the modern age. What is new er way in two addresses given does not regard the contents of in Latin America. In the ad- the gospel message, which are dress to the nineteenth assem- unchanging, but concerns the bly of the CELA (Port-au- language, the actions, and the Prince, Haiti, 9 March 1983), methods of the apostolate’.4 John Paul II said that the commemoration in 1992 of the 3. It will always be a new fifth centenary of the evangeli- evangelisation – because of its sation of Latin America, which freshness, its contemporary began with the discovery of relevance and its witness: minable list indeed: the blind, that continent, would obtain evangelisation amongst the the deaf, the dumb, lepers… full meaning only if it were a least amongst us, the sick, and (Mt 14:34-36; 15:29-31; Mk ‘commitment’ of everyone – those in need. 6:53-56). bishops, archbishops, and the A modern author describes e. Good News for the salva- faithful: ‘A commitment, not to the policy of preferential love tion of everyone. In the preface a re-evangelisation but to a for the poor within a culture of to the Eucharistic Prayer we new evangelisation. New in its solidarity in the following read: ‘In him you manifested ardour, in its methods, in its ex- way:5 ‘Gospel-based charity to us your love for the small pression’ (Giovanni Paolo II, privileges service to ‘the least and the poor, for the sick and ‘Discorso alla Assemblea Or- of our brethren’5 and is always the excluded. He never closed dinaria del CELAM, Port-au- addressed to the person and himself to the needs and the Prince, Haiti’, in Insegnamenti, not only to his needs. It is, suffering of brethren. By his VI, 1 (1983), pp. 696-699. His therefore, committed to con- life and words he proclaimed Holiness then took up the sub- stant welcoming and conver- to the world that you are the ject again in his addresses to sion; to meeting the new forms Father and he took care of all the bishops of Peru of 2 Febru- of marginalisation and poverty your children’. And in the con- ary 1985 and 15 May 1988). that are spreading; to a taking secration of the wine the John Paul II returned to the on by the community of the Church remembers the words idea in Santo Domingo on 12 option for the poorest; and to a of Jesus: ‘This is the chalice of October 1984 when inaugurat- universal broadening of that

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 choice to contribute to the in- they are good news. new its own faith and its own stalling in the world of the ‘In the same way is re- love. ‘civilisation of love’. Today, quired, from the point of view Illness is a suitable time for given the worldwide dimen- of evangelisation and witness, the Christian community as sion that the social question the presence of the so-called well, which can exercise the has taken on, this preferential ‘works of charity’ managed by values of solidarity and wel- love, with the decisions that it the Church through so many coming or faith shared in inspires in us, cannot but em- religious institutes or groups of prayer. brace the immense multitudes members of the laity. These Illness is a special time for of the hungry, of beggars, of works should, however, not be the homeless, who are without understood in terms of mere medical care and above all else substitutive ‘social care’, or without hope that there will be even worse, be seen as being for them a better future – one in competition with the social cannot but take into account works of civil society or the these realities’.7 The following state. They should be seen in paragraph written by Pope their full meaning, referred to John Paul II is magnificent:8 by Vatican Council II as well: ‘‘Master, where do you ‘While every exercise of apos- live?’ tolate must draw its origins ‘Come and you will see’. and vigour from charity, some You will meet Jesus where men works, those that Christ the suffer and hope: in the small Lord wanted to be signs of his villages spread throughout the messianic mission, by their 23 continents of the world, appar- very nature are destined to be- ently on the margins of history, come a vivid expression of as Nazareth was when God charity.’ The works of the sent his angel to Mary; in the Church, therefore, are by their immense metropolises where nature, witness to the concrete those who work in the hospi- millions of human beings of- nature of charity, a constant tal, and in particular the pas- ten live as foreigners. Every sign of the love of God for all toral workers, and for all man, in reality, is a ‘fellow men: this is the meaning for Christians, because the sick countryman of’ Christ. their existence’.10 person is a ‘sounding board’ Jesus lives next to you, in the Everything speaks to us – for many problems, he is an brethren with whom you share without words (with gestures, occasion for the carrying out daily existence. His face is that with one’s own life) – of the of apostolate. of the poor, of the margin- Good News, that is to say: Je- But above all else illness is alised, the frequent victims of sus passes by and cures; Jesus the time of God. God has His an unjust model of develop- passes by and welcomes; Jesus moments, His plans, and His ment that puts profits first and passes by and saves. means. God repeatedly passes makes man a means rather through the life of man, who at than an end. The home of Je- times, however, is distracted. sus is everywhere that a man In illness he can listen to God suffers because his rights have PART THREE: without there being so much been denied, his hopes be- PLACES OF ENCOUNTER noise around him. By experi- trayed, and his concerns ig- ence we know that illness for nored. There, amongst men, is 1. Illness: An Appropriate many people is a suitable mo- where the home of Christ is to Place of Encounter ment to change one’s life, to be found, and he asks you, in for Evangelisation feel nearer to God, who passes his name, to dry every tear and but does not do so to judge us to remind those who feel alone Illness is an appropriate but to save us. that nobody is ever alone if place of encounter for evange- they place their hope in him’ lisation primarily for the sick (cf. Mt 25:31-46).’ person himself, given that the 2. In the Sick Person ‘Come and you will see’: Je- new situation that he has to ex- and Health Care Centres sus lives in those who are af- perience totally changes his the Church Discovers flicted by cancer, by AIDS, in life, leading him, perhaps, Places of Encounter the dying… from what was major activity and Evangelisation ‘Come and you will see’. to the paralysis of activity, The sick and the health care from not having time to having By apostolic mandate the field are the privileged places every hour available to him to Church, as a community of be- to proclaim the Gospel.9 think, to appreciate, to revisit, lievers, was entrusted with ‘Come and you will see’: the and ‘to live’. ‘caring for the sick’. This care joy and the hope of so many Around the sick person there for the sick cannot be separat- men and women who suffer… is the family, which takes part ed from ‘evangelisation’. The and these men and women, in, and suffers, the same reality very tradition of the Church, these places of suffering are and which, in the illness of its through her Magisterium, real witness of the Gospel, relatives, can find space to re- teaches us:

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 – that service to the sick is Council II, in addition to its ing, welcomed and sustained an integral part of her mission special message to sick people, by granite faith, united to the (Dolentium Hominum, n.1.); called upon both bishops and suffering of Christ acquire an – that the Church looks for priests to have greater care and extraordinary value for the life encounter with man, in partic- concern ‘for the sick and the of the Church and for the good ular through his journey of dying, visiting them and com- of mankind’. suffering. ‘Man becomes the forting them in the Lord’ (PO, During the World Day of way for the Church’, 6; LG, 38). Canon Law (can. Health celebrated in Washing- – that looking after the sick 529, par. 1) itself reminds ton in 2003 John Paul II pro- is a ‘deaconate’ of the local parish priests of their duty to posed to us the following pro- and universal Church. This care for the sick and dying gramme: ‘Catholic hospitals with generous charity. should be centres of life and of Two documents of the pre- hope, where, together with the sent Pontiff, John Paul II, chaplaincies, ethical commit- should be emphasised in par- tees, the training of lay health ticular: Salvificis Doloris and care staff, the humanisation of Dolentium Hominum. The first care and treatment for the sick, is on the Christian meaning of care for their families and a suffering; the second is the special sensitivity towards the Moto Proprio which estab- poor and the marginalised lished the Pontifical Council should also grow. Their pro- for Health Pastoral Care. Both fessional work should be ex- these documents launched a pressed in a concrete way in an 24 new movement as regards pas- authentic witness of charity, toral care for sick people. We bearing in mind that life if a can put the World Day of the gift of God, of which man is Sick side by side with these only the administrator and two works. guarantor’. At the time of the World The World Days of Health Day of the Sick, every year the has given rise within the uni- Holy Father writes a message versal Church to a great move- in which he emphasises in a ment of reflection, prayer and strong way the meaning of suf- action that contribute to the ministry is not confined to her fering and the contribution that recognition of the importance faithful but opens up – must it makes to the new evangeli- of pastoral care in health for open up, out of loyalty to the sation. He refers to health care the Church. Gospel – to all those who suf- centres as places of encounter, Many Bishops’ Conferences fer (Lk 10: 25-37); of life, and of hope, authentic have adhered to the messages – that care for a man in- sanctuaries in which the of the Holy Father by accom- volves his somatic-spiritual paschal mystery is experi- panying them with celebra- unity (DH, n. 2); enced, and in which suitable tions in their own countries. I – that it is, therefore, incum- personnel should never be ab- will reproduce here, because bent on the Christian commu- sent to give their witness of of the force to be found within nity to help the sick person to life, faith, and hope by accom- it, section six of the message liberate himself from every- panying, like the Good Samar- of the Spanish Episcopal Com- thing that prevents suffering itan, the man who suffers. mission on Pastoral Care in from being, for him and for The reader can find all these Health at the time of the World others, ‘a force for redemp- views in the first message, at Day of the Sick of 21 May tion’ (SD, n. 9); the time of the World Day of 1995. It contains the following – that care for the sick is an Health at Lourdes of 1993, and thoughts when referring to the ecclesial ‘deaconate’ that per- in the most recent message for evangelisation of suffering: fectly expresses the Church’s the World Day of Health, ‘To evangelise the world of nature as ‘the universal sacra- which was celebrated in Wash- suffering, for our Christian ment of salvation’ (LG, n. 1). ington in 2003. communities, is a challenge. This care and concern of the During the World Day of We recognise their work, we Church for the sick, witness to Health celebrated in Lourdes encourage them to carry on which, as history demon- on 11 February 1993 the Pope with it with commitment and strates, is not only great in said: ‘Down the centuries we propose the following ac- terms of range but also in splendid pages of heroism in tions, which we believe to be terms of quality, this concern, suffering accepted and offered of primary and urgent impor- and I repeat the point, has been in union with Christ have been tance: repeatedly emphasised by the written. And no less splendid – To educate people to live Magisterium of the Church pages have been traced and take on suffering. ‘It is a over recent years. Pius XII en- through humble service to the part of human experience, and lightened medical science with poor and the sick, in whose it is vain as well as erroneous innumerable addresses which martyred flesh was recognised to seek to censor it and remove at the present time are of great the presence of the poor and it. Each person, instead, must topical relevance. Vatican crucified Christ. Your suffer- be helped to understand, in

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 concrete and hard reality, its glect a third place of encounter PART FOUR: deep mystery’ (Evangelium Vi- with Christ: ‘the persons, espe- THE GOOD NEWS tae, 9). cially the poor, with whom OF JESUS PASSES BY – To renew, in the light of Christ identifies himself”. At WAY OF THE CROSS the Gospel, one’s attitudes and the closing of the Second Vati- to purify language as regards can Council, Pope Paul VI re- The cross speaks to us of one’s own suffering, or that of called that ‘on the face of love and forgiveness. In the other people, so that faith is a every human being, especially ‘madness’ of the cross is the source of strength and not a when marked by tears and suf- victory of love. Jesus, dying on burden in illness. At the pre- ferings, we can and must see the cross, showed us the victo- sent time resignation and the the face of Christ (cf. Mt ry of love. offering of suffering are called 25:40), the Son of Man’’. into question. And in the post-synod apos- Some clarifications – To listen to sick people tolic exhortation Ecclesia in more so that they know what Europa (n. 88) we read: ‘Due The Gospel: Good News, suffering means, spread their importance must also be given God loves me, God saves me. witness and facilitate an inter- to the pastoral care of the sick. But how can the Gospel be change of experiences of faith Since sickness is a situation Good News for the man who in illness. The person who suf- which raises fundamental ques- suffers, for the man who does fers needs models and exam- tions about the meaning of life, not have a home, who does not ples more than he needs ‘in a prosperous and efficient have a job, or for the man who words. society, in a culture character- because of an accident has had – To reawaken and refine ized by idolatry of the body, his leg amputated? Is it Good sensitivity towards one’s dismissal of suffering and pain News as well for the child who 25 neighbour and develop atti- and by the myth of perennial begins his life with an illness tudes marked by nearness and youth’, the care of the sick is to or for a mother with breast assistance (SD, 29). be considered a priority. To this cancer? Is it Good News for a – To promote affective and end, an appropriate pastoral person who is constantly in effective solidarity towards presence needs to be ensured in clinics to be subjected to an sick people. ‘Suffering is pre- the different places where the endless series of tests and who sent in the world to release suffering are found, as for ex- asks himself major questions love in man’ (SD, 29). ample through the committed about his health and does not – Lastly, to recognise and work of hospital chaplains, know what is happening to celebrate the success of sci- members of volunteer associa- him? Is it Good News for the ence in eliminating or alleviat- tions and Church-associated sick man who spends most of ing pain, the innumerable ges- his time in hospital or at home tures of affection, worry and in bed? Is the Gospel, lastly, tenderness of those who care Good News in a home where for the sick, as well as the there is a sick person suffering presence of sacrifice and love from AIDS, a handicapped of families in relation to all person, or a drug addict? It is their loved ones. not easy to answer the very Such pastoral solicitude has many questions of this kind. been equally expressed in a A society which frenetically special way by the Pope in his strives for well-being, for pos- two apostolic exhortations session, for youth and for Christifideles laici (see nn. 53 beauty… a society that con- and 54) and Vita consacrata sumes dugs and cosmetics (see nn. 82 and 83) and more solely to show off for the pur- recently in Ecclesia in Ameri- poses of external image… a ca and Ecclesia in Europa, of society that is in a hurry, a so- which I here propose the fol- ciety of ‘inescapable’ obliga- lowing passages. health care institutions, while tions, a society of stress, of In the post-synod apostolic on the other hand support self-importance, of having to exhortation Ecclesia in Ameri- should be provided for the fam- do so many things, is a society ca (n. 12) we read: ‘The Scrip- ilies of the sick. There is also a that is not ready for difficul- tures and the Eucharist, places need for a suitable pastoral ties, for illness, for suffering, of encounter with Christ, are presence among medical and or for death. These are misfor- evoked in the story of the ap- paramedical personnel, in order tunes that can happen to any- parition of the Risen Jesus to to support them in their de- one, but it is better not to think the disciples of Emmaus. The manding vocation in the ser- about them… and thus when Gospel text concerning the fi- vice of the sick. In their work, they arrive, suddenly every- nal judgment (cf. Mt 25:31- health care personnel daily ren- thing collapses. 46), which states that we will der a noble service to life. They We must, however, proclaim be judged on our love towards too are called to offer patients that the Good News of Jesus the needy in whom the Lord that special spiritual support passes by way of the cross. Jesus is mysteriously present, which builds on the warmth of The cross is not a ‘pole’, it is indicates that we must not ne- an authentic human contact.’ imitation of Christ, it is being a

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 witness, it is being patient and seventy-five); the rate of infant than the latter; at times it is persevering, it is to be unfash- mortality in many countries more Friday than Sunday. The ionable as a result of being in ranges from 100% to 200%. In former, however, does not ex- conformity with the com- the world today there are: ten ist without the latter. In Christ mandment of God: non-com- million epileptics; fifteen mil- both were present and when he prehension and marginalisa- lion lepers; thirty-two million was raised up on the cross it tion are the cross; physical deaf and dumb people; and was not the suffering, the nails, malady is the cross: misfor- fifty million paralytics. 12% of the flagellation, the cross tunes, illness, death, the conse- the world’s population suffers speaking in a material sense quence of our being finite; and from some kind of mental dis- that saved us but his love, the the cross is also the moral evil turbance. To this may be love of God who loves us infi- that our behaviour provokes – added: AIDS, drug addiction, nitely and who in mysterious wars, oppression, the conse- alcoholism, old age, and un- fashion chooses a road that at quence of the bad use that we employment. first sight surprises us, is make of our freedom. As can be observed, this is a something that we do not un- God does not want this long journey, a great pilgrim- derstand, and which to us ap- cross; He does not want this age of the whole of mankind in pears to be a mystery. And evil for us. God is not a sadist the map of the world of suffer- united to this paschal mystery who works against man; God ing; in it there is a universality of Christ is the way in which does not want us to suffer, God that links together individuals the Christian co-suffers, co- is the Father, He is full of love, and whole peoples, the poor dies and co-rises again, there- of mercy, of forgiveness and and the rich, the uneducated by giving meaning to his cross, He does not send us illness. and men of learning, believers to his suffering, because he 26 But man suffers, and how and non-believers. suffers, he dies, and he rises much he suffers! Suffering, enigma, mystery, again with Christ. I have seen many pained and in the face of mystery: si- This ideal is not always faces, faces of suffering. The lence, admiration, a lack of easy. However, in the journey faces of hunger, of poverty, of facts with which to form a of suffering we encounter peo- unemployment, of peoples at judgement; ‘now’ we see in a ple with a great readiness to war; terrorised faces; faces confused way; ‘then’ we see help, who know how to take without an identity, anony- things face to face (I Cor on illness, death, and suffer- mous faces; the faces of deso- 13:12). ing; who have a great inner late mothers, of marginalised Can we liberate ourselves self, and who have a good rela- women; the faces of exploited from suffering? However tionship with themselves and children; the faces of sick peo- much learning we have, how- with other people. ple (who are suffering from ever much love we have for The literature and the exam- cancer, AIDS…); and the faces those who suffer, we can only ples of witness that I have tak- of the dying. alleviate it and at the most only en as an example and a model The statistics, which I call eliminate it in part. during this paper are many in the statistics of shame, of this For this reason, man must number and meaningful. How- immense army of men and give meaning to suffering; he ever, when suffering is experi- women who suffer speak for must know why he suffers and enced in a negative way, in themselves: almost a million how he should suffer so that constant rebellion or in a pas- people live in situations of this reality, which is life, has a sive way, as something that poverty, malnutrition and ill- meaning. The key is love and ‘has to’ happen, then it loses ness; every year forty-six mil- the resurrection. The cross and meaning and value. lion people die; about 850 mil- suffering, without love, have Searching, hope, love and lion people live in zones af- no meaning. Easter Friday the capacity to give meaning flicted by malaria; in many without Easter Sunday has no to our suffering is the strategy countries average life spans do meaning, just as there can be that we have in our hands and not reach the age of fifty no Sunday without Friday. which allows us to participate (when life expectancy today is The phrase ‘the cross/suffer- in a process of transformation ing’ expresses many concepts. and inner growth. We have I do not believe that when they seen this in many experiences: have spoken about the cross how love, solidarity, trust, and the Supreme Pontiffs, or the openness to great values grow! liturgy itself and the messages But at many moments of suf- of the Church, have not had in fering, there is also anger, de- mind that this cross is not only pression, tiredness… For this pain and Easter Friday, but al- reason, it is necessary to trans- so, and above all else, a place form this experience of fragili- of love and a journey towards ty into an area that provides a the resurrection. perspective, a horizon, and a The paschal mystery is the meaning full of life. cross and resurrection; it is Fri- And this space is love; love day and Sunday. At many mo- illuminates, vivifies and gives ments in life, however, man meaning to human suffering. If experiences more the former it is greeted in this way, with

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 faith and love, suffering is News: doors that open, in this sacrifice… Christ invites us to transfigured; it changes, and in life as well, with the key alone offer everything and gives us such a way as to reach joy and of our personal acceptance of the strength to do this. With the action of grace. One can al- the cross and thus of pain. He the impetus of his grace he so praise God with tears in proclaimed this with a small raises us up with him and one’s eyes and suffering in example: the grain of corn that makes us experience the deep one’s body or spirit. ‘Who has to fall to the earth and die joy of being united with him in sows with tears, will reap with in order to bear fruit’ (cf. Jn all the suffering and difficul- joy’ (Psalm 125). 12:24). ties that make us love even ‘We have a treasure, then, in Christ expresses himself more’.11 our keeping, but its shell is of with a great deal of clarity on We see in this statement of perishable earthenware: it this point with his apostles. Christ’s the need to bear in must be God, and not anything And to such an extent that mind the close relationship to ourselves, that gives its sov- when Peter demonstrated great that exists, in the light of the ereign power’ (II Cor 4:7). St. Gospel, between suffering and Paul also turned to the Lord to joy, death and life; and while free him, to alleviate his suf- so many times man can not do fering. But the Lord said to anything to avoid pain, illness him: ‘My grace is enough for and death, Christ proclaims thee; my strength finds its full that we can live out an experi- scope in they weakness’ (II ence of peace and profound Cor 12:9). life in them because of his Your strength is the hand of Cross. Such is the Good News. the Lord: ‘You have fought on Where we are weak we be- 27 earth; I will be your reward’ come strong because of the re- (‘Antifona dell’Ufficio di Let- demptive grace of Christ (cf. II tura, comune di vari martiri’) Cor 12:10). In the light of all these ‘clar- Let us remember a passage ifying’ phrases on the meaning from a speech by a great mas- of suffering, we will have a ter and pastor of the Church: better understand of the texts ‘We celebrate the feast of the of Holy Scripture, of the words holy cross by means of which of the Popes, of the messages the shadows were expelled and of the Church, and of the ex- the light returned… And such amples of witness described in disappointment at hearing that is the richness of the cross that this part of my paper. his master would have to die whoever possesses it has a real and rise again, Christ replied: treasure. And they rightly call ‘Back, Satan; thou art a stone it in this way because in name 1. This Good News of Jesus in my path; for these thoughts and in deed it is the most valu- Passed by Way of thine are man’s, not God’s’ able of all goods. It is in the of the Cross in the First (Mt 16:23). cross that all our salvation re- Evangelisation In commenting on this pas- sides. It is the means and the sage from the gospels, a con- way for the return to the origi- 1.1. Proclaiming and reality temporary journalist made the nal state.’12 in Christ following observations: ‘In the I cannot but reproduce here words of Peter sounded out the certain patristic texts on the In the life of Christ the voice of the tempter who force of the cross. The quota- cross, suffering, is a reality wanted to distance Jesus from tions may be long but it is that was always present. His the will of the Father… Every worthwhile including them be- teaching was marked by an in- time that we reject the cross cause they are very enlighten- vitation to live out a precise with our thoughts or with our ing:13 approach to pain: ‘And he said protests we are subject to the ‘O admirable power of the to all alike, if any man has a dominion of the great adver- cross! O ineffable glory of the mind to come my way let him sary of Christ, Satan… In par- passion! In it we can admire renounce self, and take up his ticular, one understands more the tribunal of the Lord, the cross daily, and follow me’ clearly the strong action of Sa- judgement of the world and (Lk 9:23). tan in this field when one is re- the power of the crucifix… be- Not only does Christ invite minded that Jesus proclaimed cause you, O cross, are now his disciples to ‘take up their his victory over the prince of the source of every blessing cross’ but also tells them that this world through the sacrifice and the origin of every grace. he himself will have to suffer of the cross (Jn 12:31-32). Through you believers find and die for us, for our supreme Through the cross is exercised strength in weakness, glory in good (cf. Lk 9:44); ‘he will a divine strength that attracts opprobrium, life in death it- have to suffer a great deal and men to Christ… Trials can de- self’ (St. Leo the Great). be despised’ (Mk 9:12). And press, but when we recognise ‘Not only must we be this suffering of his opened to the cross in them we are at- ashamed at the death of our us the doors of the Kingdom of tracted to Christ and we hear God and Lord but we must Heaven. Such is the Good the call to join ourselves to his trust in it with all our strength

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 and glorify ourselves in it raised, as a king ascends to his 8:31), who handed ‘him to the above all other things: because chariot drawn by a team of Gentiles to be mocked and in taking death from our four horses, to destroy the dev- scourged and crucified’ (Mt hands, which he found in us, il who held the power of death 20:19).’ he promised us with all his and to free mankind from the ‘599. Jesus’ violent death faithfulness that he would slavery to which he had been was not the result of chance in have given in himself that life subjected by the devil’ (St. an unfortunate coincidence of that we cannot possess in our- Theodore Estudita). circumstances, but is part of selves… We confess, there- ‘Our Lord was trodden over the mystery of God’s plan, as fore, intrepidly, brothers, and by death, but he, in his turn, St. Peter explains to the Jews declare openly, that Christ was trod over death, passing over it of Jerusalem in his first ser- crucified for us: and we do this as though it were a pathway. mon on Pentecost: ‘This Jesus not with fear but with joy, not He subjected himself to death [was] delivered up according with shame but with pride’ (St. and bore it deliberately to de- to the definite plan and fore- Augustine). stroy obstinate death. Indeed, knowledge of God’ (Acts ‘The Messiah had to suffer our Lord went out burdened by 2:23).’ and his passion was so neces- his cross, as death wanted; but ‘601. The Scriptures had sary as he himself said… Be- from the cross he cried out foretold this divine plan of sal- cause he, in truth, came to save calling death to resurrection, in vation through the putting to his people, leaving that glory opposition to what death want- death of ‘the righteous one, my that he had together with the ed… Because death went back Servant’ (cf. Is 53:11; Acts Father before the existence of to Eve… but later Mary ap- 3:14) as a mystery of universal the world… And we see, after peared, the new life which redemption, that is, as the ran- 28 a certain fashion, how that glo- took the place of the old; som that would free men from ry that he possesses as the only Christ, the new Life, lived in the slavery of sin (cf. Is 53:11- begotten son and which he had her. Death, according to his 12; Jn 8:34-36). Citing a con- abandoned for us for a short custom, was seeking nourish- fession of faith that he himself while, was returned to him ment and did not notice that in had ‘received’, St. Paul pro- through the cross in the same that mortal fruit Life was hid- fesses that ‘Christ died for our flesh that he had taken on’ (St. den, Life that destroys death; sins in accordance with the Anastasius of Antioch). for this reason he fearlessly bit scriptures’ (I Cor 15:3; cf. Acts ‘O most precious gift of the the fruit, but in so doing he 3:18; 7:52; 13:29; 26:22-23). cross! What is more resplen- freed life and with it many In particular Jesus’ redemptive dent! It does not contain, as the people’ (St. Ephrem). death fulfils Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering Servant (cf. Is The mystery of the suffering 53:7-8); Acts 8:32-35). Indeed of Jesus14 Jesus himself explained the The texts that follow from meaning of his life and death the Catechism of the Catholic in the light of God’s suffering Church sufficiently express Servant (cf. Mt 20:28). After this union between the cross his Resurrection he gave this and resurrection, between suf- interpretation of the Scriptures fering, love, liberation and sal- to the disciples at Emmaus (cf. vation. Lk 24:25-27), and then to the ‘571. The Paschal mystery apostles (cf. Lk 24:44-45).’ of Christ’s cross and Resurrec- Not only did Christ proclaim tion stands at the centre of the the redemptive value of pain, Good News that the apostles, but he also experienced it to and the Church following the utmost in his passion, cru- them, are to proclaim to the cifixion and death, accompa- world. God’s saving plan was nied by the moral anxiety of accomplished ‘once for all’ Gethsemane (‘My soul, he (cf. Heb 12:3) by the redemp- said to them, is ready to die tive death of his Son Jesus with sorrow’ (Mk 14:34). And Christ.’ it is in this redemptive suffer- ‘572. The Church remains ing that real and authentic faithful to the interpretation of evangelisation is rooted: ‘Or- tree of paradise does, good and ‘all the Scriptures’ that Jesus der your lives in charity, upon evil mixed together. Instead, gave both before and after his the model of that charity everything in it is beautiful and Passover: ‘Was it not neces- which Christ showed to us, attractive, both for the sight sary that the Christ should suf- when he gave himself up on and for the palate. It is a tree fer these things and enter into our behalf, a sacrifice breath- that generates life without pro- his glory?’ (Lk 24:26-27; 44- ing our fragrance as he offered voking death; that illuminates 45) Jesus’ sufferings took their it to God’ (Eph 5:2). This is the without producing shadows; historical, concrete form from Good News for mankind! that brings you into paradise the fact that he was ‘rejected However, the sacrifice of without expelling anyone from by the elders and the chief Christ cannot be understood if it; it is the wood that Christ priests and the scribes’ (Mk it is not united to the love of

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 the Father for us: ‘God so pletely pagan territory), where claim: ‘I am glad of my suffer- loved the world that he gave the same kind of miracle, that ings on your behalf, as, in this up his only-begotten Son, so is to say the healing of a lame mortal frame of mine, I help to that those who believe in him man, becomes an opportunity pay off the debt which the af- may not perish’ (Jn 3:16). ‘He to preach the Gospel (Acts flictions of Christ leave still to did not even spare his own 14:15-18), at the end of which be paid, for the sake of his Son, but gave him up for us there also takes place the con- body, the Church’ (Col all; and must not that gift be version of those who were lis- 1:24);‘we carry about continu- accompanied by the gift of all tening (this is what St. Luke ally in our bodies, so that the else?’ (Rm 8:32). ‘He had still says of St. Timothy and the living power of Jesus may be one messenger left, his own ‘brethren’ of Listra: cf. Acts manifested in our bodies too’ well-beloved son; he sent to 16:1-2). (II Cor 4:10). them last of all; they will have And this spirit spreads reverence, he said, for my son’ amongst the disciples like a (Mk 12:6). fire that would be handed He taught us the perfect down the first centuries of the form of living pain: heroic survival and expansion With generosity: ‘This is the of the Church in the Greco- greatest love a man can show; Roman world. that he should lay down his life for his friends’ (Jn 15:13). 1.3. In the martyrs This, in essentials, is the reason: utmost love leads to total ‘The blood of the martyrs is giving; his divine love led the seed of Christians’ (Tertul- 29 Christ to his crucifixion and lian, Apologeticus, 50: PL 1, his death, for all men. 534). With humility: ‘he lowered During the first centuries of his own dignity, accepted an Christianity, the tandems obedience which brought him ‘pain/joy’ and ‘death/glory’ to death, death on a cross’ The history of St. Paul, like were present among believers (Phil 2:8). the evangelisation of the pa- imbued with an immense vital gans, is full of pain and suffer- charge; during the persecu- 1.2. The suffering and ing, as is brought out by the tions these believers every day evangelisation Acts of the Apostles and the ran the risk of being dragged of the Apostles letters of St. Paul himself. His before a tribunal or martyred life is summarised as follows: because of their faith. Howev- Under the guidance of the ‘We have a treasure, then, in er, their faith comforted them Holy Spirit the mission outside our keeping, but its shell is of and the Gospel, through their Jewish territory began with the perishable earthenware; it blood and their pain, progres- persecution of the Jews in must be god, and not anything sively penetrated not only the Jerusalem (Acts 8), even in ourselves, that gives it its roads and culture of the Ro- though the risen Christ had is- sovereign power. For our- man empire but also the hearts sued the mandate ‘the Holy selves, we are hampered of men, who were witnesses to Spirit will come upon you, and everywhere, yet still have so much pain that was experi- you will receive strength from room to breathe, are hard put enced with love, and in the him; you are to be my witness- to it, but never at a loss; perse- same faith: ‘and if we are his es in Jerusalem and throughout cution does not leave us unbe- children, then we are his heirs Judaea, in Samaria, yes, and friended, nor crushing blows too; heirs of God, sharing the the ends of the earth’ (Acts destroy us; we carry about inheritance of Christ; only we 1:8). It is at that point that St. continually in our bodies the must share his sufferings, if we Luke tells of the conversion of dying state of Jesus, so that the are to share his glory’ (Rm Saul (Paul) and thus the mis- living power of Jesus may be 8:17). sion to the pagans begins to manifested in our bodies too. The Christians of the early the full. Always we, alive as we are, centuries kept the freshness of Like Jesus, the Apostles, are being given up to death for the words of their Master, who too, employ moments of heal- Jesus’ sake, so that the living had encouraged them to em- ing to proclaim the Gospel. power of Jesus may be mani- brace every experience of pain After healing the lame man fested in this mortal nature of with a new spirit: ‘Then he lift- at the gate of the temple of ours. So death makes itself felt ed up his eyes towards his dis- Jerusalem, known as the in us, and life in you’ (II Cor ciples, and said; Blessed are ‘Beautiful Gate’, Peter evan- 4:7-12). you who are poor; the king- gelises the people that were The line of total generosity dom of God is yours. Blessed admiring the miracle that had in pain, opened by the blood of are you who are hungry now; been performed (Acts 3:11-26) Jesus, after the Apostles had you will have your fill. and thus converts many of understood it through the Pen- Blessed are you who weep them (Acts 4:4). The same tecost, became the path of light now; you will laugh for joy. things happens to Paul and of the nascent Church. This Blessed are you, when men Barnabas in Listra (a com- makes the Apostle Paul ex- hate you and cast you off and

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 revile you, when they reject on in communion with Christ, of, the project of God for other your name as something evil, as St. Paul testifies, it becomes brothers and sisters. Pastoral for the Son of Man’s sake. co-redemptive ‘solidarity’. ‘In care in health, for this reason, When that day comes, rejoice this mortal frame of mine, I is a privileged field for activi- and exult over it; for behold, a help to pay off the debt which ties of dioceses and every rich reward awaits you in the afflictions of Christ leave parish’.17 heaven; their fathers treated still to be paid’ (Col 1:24). It Cardinal Martini refers to the prophets no better. But woe also becomes spiritual the different contexts or upon you who are filled full; strength, even though in itself spheres for the communication you shall be hungry. Woe upon suffering is fragility and weak- of the lived out Gospel and you who laugh now; you shall ness: ‘nothing is beyond my says: ‘this is particularly true mourn and weep. Woe upon powers, thanks to the strength when the context is a context you, when all men speak well God gives me’ (Phil 4:13). of pain and illness. Making of you; their fathers treated the people understand, with peace false prophets no worse’ (Lk of heart and serenity during tri- 6:20-26). als, that illness and misfor- tunes are not the worst things in life, but that there is a higher 2. In the new evangelisation hope, is a great act of evangelisation. This does not need 2.1. The retrieval many words and arguments: it of the original flame is a form of persuasion that the person who believes irradiates 30 The new evangelisation is through his way of looking nothing else but the retrieval of and speaking, of hurrying with the original flame, the light of calm and answering with pa- the world ‘to give light to all tience, bearing evil and the people of the house’ (cf. spreading hope, in good. One Mt 5:14) and to transmit it thus comes even to see not on- from heart to heart. But one ly that life has a meaning but has to begin with faith: faith in It is for this reason that the also a point of exit, which rises the victory of life over death, Church counts upon the value above the darkness itself of in- in Christ. ‘Our Lord Jesus of the suffering of every Chris- nocent suffering and death’.18 Christ… has died for our tian to achieve the salvation of sakes, that we, waking or the world: ‘The Gospel of suf- 2.2. Suffering as a force sleeping, may find life with fering… speaks unceasingly for co-redemption him’ (I Thes 5:10). For this with the words of this strange reason, the new evangelisa- paradox: the springs of divine The witness of the Cross tion, like the Gospel itself, power gush forth precisely in lies, therefore, in spiritual must provide an answer to all the midst of human weakness. strength for the edification of the questions and hopes of the Those who share in the suffer- one’s neighbour that springs human heart, including those ings of Christ preserve in their from those who experience that derive from the experi- own sufferings a very special their own suffering in Christ: ence of pain and suffering. particle of the infinite treasure ‘While the first great chapter Like the first evangelisation, of the world’s Redemption, of the Gospel of suffering is the new evangelisation neces- and can share this treasure written down, as the genera- sarily passes by way of suffer- with others’.16 tions pass, by those who suf- ing because suffering is an ex- The new evangelisation fer persecutions for Christ’s perience common to all men must proclaim to us that ‘the sake, simultaneously another and was the way by which God poor are always with us’, that great chapter of this Gospel chose the Redemption for us. illness is not an evil, and that unfolds through the course of As Pope John Paul II clearly the cross is a sign of salvation. history. This chapter is written reminds us: ‘the new evangeli- Not only must the new evan- by all those who suffer togeth- sation would not be authentic gelisation say this, but it must er with Christ, uniting their if it did not follow in the foot- also bear witness to it; not only human sufferings to his salvif- steps of Christ, who was sent must it speak about suffering, ic suffering… In those people to evangelise the poor’.15 it must also experience it, en- there is fulfilled the Gospel of For the early Christians the dure it in itself, that is to say it suffering, and, at the same first evangelisation meant the must suffer. ‘Today the new time, each of them continues experience of a new life, of a evangelisation can find in sick in a certain sense to write it: ‘second birth’ because of their people not only the recipients they write it and proclaim it to obedience to the Gospel. At of the good news but even the world, they announce it to the same time, this experience more individuals who are pro- the world in which they live passed – and always passes – tagonists. Indeed, the person and the people of their time. by way of a free acceptance of who has met the Lord in mo- Down through the centuries suffering. Indeed, if a person’s ments of physical suffering as and generations it has been encounter with suffering is ac- well spontaneously becomes a seen that in suffering there is cepted, and suffering is taken witness to, and a proclaimer concealed a particular power

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 that draws a person interiorly 2.4. The sick person cause his state reminds us that close to Christ’.19 has a mission to carry out everything in this life passes Indeed, suffering experi- away; the sick person leads us enced according to God is suf- For St. Paul, suffering is an to live hope, patience, the fering that leads to the conver- opportunity to proclaim the modesty of life… In a word, sion and the transformation of Gospel: ‘when I preached the the sick person makes us bet- the person; it produces peace gospel to you in the first inter, he evangelises us’.27 and joy.20 stance, it was, you remember, On repeated occasions Pope because of infirmity of the John Paul II has emphasised 2.3. The positive aspect flesh which was humiliating to the great apostolic role of sick of suffering me’ (Gal 4: 12b-14).24 people within the Mystical ‘Happy is the person who Body of Christ, and because of ‘In the cross of Christ not manages to make the light of this they are a source of im- only is the Redemption accom- God shine forth in the poverty mense good for the whole of plished through suffering, but of a suffered and diminished the Church. Let us remember also human suffering itself has life’.25 in relation to this, by way of been redeemed… The Re- However, even if Christ example, the appeal made in deemer suffered in place of raised every human pain to re- the Message for the World Day man and for man… In bringing demption not all people live of the Sick of 1993, n. 5: ‘Dear about the Redemption through out their own crosses so as to sick people… your suffering, suffering, Christ has also raised be real witnesses to life in welcomed and borne by a human suffering to the level of death, to peace in pain, and to rock-solid faith, united to that the Redemption. Thus each love in suffering. of Christ, acquires an extraor- man, in his suffering, can also Amongst all forms of hu- dinary value for the life of the 31 become a sharer in the redemp- man suffering, there is one, Church and for the good of tive suffering of Christ’.21 that provoked by illness, that is mankind’.28 To understand the conse- in itself a place of witness, of The Spanish Church, quence of what has just been peace or anxiety, of humility through its Department of Pas- observed, let us recall the or rejection, where in all its toral Care in Health, in the words of the Holy Father in his transparency what is in the message at the time of the one heart of the person who is suf- hundred and twentieth World fering expresses itself: ‘where Day of Missions, in which he your treasure is, there your stressed this mission and de- heart is’. clared that: ‘the identity of Masks fall during illness. Christian witness is marked by The person finds himself face the inextinguishable and defin- to face with his own spiritual ing presence of the cross. and moral resources; the Without the cross, authentic Christian finds himself face to witness cannot exist… Indeed, face with the purity of his own the imitation of Christ in faith- faith. ful witness and in patient and For this reason, also the so- persevering daily work is the called ‘planet of pain’26 has to ‘Cross’. Going against the tide, be evangelised. On the one directing one’s own choices hand, because the immensity according to the command- of pain that is experienced in ments of God despite not being the Church and the contempo- understood, unpopularity, mar- rary world must be raised to ginalisation… is the ‘Cross’.’22 Christ and converted into a The co-redemptive meaning place of encounter, of conver- of the Cross is thus very im- sion, as a sanctification of the portant for the salvation of the whole of mankind; on the oth- world, as is pointed out in the er hand, because people af- ‘Campaign for the Sick’ of ‘Letter to the Sick’, called flicted by suffering have a spe- 2003 elaborated in a lucid and ‘Courage’: ‘if we were to cial vocation to be privileged clear way (section n. 7) what abandon the cross on which we witnesses of the co-redemp- the evangelising mission of the are nailed (not defeated), the tion of Christ. sick person is and how he world would be put out of bal- ‘The Church also tells us evangelises. I will here repro- ance. It would be as though that the sick person has a mis- duce only the major points of there was no oxygen in the air, sion to perform and witness to section 7: no blood in our veins, or no bear’, and thus ‘the Christian 1. The sick person evange- sleep during the night’. And community must know how to lises by being a witness who this author goes on to add: discover that the sick person is helps us to be realistic in a ‘suffering keeps the world spir- not a passive member of that world that lives by appear- itually fixed’. He concludes by community but rather that he ances, turning its back on ill- addressing sick people: ‘we leads us to relativise many ness, suffering and death. should be proud of this call – things, above all to open our- 2. By being a witness who because it is vocation’.23 selves up to transcendence be- teaches us to relativise values.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 3. By calling us to live out the sick in order to avoid en- Illness is a place of en- and to retrieve the fundamen- gaging in pastoral activity that counter; it is a watchtower, a tal values of the Gospel: free limits itself to the aspect of school, a university, an oppor- giving, service, love… providing assistance or conso- tunity to give a new direction 4. By inviting us to engage lation (although this is certain- to one’s life, and at times an in solidarity, love and sacri- ly required), forgetting or di- aopportunity for an authentic fice: he calls us to be sensitive minishing the active and re- conversion and for the aposto- and solidarity-inspired in the sponsible subjectivity of the late. Examples of witness are face of need, he calls us to sick person precisely in rela- innumerable, and here I will selfless love. tion to evangelisation’.29 refer to only a few of them.30 5. The sick person evange- At the end of Vatican Coun- lises us by showing us the face cil II, the Council Fathers ad- The experience of a chaplain of Christ. dressed the following message in a paediatric hospital 6. He evangelises us by be- to suffering people: ‘You all The most surprising thing, ing a living witness when he who heavily feel the burden of the richest thing in the experi- lives all the stages of his ill- the cross, you who are poor ence of evangelisation is life, ness with Christian meaning. and abandoned, you who the surprise of living every day The forty-seventh synod of weep, you who are persecuted asking myself about the life of the diocese of Milan empha- for justice’s sake, you who are these children who after being sised the role of pastoral care surrounded by silence, you the born are imperilled by suffer- in health and pointed out that unknown of pain, have ing and illness. The surprise is one of the challenges facing it courage: you are the preferred to see mothers – many families is to place the sick person at ones of the Kingdom of God, – at the feet of the cross of 32 the centre of such care: ‘It is a the Kingdom of hope, of hap- their children in pain. How matter not only of proclaiming piness and life; you are the much tenacity, how much but above all of believing and brethren of the suffering strength, how much pain, how working with the belief that Christ; and with him, if you many questions, and how the pain of patients ‘united to want, you will save the world’. much mystery! Our religious the pain of Christ’ constitutes service is not an organisation, valuable and effective capital. 2.5. Witnesses to the Gospel nor is it even a cold and in illness chronometric presence – it is, rather, a life, a sign. This we These are the people who on see in many things that family the cross allow peace to tran- relatives of the children say. spire, and in that peace the Allow me to relate to you a presence of Christ. These are few that I remember: those people who have the – ‘A thousand thanks Elvira, courage to live out their illness you have helped me a great with total trust in Christ and deal’: this was the sentence have experienced the interior spoken by a mother to a transformation of their person woman who had paid a visit to into him. They are those peo- her after the funeral of her ba- ple in whom is opened up the by girl. horizon of a new reality – I remember the anxiety of through encounter with suffer- a young couple caused by the ing seen as a grace, indeed as a illness of their baby son who friend entrusted with making died at the age of three them friends and beautiful for months: how much time they the wedding feast of the Lamb spent in the chapel between (Ap 22:14). And it is for this hope and discouragement! reason that in a certain sense – And the mother of Gior- they love suffering. gio: with how much love and Amongst these witnesses, hope did he look after his baby giants of faith, in hope and in son! charity, we should also re- – How many families wait And the sick person, the suf- member the example of those for us to visit them! And often fering person, the handicapped who, full of generosity in help- they say to us: we were ex- person really co-operate in the ing their neighbours to carry pecting you! work of salvation and redemp- their cross, embody the image – And that father, downcast, tion. Thus this heritage should of the Cyrene who helped Je- disappointed, desolate about ‘be more valued and enriched sus at the most dramatic mo- his son suffering from an af- through renewal and decisive ment of his life, or that of the fliction of the spine and who initiatives of pastoral activity Good Samaritan, whom Christ did not believe in anything, for and with the sick and suf- gave as a model to be imitated who said that he had lost his fering’ (Christifideles laici, in order to achieve authentic faith… We encouraged him to 54). It is incumbent upon us, witness, doing good in pain escape from his darkness, from above all, to accept all the im- and doing good to those who his sadness, and after a few plications of this idea of ‘with’ suffer. days we saw more light and

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 peace of mind in that room, in this hospital. Help Jolanda and religious aspect of things, a that couple together with their Gustavo, Raffa etc., so that certain mysticism, a certain baby son. they get better, as you did with kind of reflection, and this was – And what can I say about me. My granny sends you this one of the most positive expe- Alice, aged 12; Giovanni aged bunch of flowers so that you riences of that situation… I 8; and Gemma aged 9 and af- will cure other children. I want flicted with leukaemia, and you to give a good lesson to José Manuel aged 6, and the cooks who produce bad Maria aged 3? meals that the children in the – Miguel Angel is a child hospital do not like at all. I am aged seven who has a malign leaving you my crutches be- tumour. His is a hopeless case. cause I no longer need them He is ill, he knows this, and because you cured me. I am with the awareness of an adult leaving them to you so that if he repeats with a certain fre- another child needs them he quency, between sobs: ‘mum- can use them, but I ask you to my, mummy, kill me, allow me make sure that nobody in the to die!’ We speak to the par- world has to use them. Be- ents, we try to be very near to cause I believe that people them, to encourage them, but don’t have to die or suffer, be- we do not have enough time cause if these terrible things for a conversation that is not did not exist the world would interrupted. Everything is bro- be happy. I tell you this with matured more as a man be- ken. It is a very difficult situa- affection, Isabel Maria’. cause of this episode in my life 33 tion, and there is so much wor- I will now quote two mean- and I now see things in a deep- ry! ingful examples of witness of er way’. – The following is the obser- two famous representatives of And many other examples vation made by a father: ‘at the world of contemporary art could be given if we consider work I feel distant and I do not who had to deal with experi- the large number of examples have trust in my colleagues. I ences of pain. I am talking of witness that have been lived have always believed that here about the famous film di- out and written down, and there was a great deal of rector Federico Fellini and the which are also expressions of a wickedness in people, but after tenor José Carreras. life that has been lived, a path so many days in hospital I dis- I will reproduce first of all and an experience. Let us recovered that there are very the declaration of Federico member, because of its impor- many good people who dedi- Fellini to the Barcelona news- tance for our subject, that at cate themselves to those who paper La Vanguardia on 29 the time of the International suffer; I discovered this human August 1993 after he had been Eucharistic Congress celebrat- value in the health care work- admitted to a convalescent ed in Seville from 7-13 June ers, in the voluntary workers, home in Rimini. ‘I have dis- 1993 the Pope was presented – and in the religious service. I covered that a hospital is a at the time of the celebration of am happy despite the fact that splendid place to think about the Eucharistic ceremony to my son is still ill. The hospital one’s own projects and one’s close the congress – with a has been a surprise?’ own life’. The interview went book entitled ‘The witness of – And here are the words of on as follows: sick people’, which had been another father: ‘We parents, – ‘Now, for you, what is written by the National De- low in morale and frightened fear?’ partment for Pastoral Care in by the incurable illness of our – ‘First of all, I will tell you Health and the diocesan dele- daughter, are only consoled by that I was afraid.’ gation of Seville. This was a the words of the priest who – ‘During those days did work full of questions, of paths celebrated the baptism and the you pray?’ that had been journeyed, of funeral of our daughter’. – ‘Yes, I prayed.’ hope, and of lives transformed. And to finish, please allow – ‘What is prayer?’ It is a book of life. me to tell you about the wit- – ‘An extremely rational and ness of a girl aged eight who intelligent way to lay down the Witnesses to the cross together with her cousin was heaviest burdens of life and to and to joy31 involved in an accident and entrust to someone the burden This is the title of a book in whom we visited in hospital of worries and doubts.’ Italian that seeks to be the spir- with a certain assiduity. After – ‘Did you think about itual journey of a group of can- being discharged one day she God?’ cer patients. These are men came to visit the hospital and – ‘How would it be possible and women who, with their amongst the various things to live without thinking about lives, which are full of suffer- that she brought with her there God?’ ing because of their illness, was also this letter: ‘Dear St. On another occasion this transmit to us an authentic and John of God: my granny offers same newspaper printed the valuable message. you this bunch of flowers be- declarations of the tenor José I will now present, almost in cause you cured me and my Carreras: ‘as a result of my ill- the form of an anthology, the cousin. Cure all the children in ness I learnt to appreciate the witness of certain sick people.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 – Livia: she is young, sweet, what the sister has to say: ‘the Garrido, for Giacomo, for Jua- pretty and attached to life; she nurses and the medical doctors na, for Rev. Hilderbrando Gre- has made ‘mistakes’; however, enter and leave his room con- gari and for many other people a ‘friend’ is leading her along a trolling the drip, the clinical – numberless biographical his- path that is changing her life. sheet, the monitor and the vari- tories full of life. Afflicted by a malign tumour, ous parameters. As a sister and – Manuel Lozano Garrido: she thanks God for having ward sister I work with the ‘Lolo’, a journalist and invalid, changed her life. ‘I am happy others in looking after him. will be a saint of our times to live, I am well and I live as The evening arrives, the med- when the Church proclaims though this illness was not ical doctors leave the ward and him a saint. The victim of an mine’. And she repeats: ‘thank the nurses hand over their ‘de- illness that he contracted in you, Lord Jesus, for having liveries’ to their night col- youth, he was ill for the whole changed my life’. league. I am at the end of my of his life. As a journalist he – Antonietta: she is a happy service but before leaving the ‘saw the footsteps of God in wife with three children that ward for the celebration of the teleprinters’, and in dying she has brought up; a happy community prayer I briefly he left behind the fragrance of character. In this serene con- visit all the patients, staying holiness. Although he was text suddenly the impact of an for a while next to those in a blind, he did not interrupt his illness with a terrible name – most serious condition. At the work as a journalist and writer, cancer. After many months bedside of Giacomo the situa- even during the worst mo- spent in hospital she returned tion has got notably worse: his ments of his illness or during breathing has become difficult, his days of greatest pain. He his pulse is irregular, the created and edited a newspa- 34 cyanosis of his face is intense; per for sick people who of- however, his mind is still per- fered their illness up for jour- fectly lucid. I remain in silence nalists, for newspapers, and for in front of him, I look at him, I the cause of information. One dry his sweat, I give him a ca- day we will see on the altars a ress. I pray in the silence of my journalist, a sick man, and a heart. In the meantime his wife model of the apostolate.31 and daughters leave the room – Giacomo: he is disabled for a moment to breathe while and offers his witness: ‘I, too, I sit next to the patient and believe that God loves me. He hold his hand in silence and in loves me in my suffering and prayer. Reassured by this pres- with my handicap as well. I ence, Giacomo seems to im- went through a strong experi- prove and to breathe with less ence of God which led me to difficulty; he utters the follow- convert my life and to live it home with a strong spirit and ing words: ‘thank you having for Him, not only with my with a new way of seeing real- become a nun!’ This wonder- physical handicap, where God ity, because, at times, because ful statement touched me has come to me, but also in my of hurry one loses sight of the deeply, I sense its meaning but dedication to other people, authentic values of life. And I dare to say: ‘why did you say which I want to be a reflection Antonietta has discovered: that to me, Giacomo?’ ‘You of the love of God that I have God, her family, and life as a see, sister’, the patient replies, experienced.’33 gift of God. ‘the nurses and doctors are – Juana: she, too, is handi- – Glem: the father of a fami- very good, but when they capped and relates her experi- ly. The experience of his ill- leave here they have other ence: ‘I worked in a hospital ness has led him to a high spir- things to think about: their until the age of twenty-two but ituality; for him this illness is a families, their children, their a spine tumour immobilised time of grace and he expresses interests, the requirements and me in a wheelchair. Until that this fact in the following the trials of this world. But moment I saw pain as a pun- words: ‘the time of my illness when you leave this room, you ishment, but subsequently lit- has been a dramatic period, but still think about me, you carry tle by little during this illness I at the same time it has been me in your heart, you follow think that I encountered God wonderful, a gift that today I me in prayer even in the si- and since that moment, from see as a privilege that has giv- lence of your convent; thank the moment of having faith, en ‘fullness’ to my life’. you for listening to me, for pain has been for me authentic – Luciano: he thinks he is helping me, for understanding liberation’.34 happy because he discovered me; thank you most of all for – Rev. Ildebrando Gregori: the ‘truth’ starting from the ex- what you are for me and for all the founder of the Restorative perience of his illness. the patients’. My eyes now be- Sisters of the Holy Face of Our – Giacomo: he is forty-nine tray emotion; nobody had ever Lord Jesus Christ was greatly years old and has a malign tu- sculptured so well the pro- concerned, as he often repeat- mour in an advanced state; she found identity of my Camillian ed, ‘to dry tears, and there reveals the greatness of her vo- vocation’. were an infinite number’.35 For cation to the female religious Illness is also a place of en- him, to serve Christ in man who is caring for him. This is counter for Manuel Lozano had to mean to serve him in his

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 extreme suffering, a synthesis ‘One day suffering, the in- of love towards neighbour, in and compendium of all physi- evitable guest of mankind, ar- order to transform the whole cal, moral and spiritual suffer- rives without notice, enters our of human civilisation into a ing… He did not dwell upon lives without asking our leave, ‘civilisation of love’ (SD, 30). works but upon virtues, he did settles down in our home, and In this love the meaning of not worry about the efficiency becomes the obligatory com- suffering is totally realised and of his sisters but the intensity panion of our journey… Its suffering achieves its defini- of their interior and spiritual troubling presence breaks the tive dimension. lives; he did not invite them to daily routine of our exis- Human suffering is a call to ask themselves about external tence… Suffering relativises love; ‘it is a vocation’, as Pope results but to examine them- our apparent forms of security. John Paul II says in his apos- selves deep within their con- It breaks our integrity, reduces tolic letter Salvific Doloris, n. sciences… To Rev. Ildebrando the bases upon which we rest 26: a mysterious call to love may well be applied the words the unfolding of our lives, more, to participate in the infi- of St. Gregory the Great: ‘the makes our projects disap- nite love of God for humanity. great have this particular fea- pear… Suffering – and this Paul Claudel and Emmanuel ture – in the pain of their tribu- should be said after all – Mounier left behind them these lations they do not cease to be laughs at our masks, our pride, very beautiful examples of wit- concerned about others; and our external appearances, our ness in relation to suffering. while they suffer in themselves titles, our public positions… It ‘God came down amongst bearing their own tribulations is a black star in the firmament us to eliminate suffering, not they provide for others, advis- to explain it. He came to fill it ing them as to their needs. with His presence’. Paul They are like heroic physi- Claudel then went on: ‘pain is 35 cians, afflicted by illness, who a presence, it thus requires our bear the wounds of their own presence – a hand joined ours malady and provide others and grasped us’. with care and medicine so that And Emmanuel Mounier, at they may get better’ (‘Com- the time of the illness of his ment on the Book of Job, daughter Françoise, wrote as Liturgy of the Hours, XX Or- follows to his wife: ‘we should dinary Time Week, Monday not think that this illness is 2a. Reading’).36 something that we give, and Rev. Ildebrando spoke as this so that we do not lose the followers to his ‘dearest value – the grace – of this ‘lit- daughters’: ‘During the most tle Christ’ who is amongst dramatic day in the life of us… I do not want to lose mankind, Good Friday, the these days by forgetting that column, the whips, the crown they are days full of unknown of spines, the sneers; the grace’. blows, the cross, the nails, the A modern author, when ad- thrust of the spear in his side; dressing the subject of suffer- during that dramatic day the ing and pain from the psycho- greatest desolation sounded logical point of view as well, forth, being abandoned by the argued that: ‘suffering is a Eternal Father… but never good, but it is not an immedi- from the parched lips of ate good...man needs educa- blessed Jesus was to be heard tion in looking in order to see the word ‘no’. And when the thinks differently and to know final hour arrived with the des- how to interpret suffering with olate weeping of the whole of of our lives. More than a prob- perspectives… that allow him creation, in a voice of triumph, lem, it is a mystery. Mystery is to contemplate life in a differ- he, the dying Jesus, pro- a part of human reality and we ent way’.40 And he also comes nounced our salvation… ‘Con- mature by becoming aware of to declare that: summatum est’: sin had been it… Suffering is a cascade of ‘Everything that is good in cancelled and the whole of hu- questions. There are many mo- man is the child of pain and manity had been redeemed. ments of loneliness, empty suffering’.41 The human creature, fright- nights, accumulated things ‘Suffering draws us nearer ened by the violent shaking of without meaning, feelings of to other people, it makes us be- the creation at the suffering of powerlessness, questions sent come understanding, tolerant, Jesus the Word made Flesh out in the search for a meaning it cares for us gradually in our was not able to perceive the which return silent to the intransigence… it completes joy of the firmament, but in wounded heart… To give us. It is thus necessary to rise heaven the doors had been space to pain means to give above the plan of the merely opened and the always eternal space to love’.38 immediate to attain a perspec- triumph of the Halleluiah that ‘Suffering is present in the tive that gives us the possibili- transformed earth and heaven world in order to release love, ty of observing events from a was being prepared’.37 in order to give birth to works certain height and to see the

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 hidden, positive and pedagogic kind but one of suffering and is the possibility of meaning face of suffering’.42 humiliation. that was given concretely ‘Suffering draws us nearer St. Teresa of Avila. For her ‘once and for all’ by the Cross to other people; a sensation of ‘suffering’ meant the interior of Christ in order ‘to give val- corporeal pain and unpleasant approach and behaviour of a ue’ to suffering. From suffer- feelings have many tight and person who does not live an ing one passes to suffering in a hidden wounds that only a sin- absolute but thinks that life Christian way, in the explicit gular man is able to see, to live must be used and given ac- reflected horizon of the Cross out and to analysis with an ap- cording to a specific vocation- of the Lord, and suffering this proach of vivisection. This is a al framework – the austere becomes witness, a place of dialogue of opposition that framework of the life of the encounter. nonetheless has the purpose of Reformed Carmelite. Such examples of witness in raising man above a strictly St. John of the Cross. His the field of suffering are count- material outlook. This wisdom experience in the prison of less in number. One need only is concealed in the depths of Toledo enabled him to experi- draw near to hospitals or enter suffering and it is for this rea- ence pain and suffering in the many homes, where so many son that one can well state that first person. He experienced families have for years looked good tasting fruit germinates the ‘suffering of being de- after a sick loved one, to grasp in cold and dry earth’.43 spised’ in a heroic way, in the the power that suffering has to This approach coincides sense of the meekness, the dis- change, to convert, people; the with the spiritual tradition of cretion, and the sweetness that power to bear witness and to the Church, which recognises come from self-abandon. say to other people that the the purifying meaning of pain: St. Vincent de Paul. For the Lord is good and that the 36 ‘if Life had not been nailed to apostle of the poor, the mys- strength of human beings does the wood, from his side those tery lay in the relationship be- not always coincide with good springs of immortality, blood tween what happens and the health, but that also in weak- and water, which purify the ness and in sickness they can world, would never have display great strength. gushed forth’.44 If practical life abounds with This power of purification, these examples, which is at of witness, and of being a times hidden, no less copious place of encounter that suffer- is the literature which in writ- ing contains is in a particular ten form captures these lives.46 way pointed to in the life of Some phrases taken from certain saints, both because the witness of sick people they were in contact with sick bring out this dynamic of suf- people because they cared for fering for us, not only as re- them (St. John of God, Camil- gards those who experience lo de Lellis…) and because suffering but also as an evan- every spiritual journey in- gelising force: volves a suffering that purifies – ‘Never, pain, will you be and leads to holiness. able to shut me up… I can love In imitating Christ many on the rack of torture’ (Martin saints have experienced in Descalzo). their human and Christian ex- – She died at the age of two, istence the redemptive value troubled by pain. ‘They never of suffering for themselves and saw her tire of suffering’ for the Church. (Maria Teresa). Here are a number of refer- – ‘I thank God for having ences to this:45 given me the strength to see St. Teresa of Lisieux. For the my reality’ (Maria Dolores). little Teresa, the foolishness of – ‘I knew you, so to speak, the cross, which was nonethe- but now my eyes see you’ (Gb less wisdom, governed the approval of God. What takes 42:2-6) wish for, and acceptance of, place is certainly a ‘sign’ for – ‘In my illness I felt closer suffering by freeing hope in an the action. The ‘sign’ of the to the fatherhood of God and unveiled and joyous encounter ‘poor’ is Christic, like the ‘ap- Jesus as a friend and compan- with the Voice of the Saviour. proval’. Christ, in fact, is the ion’ (Martin Descalzo). St. Ignatius of Lojola. To be content itself of the ‘approval’. – ‘I am happy even though a disciple of Christ was for If the approval is not contra- my son is still ill. The hospital him not only a readiness to ac- dicted by the participation of has been a surprise’ (a father). cept the ‘crucifying’ conse- Christ in suffering and pover- I would like, however, to di- quences of being his disciple: ty, it is plausible that by obey- rect our attention to an excep- it was to identity the sign, ing in a Christian way the tional witness in the field of which was certainly not ab- ‘sign’ of the poor person one suffering over recent years – solute, but possible and to be obeys and dwells in the ‘ap- Pope John Paul II, a Pope who desired, of being his disciple in proval’ of God. ‘has travelled’ the world of an experience not of ascetic In the lives of all these saints suffering, who experienced

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 suffering in his own flesh dur- present, ‘I think that all this is a This is a great programme ing the days when he was in fact due to Divine Providence. based upon the poor, upon the the Policlinico Gemelli for a I came to visit a friend of mine, sick, upon weakness, but with variety of reasons. my colleague as a bishop – the ‘power possessed by suf- This Pope will go down in Msgr. Andrea Deskur, the Pres- fering’. This would be a con- history for his very large num- ident of the Pontifical Com- stant pathway in the pastoral ber of trips, for his opening to mission for Social Communi- work of John Paul II. The book the East, and for his tenacity in cations. To him I owe so many striving for unity and peace; I good things, so much friend- also dare to say that he will be ship. For many days, almost on remembered in particular for the eve of the conclave, he has his relationship to suffering been in this hospital and he is and the sick. in a really serious condition, I Our Pontifical Council wanted to pay him a visit, and brought together this witness a visit not only to him but also in a fine book,47 which has sub- to all the other patients’ jects and titles that are full of The Holy Father then went realism: on by recalling what he had – John Paul II, a Pope who said that morning to the Cardi- comes from suffering, the her- nal Fathers, of his wish to ‘rest ald of the Gospel of suffering, my papal ministry above all on a Pope who explains suffering, all those who suffer and unite who is at the service of those their prayer to suffering, pas- who suffer, a Pope who loves sion, and pain’. ‘Dearest broth- 37 the sick, and a Pope who suf- ers and sisters’, the Pope also fers. said, ‘I would like to entrust on his life ends with the same – A Pope who sent an apos- myself to your prayers’. witness to the power present in tolic letter – Salvificis Doloris In finishing his speech the suffering. As a convalescent in – to the Church on the Christ- Holy Father also said: ‘in the Policlinico Gemelli, he ian meaning of human suffer- thanking God for this signifi- gave the world the following ing (11 February 1984); a Pope cant occasion and for this witness: ‘in these days of ill- who also established the Pon- meeting which is so valuable ness I have had an opportunity tifical Council for Health Pas- for me, and I think for every- to understand better the value toral Care (Motu Proprio Do- one, I also want to thank all of service that the Lord has lentium Hominum, 11 Febru- those who serve the sick in the called me to render to the ary 1985) and created the hospital of the Catholic Hospi- Church as a priest, as a bishop, World Day of the Sick. tal of the Sacred Heart – the as the successor of Peter: it al- All this is symbolism, even professors, the medical doc- so passes by way of the gift of more an example, of witness to tors, the sisters, the male and suffering, by which it is possi- life. His pontificate was born, female personnel and every- ble to complete in one’s own developed and has concluded one else. Behold, Christ is flesh the debt which the afflic- ‘attached’ to pain. This fine amongst you, in the hearts of tions of Christ still leave to be book on his pontificate begins the sick and in the hearts of the paid, for the sake of his body, with a page that is all life. The ‘Samaritans’ who serve the the Church (Col 1:24)’ (13 Oc- day after his election, John sick. Praise be to Jesus Christ’. tober 1996). Paul II visited a friend of his ‘Amongst them we see with John Paul II is a Pope who who was seriously ill. The dai- a preferential gaze the weakest, has spoken on many occasions ly newspaper L’Osservatore the poorest, the sick, and the about suffering, who has visit- Romano (19 October 1978) afflicted. And it is to these peo- ed a large number of sick peo- printed news of this visit under ple, in particular, at the first ple, but his strength and wit- the following headline: ‘John moment of our pastoral min- ness lie in having suffered a Paul II amongst the sick at the istry, that we wish to open our great deal. He is a Pope who Policlinico Agostino Gemelli’. heart. Is it not you, brothers has great experience of suffer- Together with this headline and sisters, who with your suf- ing. ‘The pain of the Pope, a there were also the words of fering share in the passion of symbol of our time’, wrote the Holy Father, printed by this the Redeemer himself and after Rocco Buttiglione in a fine ar- daily newspaper of the Holy a certain fashion complete it? ticle (Il Tempo, 19 September See: ‘I also want to thank all This unworthy successor of 1996). those who guided me here and Peter, who aims to peer into the The statement of Paul VI to also saved me because as a re- unfathomable riches of Christ, be found in his apostolic ex- sult of the great enthusiasm has the greatest need of your hortation Evangelii Nuntiandi which has been expressed the help, of your prayer, of your is a great reality: ‘contempo- Pope could also have had to sacrifice, and asks you most rary man listens more willing- stay in this hospital to be treat- humbly for these. Such was the ly to witnesses than to teach- ed’. ‘But above all’, he contin- programmatic address of John ers, or if he listens to teachers ued after the short interruption Paul II yesterday morning giv- he does so because they are almost imposed on him by the en in the Sistine Chapel to the witnesses’ (n. 41). applause of those who were men of the whole world’. This was true of the early

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Christians because of their September 1996, p. 4). ‘May us; it will be an inescapable alive and working faith, and it you know how to be generous way of encountering Christ is true, it must be true, of to- witnesses to this love through who reconciles us and invites day’s Church, above all the giving of your suffering, us to his Easter’. through suffering, as a privi- which can do so much for the leged field to create witnesses, salvation of mankind’.52 The second voice: the life to evangelise. Cardinal and death of Ananias (+2003) Fiorenzo Angelini well out- His body died but his life lined the importance of suffer- did not. He knew about tears ing as a generator of life when and suffering but he always it is shared: ‘it is pain that can bore them with tenacity and generate life, and this comes courage. He was a light that il- from sharing in the suffering luminated without offending, of others, from the ability to that warmed without burning. place the great lesson learnt He died in the style of a cham- from our personal suffering at pion. He was given only a tem- the service of others’.48 Belief poral farewell. A cross of in the value of suffering stone, and there was the si- joined to love effects an en- lence of wise words, and life counter of extraordinary spiri- sublimated by death, and love tual fertility.49 stronger than death, and God The Gospel is a school of to embrace after ninety-three love, just as God Himself is years, and to love for always. 38 love, and it is also a school of Thus lived and thus passed strength in suffering. Man suf- away our brother Ananias, fa- fers, the Church suffers; every ther of our friend, Rude. His person has to face up to their death was full of life. His wit- own cross and every Christian A FINAL REFLECTION ness fills us with joy and hope. is invited by Christ to go along a two-lane path: the lane of To conclude this paper I will The third voice: a bishop re- taking on and sharing with him give space to four friendly lates his experience (D. Fer- his pain, and that of generosity voices. Each one of them went nando Sebastián) the Bishop in helping other people to car- through personal experiences of Pamplona. Cf. La verità del ry their cross.50 It is for this of suffering or of nearness to Vangelo (Ed. Seguimi), pp. reason that the world of health those who suffer. Their voices 793-4. and illness is a privileged ter- and their ways of living are a ‘Your bishop was ill; it was rain of witness for the new place of encounter and of nothing serious but long and evangelisation, and this is be- evangelisation. complicated… The first lesson cause, and I will repeat the illness gives you is to realise point employing the same The first voice: Rev. Pierlui- that our lives are provisional words as those of Pope John gi Marchesi (+2002) and fragile. Illness is always Paul II, it has no other purpose He was a great defender of something unforeseen. It does than ‘to release love, in order the sick, a man of the frontier not belong to our agenda. to give birth to works of love and a man with a great When we are well we take it towards neighbour, in order to prophetic vision. Twenty years for granted that we will always transform the whole of human ago, at the Synod on Reconcil- be healthy and strong. But that civilisation into a ‘civilisation iation of 1983, in front of the day comes when our bodies do of love’.51 Holy Father and the Synod Fa- not respond and we realise that ‘Dearest sick people, in love thers, he expressed himself in our apparent strength is based may you know how to find the the following terms: ‘it is al- upon a hill, a pyramid of won- ‘salvific meaning of your sor- ways edifying to bring sick ders, which we do not control row and valid answers to all of people to sanctuaries, at least and we know very little about. your questions’ (Apostolic those that are capable of going This fragility as well is a Letter Salvificis Doloris, n. even though it is not always part of the truth of our lives 31). Your mission is of very they who have greatest need of and for this reason illness great value both for the doing so. Today, it is neces- helps us to know ourselves Church and for society. You sary, above all else, for the with greater realism, and to see who carry the burden of suffer- Church to engage in a pilgrim- the truth of our society in a ing are amongst the first that age to hospitals which in many better way. God loves. Like all those that countries are frequented by …There are many of us, we he encountered along the ways more people than our parishes are worth a great deal, but of Palestine, Jesus has looked and where the presence of what we are and what we are at you with a glance full of ten- Christ who wants reconcilia- worth is based upon something derness; his love will never go tion is present’. He finished his that does not depend on us, away’ (address to the sick and talk in the following way: ‘let which precedes us and escapes the suffering given in Tours on us not forget that one day all of us. Health, life, everything that 21 September 1996, in us will belong to the people of we are is a gift. L’Osservatore Romano, 23/4, the sick and the dying, even …Illness makes us appreci-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 ate what we receive from oth- can give death a meaning such ta. Annuncia Cristo per far vivere il mondo, LXX Giornata Missionaria ers as well. Somebody must as to transform illness into a Mondiale, 20 ottobre 1996’. be at your side to help you to vital act par excellence: ‘he 23 ANTONIO BELLO, Coraggio! Lettera live. loved me and gave himself for agli ammalati (La Meridiana, Molfetta, BA, 1996), p. 9. …During days of illness me’ (Gal 2:20). Love is also 24 B. HAERING, ‘Il cristiano di fronte you pray more, you feel nearer the richest source there is re- alle sfide della malattia e della violenza’, to the presence of God who garding the meaning of suffer- Credere oggi, 6/1987, n. 42, pp. 88-89, quoted in ‘La spiritualità nel tempo della consoles us and makes us ing, which is always a mys- malattia’ AA.VV., Camillianum n. 1. strong, and the words of St. tery. This answer was given by 25 GIOVANNI PAOLO II, ‘Messaggio Paul become clearer: ‘my God to man in the cross of Je- per la II Giornata Mondiale del Malato, 11 febbraio 1994’. grace is enough for you’. ‘The sus Christ (SD, 13). 26 ‘In the Christian view of existence, strength of God is manifested pain can really be said to be a planet, because it receives light, justification, and in our weakness’. The accep- H.E. Mgr. JOSÉ LUIS value from Christ the Redeemer’ tance of one’s own weakness REDRADO, (FIORENZO ANGELINI, Quel soffio sulla helps one to appreciate more Secretary of the Pontifical Council creta, p. 147). the possibilities of others, and for Health Pastoral Care, 27 AAVV, Pastorale degli infermi The Holy See nell’ospedale e nella parrocchia, (Pao- above all else the great line), p. 13. strength of the love of God 28 Cf. Dolentium Hominum, n. 21/1992. which is never absent. Illness 29 Cf. VITTORIO MADÈ, ‘La pastorale is a time of deep insight. One dei malati nel 47° Sinodo della diocesi understands better the mystery di Milano’, in L’ancora nell’unità della salute, n. 4/1996, p. 316. of pain, the strength of love, 30 JOSÉ L. REDRADO, Curate infirmos necessary solidarity, the defin- y la vida consacrada (Pontificio Con- itive wisdom of the cross of siglio per la Pastorale della Salute, Vati- 39 can City). Christ, innocent love realised 31 RICCARDA LAZZARI. Testimoni della in the love of the path of free- Notes croce e della gioia (Camilliane, Turin, 1997). dom and salvation. 1 JOSÉ L. REDRADO, ‘Evangeliz- 32 Cf. ‘Un ejemplo concreto’, Riv. Ec- My experience was strength- zazione e pastorale sanitaria’, Dolentium clesia, Madrid 7 September 1996. ened by the illness and death of Hominum, n. 12/1989. 33 JOSÉ L. REDRADO, Curate infirmos, 2 CARDINAL CARLO M. MARTINI, Vi- p. 121. two friends and brothers of vere i valori del Vangelo (Einaudi, 34 Op. cit., p. 119. mine, both of whom were very Turin, 1996), pp. 90-91. 35 FIORENZO ANGELINI, L’eremo e la close to me: Bishop Congret 3 Cf. FRIGIOLA GIUSEPPE, La nuova folla, p. 111. evangelizzazione di Giovanni Paolo II, 36 Op. cit., p. 154. and Bishop Osés. They went to (Progetto Gutenberg, Rome, 1995), p. 37 P. ILDEBRANDO GREGORI, O.S.B., the depths of their experience 16. Carissime Figliole (Congregazione delle and passed through the narrow 4 La nuova Evangelizzazione e l’ospi- Suore Benedettine Riparatrici del S. talità alle soglie del terzo millennio Volto di N. S.Gesù Cristo, Bassano Ro- door of death to reach the glo- (Fatebenefratelli, Collana n. 6, Bresca, mano, 1987), pp. 41-42. rious encounter with the God 1996), pag. 12. 38 MATEO BAUTISTA, Para mi amigo of love and life. We learnt from 5 SERGIO PINTOR, L’uomo via della enfermo (San Pablo, Buenos Aires, Chiesa, (EDB, Bologna, 1992), p. 187. 1994), pp. 7-9. them to die and to live near to 6 Cf. Mt 25: 31-46. 39 Cf. Labor Hospitalaria, n. this God who awaits us with 7 SR5 42: EV 10/2673. 235/1995. Cartas sobre el dolor, pp. 52- patience and mercy’. 8 GIOVANNI PAOLO II, ‘Messaggio in 56. occasione della XII Giornata Mondiale 40 ENRIQUE ROJAS, Una teoria della della Gioventù 1997’, n. 4. felicità (Paoline, Rome, 1988), p. 268. The fourth voice: Jesús Bur- 9 Cf. CARDINAL FIORENZO ANGELINI, 41 Op. cit., p. 269. galeta offers the following re- in Dolentium Hominum, n. 32/1996, pp. 42 Op. cit., p. 274. 7-10. 43 Op. cit., pp. 274-275. flection: 10 SERGIO PINTOR, op.cit., p. 189. 44 ST. JOHN CHRYSTOME, ‘Homily on – In Christ suffering is 11 JEAN GALOT, ‘La vittoria del- the Second Letter to Timothy, 1-23’. l’amore’, L’Osservatore Romano, 14 45 Cf. AA.VV., Il significato cristiano ‘joined to love’ (SD, 18). September 1996. della sofferenza (La lezione di alcune – And because suffering is a 12 From the Discourses of St. Andrew personalità emblematiche) (La Scuola, fact it is possible to live it out of Crete, bishop. From the Office of Brescia, 1982), pp. 8-98. Readings – 14 September – Second 46 JOSÉ VICO PEINADO, Profetas en el humanly and positively. reading. dolor (Paulinas, Madrid, 1981); JOSÉ L. – The evangelisation of the 13 Cf. Vida religiosa, nn. 1 and 2/1996 REDRADO, ‘Evangelizzazione e mondo sick person must help him to (Instituto Vida religiosa, PP. Clare- sanitario : una sfida ai religiosi della san- tianos, Madrid). ità’, in Curate infirmos (Pontificio Con- live his experience of pain in a 14 From the Catechism of the Catholic siglio per la Pastorale della Salute), pp. constructive way. Church. 113-135; AA.VV., Vivir sanamente el – How? By becoming aware 15 GIOVANNI PAOLO II, Omelia du- sufrimiento – Reflexiones a la luz de ex- rante la celebrazione della Parola periencias de enfermos, Conferenza of our limitations and finitude; (Viedma, Argentina, 7 April 1987). Episcopale Spagnola, Departimento di by taking on to the full, and 16 JOHN PAUL II, Salvificis Do1oris, n. Pastorale della Salute, Col. Iglesia y with trepidation, human des- 27. Mundo de la Salud, n. 3; RICCARDA LAZ- 17 ‘Consulta diocesana di Padova per ZARI, Testimoni della croce e della gioia tiny; by preparing oneself for la pastorale della sanità’ Anime e corpi (Camilliane, Turin, 1997). the encounter with God as a n. 185/1996, p. 358. 47 Pontificio Consiglio per la Pas- 18 Cardinal Carlo M. Martini, Vivere i torale della Salute, Giovanni Paolo II e silent companion; by prepar- valori del Vangelo (Einaudi, Turin, la sofferenza (Velar, Bergamo, 1995). ing to take on death, that is to 1996), p. 100. 48 FIORENZO ANGELINI, Quel soffio say to finish one’s life as an act 19 JOHN PAUL II, Salvificis Doloris, n. sulla creta, p. 148. 26. 49 0p. cit., p. 160. of giving, of total trust, of giv- 20 Cf. ‘Messaggio del Santo Padre in 50 At one and the same time Christ has ing to others and to God. preparazione alla III Giornata Mondiale taught man to do good by his suffering Only love experienced del Malato, 1l febbraio 1995’, n. 4. and to do good to those who suffer. In 21 JOHN PAUL II, Salvificis Doloris, n. this double aspect he has completely re- amidst illness can give illness 19. vealed the meaning of suffering, Salvifi- meaning and only love, giving, 22 GIOVANNI PAOLO II, ‘Missione e vi- cis Doloris, n. 30.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 51 JOHN PAUL II, Salvificis Doloris, n. CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ES- MOLANN, El Díos crucificado 30. PAÑOLA, Los 10 días del enfermo en la (Sígueme, Salamanca, 1975). 52 GIOVANNI PAOLO II, ‘Messaggio Iglesia española (Conf. Ep. Esp. Past. MOTICELLI I., La sofferenza nella rif- per la V Giornata Mondiale del Malato, Salud, Madrid, 1994). lessione teologica italiana dopo il Vati- 1997’, n. 4. CONGAR Y. AND RAHNER K, Sul- cano II (Salcom, 1984). la malattia (Brescia, 1976, Meditaciones, NAVONE, Teologia del fallimento 28). (Pont. Univer. Gregoriana, Rome, 1988). Bibliography DE LA CALLE, Respuesta bíblica al do- RAVASI G., Fino a quando Signore? lor de los hombres (Fax, Madrid, 1974). La sofferenza secondo la Bibbia JOHN PAUL II EVELY L., El sufrimiento (Estela, (Fatebenefratelli, Spiritualità n. 40, Cer- Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris, 11 Barcelona, 1966). nusco sul Naviglio, Milan, 1995). February1984. ELIZONDO V. et al., La via della croce. REDRADO J.L., Presencia cristiana en Motu Proprio Dolentium Hominum, La Passione di Cristo nelle Americhe las clínicas y hospitales (PPC, Madrid, 11 February 1985. (Queriniana, 1992). 1969). ANGELINI F., FRANKL V.E., Homo patiens. Interpre- REDRADO J.L., ‘Dolore e morte in con- L’uomo delle beatitudini (Tip. Pol. tazione umanistica della sofferenza flitto con noi: alla ricerca di un senso’, Vaticana, Vatican City, 1986). (Traduzione e prefazione di E. FIZZOT- Congresso Internazionale di Psicologia e Quel soffio sulla creta (Tipografia TI, Varese, 1972). Scienze Umane “La Bussola”. Veroli Vaticana, Vatican City, 1986). GONZALES FAUS J.L., Vicarios de (Fr), 16-18 maggio 1996. El Evangelio del sufrimiento y la Cristo (Rotta, Madrid, 1991). CONCILIUM n. 119 - Sufrimiento y fe primera evangelización en Chile. Confer- GRANDI V., Al servicio de los enfer- cristiana. encia en la Pontificia Universidad de mos con amor (Selare, Bogotà, 1997). LABOR HOSPITALARIA, n. 190: Chile, 25 septiembre 1992. HARING B., La Fe, fuente de salud. Presencia de los enfermos en el Sínodo ‘L’amore per i sofferenti, chiave del- Canto a las profesiones sanitarias (Pauli- de obispos, 1983. l’evangelizzazione’, L’Osservatore Ro- nas, 1990). LABOR HOSPITALARIA, n.195: Un mano, 9 October 1992, p. 5. ILARI A., ‘Il dolore non è mai vano, año de la carta Salvifici doloris. All’occasione del centenario del pri- mai inutile. La croce della sofferenza è LABOR HOSPITALARIA, n. 235: En- mo annuncio del Vangelo nel Nuovo fonte di grazia e di salvezza’ Anime e cor- ero-Febrero-Marzo 1995. N. Monográfi- Mondo (Vatican City, 23 September pi, 90 (1980), pp. 307-313. co El sufrimiento y la enfermedad. 1993). JAN RYN Z., El dolor tiene mil rostros MISSIONE E SALUTE n. 5196 -La Ero infermo... (Velar, Bergamo, - Juan Pablo li y los enfermos (Ed. Uni- sofferenza è parte della vita. 40 1996). versitaria, Santiago de Chile, 1993). DOLENTIUM HOMINUM. Various AA.VV., Il significato della sofferenza LUKAS E., Dare un senso alla sof- papers on the meaning of suffering in n. umana. Atti del I Congresso Stauròs ferenza (Cittadella, Assisi, 1983). 27/1994. (Stauròs, Pescara, 1983). MAGRASSI M., Gesù e il malato (La ROJAS E., Una teoria della felicità AA.VV., Vivir sanamente el sufrim- Scala, Noci, 1996). (Paoline, Rome, 1988). iento. Reflexiones a la luz de experiencias MARTINI C.M., Farsi prossimo (Piani SALVADORI M., Fede e malattia (Car- de enfermos (Conferencia Episcopal Es- pastorali, Milan, 1985-86). roccio, PD, 1986). pañola, Madrid, 1994). MARTINI C.M., Parlo al tuo cuore TETTAMANZI D., ‘L’annuncio del Van- AA.VV., La spiritualità nel tempo (Centro Ambrosiano Milan, 1996). gelo al mondo della sofferenza’, Anime e della malattia (Quaderni di Camillianum MATTAI G., ‘Teologia della croce e Corpi 61 (1975), pp. 523-538. n. l. Rome, 1990). pastorale della sofferenza’ Anime e VICO PEINADO, Profetas en el dolor BAUTISTA M., Para mi amigo enfermo Corpi, 63 (1976), pp. 81-91. (Paulinas, Madrid, 1981). (San Pablo, Buenos Aires, 1994). MONGILLO D., ‘La croce di Gesù VIRGULINS S., ‘La croce come poten- CANONICI E., Dolore che salva. La sof- Cristo, fondazione di vita morale’ in La za di Dio in 1 Cor, 18-24’ in La sapienza ferenza umana e le missioni (Porziuncola, sapienza della croce oggi’, Atti del Con- della croce oggi. Atti del Congresso In- Assisi, 1992). gresso Internazionale: Roma, 13-18 otto- ternazionale: Roma, 13-18 ottobre CINÀ G., Sofferenza e salvezza (Sub- bre 1975, 1 (Leumann,Turin, 1976), pp. 1975, 1 (Leumann, Turin, 1976), pp. sidios Camillianum, Rome, 1995). 276-283. 144-150.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Testimony

Commission for Healthcare Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India Report of the Activities for the Year 2002-2003

The Pastoral Care in Health Week Nampula, Mozambique, 9-14 june 2003

Pastoral Care in Health in the Vicariate of San José in the Amazon during the Twentieth Century

The Tiber Island: on the Island of Health for Five Centuries Commission for Health Care Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India Report of Activities for the Year 2002-2003

Introduction sion taken at the CBCI on February 29, 2000 and es- Standing Committee Meet- tablished the CBCI-IGNOU The deliberations of the 25th. ing held on September 11-13, Chair on ‘Health and Social General Body Meeting of CB- 2002 in Bangalore, Bishop Welfare’ at IGNOU. The aim CI on the theme, “The Church Bernard Moras, appointed has been to impart quality ed- in Dialogue”, held from 1 to 8 the following persons as ucation in the field of health March 2002 in Jalandhar, set a Consultors to the Commis- and social welfare. The Joint new tone and orientation for sion for Healthcare, on May Advisory Committee, which the strategies of involvement 1, 2003. 1. Rev. Dr. Thomas was formed as per the MoU, for various CBCI Commis- Kalam, Director, St. John’s comprising of 3 members 42 sions. The Commission for National Academy of Health from these organizations, met Healthcare too decided to give Sciences; 2. Rev. Fr. Sebast- on September 24, 2002 and adequate emphasis in the ar- ian Ouseparambil, Director, November 6, 2003. eas of networking and coordi- Catholic Health Association nation, evolving policies and of India; 3. Dr. Vimala Mary, 2.1.Fighting HIV/AIDS strategies through consulta- President, Indian Federation with education tion, promotion of health edu- of Medical Guilds (IFMG); and prevention: A Study cation, and a special attention 4. Dr. Gracious Thomas, Co- Programme on “HIV on healthcare interventions in ordinator, CBCI-IGNOU and Family Education”, emergency situations. With Chair for Health and Social the outcome of the approval of the CBCI Welfare; 5. Sr. Dr. Hermina, CBCI-IGNOU Standing Committee, various President, Sister Doctors’ Fo- collaboration initiatives were taken up to rum of India (SDFI); 6. Mrs. promote health in the larger Jeanette Menezes, President, At a moment when the interest of the country as a Catholic Nurses Guild of In- country is experiencing an whole. dia (CNGI). unabated spread in the HIV pandemic, a serious and in- depth understanding on the 1. Election modes of transmission, pre- and Appointment vention care, counseling and other related issues, is very On March 7, 2002, during significant. The study pro- the CBCI General Body gramme on “HIV and Family Meeting held in Jalandhar, Education” is aimed to this Bishop Bernard Moras was end. A certificate programme elected as the new Chairman was launched in January of the Commission for Health 2002. After a year, in January and Bishop Thomas Elavanal 2003, the programme was and Bishop Ignatius Menezes further developed and a new as its members. diploma course was also ini- The Commission would like tiated and launched by the to place on record our deep- CBCI-IGNOU Chair. felt gratitude and appreciation Anyone with a 10+2 quali- to Bishop Thumma Bala, the fication from any part of In- former Chairman and Bishop dia can enroll for these pro- Gratian Mundadan, one of its grammes. The university has former members, for their fixed the fee at a very reason- guidance, support and encour- 2. CBCI-IGNOU Chair able level in order to provide agement. We also congratulate for Health this opportunity to more peo- Bishop Thumma Bala for hav- and Social Welfare ple. For a certificate course ing been appointed as a Mem- one needs to pay Rs. 800/- ber of the Pontifical Council CBCI and IGNOU (Indira while for the diploma the fee for Health Pastoral Care, the Gandhi National Open Uni- is Rs. 1600/- inclusive of ex- Vatican. versity) signed a Memoran- amination fee, registration fee As a follow up to the deci- dum of Understanding (MoU) as well as the print package.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 These programmes are avail- day and Health and Healing The team of 12 volunteers, able both in English and Hin- Week-2003. The theme “Car- consisting of medical doctors, di. Already over 2,200 stu- ing for my Neighbour” was nurses, social workers and dents have enrolled in these selected, as was explained in two priests, left Delhi on May programmes. These pro- the Message; “In the de- 9, 2002, and began their work grammes are being coordinat- plorable background of the mainly in three camps, such ed by Prof. Gracious Thomas, growing tension between in- as Amman Chawk, Sundram Director of the School of dividuals and communities Nagar and Juni Medeawali Continuing Education at IG- and of the sporadic outbursts Chawl, and visited other NOU. It is a matter of great of communal violence in var- camps at Shah Alam and satisfaction to report that ious parts of our country, an Dariya Klhan Ghummat, all these value-based pro- in-depth refection on this within Ahmedabad, where grammes have attracted theme is indeed, significant.” around 105 relief camps were wider attention. Already the As is now almost the custom existing at that time. The Kenyatha University from each year, the theme was se- main work of the team was to Kenya has sought license to lected, and posters, bible- offer medical and counseling adapt this programme in that study etc. were prepared as a services to the victims. For country. IGNOU has also joint-effort of the Christian everyone in the team it was a started offering these pro- Medical Association of India unique experience of sacri- grammes in Namibia. (CMAI), the Catholic Health fice and service with compas- Association of India (CHAI) sion, and for the traumatized 2.2.A Bachelor Degree and the CBCI Commission people in the camps, a sign of in social work, for Health. solace and support. with a special emphasis For the year 2004 the theme 43 on health issues is, “Your Faith has Healed 4.2.Visit to the Flood affected You” (Mt. 5:34), which is se- areas in Muzaffarpur The CBCI-IGNOU Chair lected in view of greater em- and Purnea planned for a bachelor’s de- phasis on the spiritual and gree in social work with a pastoral element in health- The breaking of embank- special emphasis on healthcare, especially in our health- ments in the northern regions related issues, and it was pro- care institutions. of Bihar at the end of August posed to the Academic Coun- 2002 caused large-scale de- cil of IGNOU, which eventu- struction in these areas lead- ally gave its approval. Vari- 4. Emergency ing to loss of human life and ous meetings were held in Interventions property. Caritas India initiat- connection with the developed the overall relief and reha- ment of this programme in 4.1.The presence of bilitation programme in these which many experts from dif- volunteers gives comfort flood affected areas. The CB- ferent Catholic colleges and and relief to the victims CI Health Commission was departments of social work of communal violence approached specifically to were invited, and their collab- in Gujarat. assess the health care situa- oration is sought, as experts, tion and requested to propose course-writers, etc. The pro- As an emergency interven- programmes to ameliorate gramme is expected to be tion, the Commission for the condition. Mr. Sunil from launched by July 2004, in Health organized a team of Caritas India and Fr. Alex, Hindi and English. medical doctors and social the Secretary of the Commis- workers to help the victims of sion made field-visits to the communal riots in Ahamed- flood affected areas, espe- 3. Commemoration bad. This was done in collab- cially villages like Sirnia, Sa- of the XI World Day oration with the Social Ser- jauti, etc. near Dharbanga in of the Sick, vice Department of the Dio- Muzaffarpur and Gopalganj, Health Sunday and cese of Ahmedabad and Cari- Baghela etc. in Purnea from Healing Week-2003 tas India. At an earlier visit to 1st to 5th September, 2002. A on the theme “Caring Gujarat with a multi-religious detailed report was submitted for my Neighbour” team from Delhi, Sadbha- to Caritas India in view of re- vana Tirthayatra, it was iden- source mobilization for relief “The term health implies tified that the immediate need and rehabilitation. harmonious living together in the relief camps was med- and true caring for one anoth- ical aid and trauma counsel- er. Caring means feeling so ing. The Health Commission 5. Delhi Catholic Doctors’ united as to be one with the then organized a Trauma Meeting on other, especially in the mo- Counseling Session for a “The Challenges of a ments of suffering and sick- group of volunteers at the Catholic Doctor Today” ness. It involves positive ac- CBCI Centre, New Delhi, on tion, with compassion and April 13, 2002. Rev. Dr. P.O. A meeting of Catholic doc- commitment”, wrote the Jose, SDB, who holds a doctors in Delhi was jointly or- Bishop-Chairman, in the torate in trauma counseling, ganized by the Sister Doc- Message of the Health Sun- was the resource person. tors’ Forum of North India,

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 Rajasthan–Uttar Pradesh Commission for Health. Par- can serve the increasing num- Catholic Health Association ticipants were prominent ber of patients in our country and CBCI Commission for Church leaders from various and enable them to experi- Health, on December 15, Churches, health profession- ence God’s compassion for 2002 at the CBCI Centre, als and senior functionaries them.” New Delhi. Archbishop Vin- from healthcare agencies. Rev. Dr. Robert Vitillo, Co- cent M. Concessao of Delhi chairman, Caritas Internation- in his introductory talk ex- alis AIDS Task Force, Rev. pressed his concern at the 7. The Church’s Collective Dr. Michael Perry, OFM Cap, false propaganda that is go- Response to HIV/AIDS: from the United States Con- ing on against the service Special Consultation of ference of Catholic Bishops, provided by the Christian Bishops and Dr. Rabia Mathai, Global Di- Community in India espe- Major Health rector of Programs, CMMB, cially in the field of health and Developmental New York, Rev. Dr. Thomas and development. The Arch- Organizations Kalam and Dr. G.D Ravin- bishop also mentioned that as held in Bangalore dran from St. John’s National the result of globalization the Academy of Health Sciences, healthcare sector is being The first case of the Human Bangalore, Dr. R. Kuttan and changed into a lucrative busi- Immunodeficiency Virus Dr. Kesavan from Amala In- ness and five star hospitals (HIV) was detected in India stitute of Medical Sciences, totally ignore the poor of our in 1987. In the last 15 years Trichur were the resource per- country. Dr. Lazar Mathew, the disease has spread rapidly sons. Bishop Bernard Moras, the former Director of Insti- all over the country. Today the Chairman of the Commis- 44 tute of Nuclear Sciences, Dr. India is estimated to have sion, spoke on “the Collective Sr. Alphonsa, the late presi- about 4.5 million HIV posi- Catholic Action against dent of RUPCHA were the tive people. It is said that if AIDS”, and stressed that the main speakers. the spread of HIV/AIDS is approach in HIV/AIDS inter- not checked it is likely to vention should be holistic, and wipe out the decades of de- the response should be collec- 6. Inter-denominational velopment achieved in our tive and concerted and inter- Bishops’ Consultation country. Therefore, a special sectoral. The priority should on Health Issues, Consultation on “the be prevention through com- in Delhi Church’s Collective Re- munity participation, though sponse to HIV/AIDS in India the Church will continue to “The Government alone and a Scale up Action” was concentrate on care and sup- cannot tackle all the health held on August 8-9, 2003 at port. needs of the people. It needs St. John’s Medical College, Some of the proposals that the partnership between the Bangalore. The programme emanated from the discus- voluntary sector, especially was coordinated by the CBCI sion are as follows: forma- faith-based organizations”, Health Commission in part- tion of a national coordina- said Dr. A. K. Walia, the Min- nership with the Catholic tion team; finalization of the ster for Health of Delhi. He Medical Mission Board draft of the Church’s policy was speaking at the inaugural (CMMB), New York, U.S.A. on HIV/AIDS; regional level function of the Inter-denomi- Together with 11 Bishops, training of trainers; strategies national Bishops’ Consulta- representatives from three for prevention; observance of tion on Joint-Strategic Plan- Catholic medical colleges HIV/AIDS Sunday; starting ning on Health-related issues, and office-bearers of Interna- community or institution- held on April 28, 2003 at tional and national health and based care and support and YMCA, Delhi. “Serious is- developmental organizations capacity building of existing sues such as drinking water, such as CMMB, Caritas In- organisations for greater in- poverty, malnutrition, com- ternationalis, Caritas India, volvement. municable diseases like T.B, CRS, CHAI, the Catholic The first follow-up pro- Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Hepati- Nurses Guild of India, the gramme was organized on tis-B, etc. can be contained Sister Doctors Forum of India November 2-3, 2003 at St. only if there is a close collab- and the CBCI-IGNOU Chair John’s, Bangalore, in which oration between every sector on Health and Social Welfare the Draft Policy and Strategy in a society”, said the minis- attended the meeting. for future intervention, etc. ter. “You (Christians) are able Archbishop Vincent Con- were discussed. The Bishop- to contribute much; we can cessao in his inaugural mes- chairman sent out a Message cooperate with you wherever sage said: “The Church’s ac- for the World AIDS Day- possible”, he assured the del- tivities must somehow reflect 2003, on the theme, “The egates. The day-long consul- the ministry of Jesus and wit- Challenge to be His Light To- tation was jointly organized ness to His love and compas- day,” which was translated by the Leprosy Mission, the sion. The Church, therefore, into local languages on the Christian Medical Associa- has to look at HIV/AIDS as initiative of the Bishops in- tion of India, World Vision, an opportunity precisely to charge of health in the region- the Catholic Health Associa- show its concern about the al Episcopal Councils. tion of India and the CBCI disease and see how best it

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 8. Seminars in Dioceses and Jhansi Diocesan Health rehabilitation centers, 108 on Health, Commission, headed by Fr. centers for the mentally chal- Health Education Peter Parapilly. lenged, 162 non-formal and Pro-Life in 2003 health facilities, 165 lep- Diocese of Bareilly: A rosaria, 418 healthcare cen- Diocese of Meerut: seminar on pro-life and med- ters for the aged, 61 centers “Catholics working in the ical ethics for healthcare per- for alternative systems of field of healthcare have the sonnel was held on Septem- cure, 113 medical training urgent task of doing all they ber 21, 2003 at the Diocesan centers and 5 medical col- can to defend life when it is Pastoral and Communication leges. Of these institutions, most seriously threatened and Centre in the diocese of 85% are in remote villages, to act with a conscience cor- Bareilly. Forty healthcare and most of the areas are oth- rectly formed according to personnel working in various erwise totally or partially de- the teaching of the Church”, parts of the diocese attended prived of adequate healthcare said the Holy Father in his the one-day seminar, jointly services and structures. Message for the IX World organized by the CBCI Com- Christians, who are just 2,3 % Day of the Sick. The seminar mission and the Diocesan of the total population, are the organized for the healthcare Health Commission. single largest group in India personnel at the Meerut Seva and offers 22% of healthcare Samaj was to familiarize with Diocese of Port Blair: The service in this country. the teaching of the Church on entire Pastoral team of the pro-life and certain current is- Diocese of Port Blair – Bish- sues on medical ethics. op, priests religious and representatives of the laity – 45 Diocese of Bhagalpur: came together from 27 to 30 “Health education is consid- September, 2003, to deliber- ered as the core of healthy ate on healthcare programmes living”. The seminar in Bha- for the coming years. Inaugu- galpur was jointly organized rating the programme Bishop by the CRS and CBCI Com- Alex Dias emphasized the im- mission for Health on March portance of integrating health 8 and 9, 2003. The partici- components in pastoral care pants, seventy in total, were and in the education ministry. mainly heads of educational The programme was jointly institutions and healthcare organized by the Catholic personnel from the diocese of Health Association of Bihar, Bhagalpur. Bishop Thomas Jharkhand and Andamans Kozhimala in his inaugural (CHABIAN) and CBCI Com- address reminded the partici- mission for Health. At the end pants that an inter-sectorial of the seminar a co-ordination approach is essential in the team was formed and a plan effective empowerment of of action for the future was people in the communities. prepared. 10. “Health in Abundance”: A new Journal by the Diocese of Jhansi: The CBCI Commission Pastoral Centre in Jhansi host- 9. The Directory of for Health ed the next health seminar on Catholic Healthcare March 16, 2003. Inaugurating Facilities in India With the approval of the the seminar, Bishop Frederick CBCI Standing Committee of D’Souza, spoke in apprecia- Archbishop Cyril Mar April 2003, the commission tion of the yeoman service Baselios, the President of the decided to bring out a quar- rendered to the people by CBCI, released the “Directo- terly journal, “Health in those in the healthcare institu- ry of Catholic Health Facili- Abundance”. In its first issue tions. “By your efforts, you ties in India” on April 30, of May 2003, the Bishop- are making Christ, the “Good 2003 during the Meeting of Chairman explained its aims Samaritan’, alive today,” said the CBCI Standing Commit- and objectives in these the Bishop. He reminded tee held in Delhi. The Direc- words: “The focus will be on them also that the task ahead tory, in 635 pages, contains the Christian values in health- for the Church, in the scenario details of all the healthcare care. This journal will try to of high prevalence of commu- facilities in 148 dioceses in respond to Pope John Paul nicable diseases like TB, India. It gives also an address II’s repeated appeal “to build Malaria, Kala Azar, and now list of major funding agencies a culture of love and life and HIV/AIDS, and various other in healthcare. The directory to fight against the culture of health hazards, is to form gives the latest healthcare sta- death.” The emphasis, there- more effective strategies as tistics which show that the fore, will be on the moral and they work in communities. Catholic Church alone has pastoral aspects of healthcare, The seminar was organized by 764 hospitals, 2587 dispen- which we hope will benefit the CBCI Health Commission saries and health centers, 70 the healthcare personnel and

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 leaders of communities in CMMB, which was held eases like TB, malaria, kala their attempts in bringing from 16 to 18 November azar, HIV/AIDS, leprosy, etc. holistic health.” 2003 in New York. The com- compels us to concentrate mission was represented at more on the preventive and the international conferences promotive aspects, particular- 11. Website by the Health organized by the Pontifical ly by involving the health- Commission: Council for Health Pastoral care, educational and devel- www.cbcihealth.com Care, which were held in No- opmental organizations of the vember 2002 and 2003 at the Church. The CBCI Commission for Vatican. The Secretary took Heath has launched its updat- part at the XI World Day of ed website: www.cbcihealth.com. the Sick, held from 9 to 11 14. A Word of Gratitude The website has details on February 2003, and at the and Appreciation healthcare involvement of the Global Health Council held Church in India and topics on from 25 to 28 May, 2003, We take this opportunity to medical ethics, etc. It also which were held in Washing- place on record our sincere contains information on the ton DC. The secretary partic- thanks and appreciation for study programme on “HIV ipated also at the Interde- the whole-hearted support, and Family Education” of- nominational Church meet- encouragement and guidance fered by the CBCI-IGNOU ing on HIV/AIDS organized that the commission enjoys Chair and an on-line version by the National Council of of the current and past issues Churches from 23 to 24 Sep- of the journal, “Health in tember 2003 in Nagpur. 46 Abundance.”

13. Future Plans: 12. Meetings and Participation 13.1. Revision of the health in Seminars policy of the Catholic and Programmes Church in India

12.1. Commission meetings The commission plans to revise the health policy of the The Health Commission Church in India, which was had three special meetings. brought out in 1991. Since For the meeting held on April health needs in our country 19, 2002 at the CBCI Centre, have changed considerably New Delhi, Fr. Francis Bor- and in the context of the gia, Fr. Harry Stocks and Dr. globalization and privatiza- Gracious Thomas were invit- tion of healthcare in our na- from Bishop Bernard Moras, ed as experts for a better un- tion such a revision seems the chairman. The commis- derstanding on various areas imperative. This will include sion’s members, Bishop Ig- of concern. On August 8, also a set of guidelines based natius Menezes and Bishop 2003, the Commission held on the Gospel values and the Thomas Elavanal, deserve its meeting at St. John’s Med- teaching of the Church on our special thanks for their ical College, Bangalore, in moral and ethical issues. valuable advice, assistance which bishops in-charge of and support. We also thank health commissions in the 13.2. Networking and all the esteemed members of Regional Bishops’ Councils partnership the CBCI for the encourage- and five new consultors of ment, Caritas, the CRS, the the commission, were pre- There has been a closer IGSSS, the CMMB and other sent. collaboration with the nation- agencies that have assisted us al health organizations, espe- financially in the realization 12.2. Other programmes cially with the CHAI in the of various programmes and past years. The commission projects. The chairman and the sec- plans to work towards greater retary participated in two networking with CHAI, the consecutive Annual General CNGI, the Indian Federation 15. Conclusion Body Meetings of CHAI, of Medical Guilds, the Christ- held on October 11-13, 2002 ian Medical Association of In the recent Post-Synodal in Jalandhar and on October India (CMAI) and similar or- Apostolic Exhortation, Pas- 24-26, 2003 in Secunder- ganizations. tores Gregis, Holy Father, abad. Similarly both of them Pope John Paul II, explaining took part in the Golden Ju- 13.3. Communicable the mission of an integral bilee of the Catholic Nurses diseases proclamation of the “Gospel Guild of India held from 16 of Life”, points out that to 20 October 2002 in Banga- The widespread increase of “When Christians try to hu- lore, and 75th. anniversary of various communicable dis- manize medicine and the care

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 of the sick by showing per- in an intense way, especially everyone that they should sonal concern and closeness through its effective presence continue to communicate by to the suffering, they become in the healthcare sector in caring and serving the sick for everyone a powerful im- rural areas, which are totally and the suffering. age of Jesus himself, the or partially deprived of other healer of bodies and souls”. health services and struc- Rev. ALEX VADAKUMTALA The Church in India, though tures, and by her preferential Executive Secretary a miniscule community of option to serve the marginal- Commission for Health Care just 2.3 % of the total popula- ized sick and the poor. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India tion, has been communicat- theme, “Church and social ing Jesus, the divine healer, communications”, reminds

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 The Pastoral Care in Health Week Nampula, Mozambique, 9-14 June 2003

Given the low presence of provinces of Mozambique it should be promoted in mod- pastoral care in health in the came to the course, because ern society. He stressed the life of parishes and dioceses, those furthest away were more value of emphasising preven- the Diocesan Committee for than two thousand kilometres tion more than cure. The psy- Pastoral Care in Health of from Nampula, invitations chological, social and spiritual Nampula decided to organise a were sent to all the provinces implications of the two con- training course lasting a week and dioceses. The result was cepts in contemporary con- at a national level, that is to say the presence of students from sumer society and the way in for the whole of Mozambique. seven dioceses and an encour- which health can be promoted The decision to organise this aging total of sixty-five partici- both individually and collec- course was taken, even though pants. tively were discussed and illus- there was an awareness of the The week began with a trated. economic and logistical diffi- slight delay as regards the pro- The Provincial Director for culties that such an event gramme of events because of Health then spoke and provid- would involve, with the en- the times of the flight arrival ed an overall vision of the 48 couragement of the Pontifical from Portugal. But we took ad- health care system in Mozam- Council for Health Pastoral vantage of the morning of the bique and at a more practical Care. ninth day to present detailed level that to be found in the First of all, it was necessary information about the support province of Nampula, of which to contact people who were that the Community of St. he is the director. He accompa- specialised in this form of pas- Egidio wants to give to nied his talk with a series of toral care and find a way to get Mozambique in its fight graphs and statistics that were them to Mozambique. Rev. against AIDS. We are dealing very instructive. He enthralled Feytor Pinto, the national dele- here with a programme which the audience with his exposi- gate for pastoral care in health is already underway in two of tion and left the data that he for Portugal whom we contact- the principal cities of the coun- had used so that they could be ed on the matter, told us about try (Maputo and Beiro) and used for a more detailed subse- his strong wish to visit our which will not be extended to quent study later on. country again – he had visited Nampula as well. It involves The following day began it over thirty years previously. providing the necessary analy- with the pastoral vision of It was only necessary to find ses to diagnose this disease and health and illness with refer- the right date for those giving help in caring for the carriers ence to the history of the the papers that were in the pro- of the virus, including the ad- Church and her magisterium in gramme. We also contacted ministration of anti-retrovirals. this field. Rev. Feytor Pinto Rev. Aires Garniero of the During the training week the and Rev. Aires Gameiro ad- Hospital Order of the Fa- Director of the Anti-Aids Unit, dressed subjects connected tabenefratelli, a psychologist Dr. Eusebio Chaquise, also with the history of pastoral and specialist in behaviour (de- gave two papers to the training care in health from the pioneer- pendency) illnesses, and he al- week, in which he provided ing beginnings in various so agreed to take part in this up-dated statistics in the spread countries until the publication training course. of this disease in the southern of pontifical documents which The other speakers came region of the country and the consecrated such pastoral care from Mozambique itself. We trends envisaged for the future. in a definitive way, namely turned to the Provincial Direc- These two papers were of great Salvificis Doloris and Dolen- tor for Health, Dr. Alberto interest, both in health care and tium Hominum. Vaquina, who undertook to pastoral care terms. Over subsequent days differ- give a paper on health in In the evening, once Rev. ent subjects in the programme Mozambique and in particular Feytor Pinto and Rev. Aires were addressed, both in their in Nampula, and to Dr. Ramon Garniero had arrived from Por- theological and their historical Ferrero, also a member of the tugal, the real programme of aspects. Hospital Order of the Fa- the week began. Rev. Avelinio, The implications of this tabenefratelli, the health care the Episcopal Vicar for Pas- form of pastoral care at the lev- director of the psychiatric hos- toral Care in Health, made a el of different possible agents pital of Nampula, who agreed speech of greetings to those were also analysed in detail: to address subjects connected taking part which was given on health care professionals, pas- with his long experience in the behalf of the Archbishop. tors at a diocesan and parish field of pastoral care in health. Dr. Ferrero opened the pro- level, members of the lay faith- Despite the difficulties that ceedings by addressing the ful and voluntary workers. But were encountered in ensuring general subject of the concept the role of sick people in the that representatives from the of health and the way in which development and experience of

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 this form of pastoral care was given that those most in need us to keep up with the ad- also a subject that was not ne- do not have access to the basic vances made in this field. Fur- glected. needs of food, hygiene, drink- thermore, during the papers A day was then dedicated to ing water or essential drugs given during the training week the study of the challenges pro- and medicines. references were made to publi- vided by bioethics today in the The broad horizon now pre- cations in the field and to the vast field of its application and sent in the world of health and possibility of acquiring instruc- to the relationship between this health care requires an increas- tion on its various questions discipline and medicine, law, ingly exact knowledge of the and issues by buying academic morality and theology in gen- elements that condition that works where necessary. eral. We dwelt upon certain world: the quality of life, ecol- An assessment carried out at topical subjects about which ogy, health care, etc. an individual level at the end pastoral care in health must re- Over subsequent days a of the training week provided flect and in relation to which it complete survey of pastoral an overall result of over 70% should express its point of care in health in various con- of an assessment of ‘excel- view, with reference to other texts was provided: from hos- lent’. We thus feel encouraged criteria as well, and on such pital institutions with a large to carry on in the future along subjects of great topical rele- number of personnel and pa- this qualitative and method- vance as the use of stem cells, tients, which require a better ological pathway so that, grad- frozen embryos, adult cells to organisation of the pastoral ually, pastoral care in health replace existing ones, and so service offered, to small health will become a part of the pro- forth. care centres and also the family grammes of the annual courses Reference was also made to and personal context where the that the Catechetical Centre of the advisability of the Church individual action of pastoral Anchilo (where the training 49 and her representatives being workers can be sufficient. week was organised) will pro- up-dated so that advice can be During the course of the vide for the various courses given in different fields – the training week we also organ- that it teaches. medical, social and political ised an exhibition of books and We hope that the fruits of fields – in which health is pre- material on pastoral care in this training week will be felt sent and promoted. Given that health offered by the publish- in the dioceses from which the health is a valuable possession, ers St. Paul’s who sent one of various representatives came. the best way to distribute exist- their sisters. At this exhibition ing resources within poor these books and material were Fra. RAMÓN FERRERÓ OH, countries must be studied. Use- also on sale. This initiative was Director of the Psychiatric less waste through investing in a further support for this form Hospital of Nampula, appearances has to be avoided of pastoral care that will allow Mozambique.

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003

Pastoral Care in Health in the Vicariate of San José in the Amazon during the Twentieth Century

Twelve ethno-linguistic fam- entrusted in 1896 to Rev. turned to Spain and was re- ilies and sixty-three ethnic Francesco de Lales SSCC. At placed by the presbyter Pedro groups have lived along the the beginning of the twentieth Prat. The missionaries were re- banks of the Amazon rivers of century these three above men- ceived with little enthusiasm by Peru for centuries. The ethnic tioned apostolic prefectures the urban population of Iquitos groups of the North West of the were created, and this produced who were experiencing a flour- Peruvian Amazon did not form what Maria Victoria Fernan- ishing period described by Rev. a part of the system organised dez, a professor of history, calls Jesús Victor San Román as the by the empire of the Incas. The in her work ‘The Missionary ‘period of caoutchouc’, a peri- first Catholic priest to reach Church in Peru and the Augus- od which covered the years this region was Fra. Gaspar de tinians in the Twentieth Centu- 1880-1914. 50 Baltasar, the first chaplain of ry’, ‘the second entrance of the The work of native workers, the Spanish expedition which, missionaries’. The prelature of or of workers who had emigrat- in obedience to the orders is- San León del Amazonas was ed from other provinces, in the sued by Pedro de Orellana, ar- entrusted to the Augustinians; production of caoutchouc ex- rived for the first time in Peru- the prelature of San Francisco posed them to malaria, yellow vian territory in 1542, and del Ucayali was given to the fever, and snakebites, as we are more specifically in the area of Franciscans; and the prelature told by Rev. Jesús Victor San the river Rio. Fra. Baltasar of Santo Domingo dell’U- Román in his ‘Perfiles Históri- wrote a detailed report on the rubamba was placed in the cos de la Amazonia Peruana’ areas populated by the natives hands of the Dominicans. (CETA-CAAAP-IIIAP, 1995). and on the geographical size of This historical event took The difficult condition of the these areas. place at the end of the golden workers, described by among The first contact of the na- period of the production of others Rev. Paulino Diaz, was tives with the Europeans in- caoutchouc, and for the natives, the subject of reflection on the volved their exposure to dis- and in particular for those who part of His Holiness Pius X in eases that were then unknown had not been baptised – who his Lacrimabili Statu. in the region; hence the major were seen as ‘savages’ by the The prefecture of San José impact that these diseases had urban population – this period del Amazonas was separated on these populations. meant becoming marginalised from the vicariate of San León After these explorations, the because they were transferred del Amazonas in 1943. The ju- Jesuits established settlements by the ‘caucheros’ to be used as risdiction of this vicariate cov- – the so-called ‘reducciones’– manual labour in production of ered 135,000 square kilometres so as to evangelise and educate caoutchouc. Other natives, of and its first bishop was H.E. the natives, but their mission- their own accord, moved to- Msgr. Dámaso Labérge. On his ary effort was interrupted in wards the central part of the death, which took place on 25 1878 when they were expelled territory to avoid being forced December 1968, this bishop from Peru (see Rev. Samuel to work in such conditions. was succeeded by the Canadian Fritz, Reducciones de Maynas). In 1901 the Augustinians Franciscan, Msgr. Lorenzo In 1894 Leo XIII, who had reached the city of Iquitos, Guibord Levesque OFM, who been elected Pope in 1878, sent which had been the capital of in 1967 was consecrated bish- a letter to the bishops of the the department of Loreto since op and also made the Auxiliary country in which he said that he 1887, according to what is re- of the vicariate. In 1971 Msgr. wanted the eastern part of Peru lated by Rev. Gregorio Mar- Guisbord asked the Congrega- to be evangelised. In order to tinez and Rev. Joarquin Garcia tion for the Propaganda of the meet the wishes of the Pope, OSA in their reports to the re- Faith to allow the Association Rev. Soto proposed the cre- gional vicariate of Iquitos in of the Franciscans of the Holy ation of three apostolic prefec- Amazonian Peru. Their mis- Apostles, to which he be- tures for the Selva region, sion was to begin the evangeli- longed, to pass under his au- named respectively San León sation of the natives. Rev. thority. del Amazonas, San Francisco Paulino Diaz was made the On 17 January 1998, H.E. del Ucayali, and Santo Domin- Apostolic Prefect of the Vicari- Msgr. Alberto Campos Hernán- go del Urubamba. ate of San León del Amazonas dez was made head of the vic- After being established, the and Superior of the Augustini- ariate. He is a Franciscan of Work for the Propagation of the ans, a position that he held until Mexican nationality who is still Faith in the East of Peru was 1911, the year when he re- carrying out his mission in a re-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 gion of 89,000 inhabitants with of New Brunswick, who in of months on the collaboration twelve priests, five diocesans, 1948 reached Iquitos to move of two Spanish women doctors seven male religious, three sis- along the banks of the Rio to- who helped to improve the ters, twenty-nine female reli- wards the distant locality of quality of life of the leprosy gious, and seven women lay San Pablo with a view to taking victims by treating those who missionaries. care of leprosy sufferers. At the suffered subsequently from In 1971, that is to say after time people suffering from this foot disorders. Vatican Council II, the mis- disease were stigmatised by so- In order to avoid the spread sionaries of the Selva region ciety and were thus the social of the disease, the hospital sis- of Peru met at a meeting on category that most had to enters of San José created a missionary pastoral care in the dure situations that wounded school for the children of lep- Alto Amazonas to reflect on human dignity. Some of the rosy victims in the locality of their work. They have carried lepers had reached that place Indiana. This programme was out their work of evangelisa- after a solitary voyage on a raft. underway until 1969. In that tion and human promotion These sisters took responsi- year these children returned to supported by the Centre for bility for the leper sanctuary of live in San Pablo and were thus Theological Studies of the reunited with their parents. A Amazon (CETA) and by the health care institution was also Amazonian Centre for Anthro- created in this area which was pology and Practical Applica- subsequently entrusted to the tion (CAAAP). state and which at the present The CETA, which was creat- time is a health care centre, ed in 1972 by the now de- with the permanent presence of ceased Msgr. Gabino Peral de a medical doctor, that engages 51 la Torre OSA, organises cours- in activity involving prevention es in theology. This prestigious and promotion for the commu- institution, supported by the nity under its jurisdiction. A fe- enthusiasm of the Augustinian male hospital religious of San priest Joaquin Garcia, is en- José works there as a nurse. gaged in a massive publishing In 1951 the Sisters of Our and documentation venture that Lady of the Angels reached the contributes to the process in- locality of Santa Clotilde on the volving the inculturation of river Napo in order to provide pastoral workers. San Pablo, which had been cre- education to those who lived One of the goals of the Ama- ated by the government of Peru there. They created a college zonian Centre for Anthropolo- by a law of 28 January 1925. for women. Within the frame- gy and Practical Application By a decree of the then Presi- work of this parish mission, the (CAAAP), which was founded dent of the Republic, Augusto Franciscan missionaries pro- in 1974 by the bishops of Ama- Bernadino Leguia, it was des- moted the creation of bilingual zonian Peru, is as follows: to ignated as the centre where all primary schools in the accompany pastoral workers in the lepers of the country were Quichuas community. reflection on the reality and to be sent. Sister Grant was one The sisters also organised a contribute to the overall pro- of the first people to be in health care clinic where a priest motion of Amazonian man. charge of this institution. and medical doctor, Rev. Jack In the vicariate of San José For those lepers who did not MacCarthy, who had graduated del Amazonas the missionaries have anyone to take care of in medicine in 1977, later came begun their service of rural pas- them the female religious or- to work. This priest is still car- toral care in health in a context ganised the ‘Casa San José’. It rying on his activity today to- in which the native communi- is moving to see on the walls gether with the presbyter of the ties had their own view of the near to their beds photographs Congregation of the Oblates of cosmos and a holistic approach of their relatives whom they Mary and the medical doctor to the health/illness process. will never see again, and their Mauricio Schoreder, who is of Amongst the natives the ex- tales about how they reached Canadian nationality. Sister ponent of religion who deals that locality are dramatic. Colette, of the Congregation of with illness is the medicine At the beginning of the Our Lady of the Angels, also man, whose function is still ac- 1990s, when Sister Juan Bel- joined this medical team, and tive today and who carries out trave was the head of the health in addition to looking after pa- treatment through the oral ad- care centre of San Pablo, which tients in the health care centre ministration of herbs, such as is run by the state, she was sup- she also took part in activities ayahuasca or toé, accompanied ported in her work by receiving involving preventive medicine by songs and prayers. The na- from the vicariate a medical and the control of tuberculosis tives, indeed, have a deep doctor who had been sent out in the river communities. knowledge of the medicinal to provide his service. The The clinic became a state properties of plants. CAAAP also provided training health care centre and at the be- Pastoral care in health began in emergency services to the ginning of the 1990s it was in in the vicariate with the pres- auxiliary nursing staff. practical terms a rural hospital ence of the female hospital reli- During that decade the health with twenty-two beds, sound gious of St. Joseph, the sisters care centre relied for a number management in the hands of

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 the missionaries, and a medical municipality of Pevas in whose sures such as the building of la- doctor who engaged in the an- territory live the natives of the trines in the high areas of the nual service required by the Boro and Huitoto tribes of the communities in order to avoid state. river Ampiyacu, together with the contamination of water sup- The missionaries were also the Yaguas community. Sister plies in the flood area, as well responsible for the health care Carballo encouraged them to as the boiling of drinking wa- provided to the members of train their own health care pro- ter. The most seriously ill pa- their own communities and moters and with her support in tients were transferred to the promoted the creation of clinics health care centre of Tamshiy- and the training of community acu, which is run by the state, health care workers. In June or to the hospital in Iquitos. 1973 Rev. Juan Marcos Merci- A mobile service to help the er, together with the health care most distant communities is an- directorate of Iquitos, co-ordi- other characteristic of the pas- nated the organisation of a toral care in health of this vic- course for health care promot- ariate. For many years Sister ers of the native communities – Gaetane Souey Martin, who is the Secoyas, the Ticunas, the a nurse, was entrusted by the Boras, the Vacacochas, the vicariate with running the pre- Yaguas, the Orejones and the ventive medicine service of the Yumbos-Quichuas – living vicariate. On the advice of Sis- within the vicariate. The course ter De Lucia, the representative lasted a month and involved the of the Pan-American Health 52 participation of Sister Teresa Organisation, in 1979 she visit- Hubert, a nurse from the clinic the parish structures a course to ed the communities along the of St. Clotilde. The male reli- this end was established. An- river Napo of Tempestad, gious doctors of this health care other locality with the presence Chingana, Monterrico, Campo centre continued to train health of missionaries is Yanashi, a Serio, Rumi tumi, San Carlos, care promoters in small groups, parish that was reached by the Puca Barranca, Negro Urco who were then transferred to Orsoline Sisters. These reli- and Diamante Azul in order to St. Clotilde and stayed there for gious organised a health care assess the activities of the a specific period of time. clinic that deals with the needs health care promoters working The Italian civil project ‘Do- of the rural communities, and there and to carry out a survey mani’, organised in the High especially the Yaguas commu- of the most common illnesses Napo with the support of the nities of the river Orosa. on the region and to listen to native communities of the In an area bordered on one the views of the inhabitants of Orikuan Association, together side by the city of Iquitos, after the above mentioned localities. with the vicariate and the going down the Rio, one comes For many years, the respon- health care centre of St. to the regions of the Tamshiy- sibilities of Sister Gaetane were Clotilde, co-ordinated the acu and the Aucayo. In this lat- not limited to the Quichuas launching of activities involv- ter region the Orsoline sisters communities alone. The med- ing preventive medicine within organised an educational centre ical doctors Brigida and Pedro the jurisdiction of this mission. and a health care clinic which Berweger, who in order to en- The missionaries of St. Clotilde was subsequently transferred to gage in a diagnosis of the promoted a system involving the state. health care situation of the Sec- the listing and check listing of In the jurisdiction of the oyas travelled the regions of patients who went to the city of commune of Fernando Lores the river Yubinetto and the river Iquitos in the boat of the mis- there is the Tamshiyacu region Anguilla (tributaries of the riv- sion when their clinical state which, together with the Au- er Putumayo) in 1981, pointed required it. These people con- cayo region, forms a nature re- out in their preliminary report tinued to receive the support of serve. When Rev. Clemente that during the previous decade the missionaries. Larose was the parish priest the only vaccination campaigns In practical terms, the health (San Vietor), until his departure to have taken place were those care centre of St. Clotilde is a he periodically visited the com- organised by the vicariate it- rural hospital with twenty-two munities in his jurisdiction as a self. The first such campaign inside beds. From this institu- part of his pastoral ministry, was in 1974/1975 and the section the male religious and Sis- and he paid special attention to ond was in 1980 – years in ter Colette went out to reach a specific part of the Tamshiy- which three new cases of polio the communities for the pur- acu region. He also co-operated were also diagnosed. In these poses of vaccination cam- in calling together health care communities were also to be paigns or to engage in a pro- promoters in order to provide found cases of plasmodium fal- gramme for the control of tu- them with training and he also ciparum malaria, measles, and berculosis. offered the use of parish struc- hepatitis. Other parishes also respond- tures for these meetings. During the 1980s, in the re- ed to the need for health care in During the cholera epidemic gion of the river Putumayo, be- the rural areas. When returning of 1991, the health care pro- tween Jerusalem and Ipiringa from San Pablo across the Rio moters of Tamshiyacu realised and the river Yubinetto and the one meets the population of the the need for preventive mea- river Anguilla, there was no

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 state-run health care centre and response (with a health care nesses, and these children are the nearest such structure was promoter) of these communi- also attacked by parasites that in Estrecho, which was five ties to a perceived need, also give them anaemia. days’ travel away. The only took part in this meeting. Another aspect to be borne in heath care operator to periodi- The Orsoline religious Blan- mind is that the task of training cally visit this region was Sister dine Massicotte, of Canadian people to engage in mobilisa- Gaetane. nationality, participated with tion has meant the active par- In the training course for great enthusiasm and energy in ticipation of women in commu- health care promoters organ- the training actions of the nity actions based on solidarity ised in 1973 by the vicariate a woman-child survival mobili- and the promotion of the lead- health care promoter from the sation programme of UNICEF ership of women in the river most heavily populated Secoya for the women of the native communities. community received training. and ‘campesinas’ communities Sister Blandine, as a repre- He then organised a small com- of the vicariate. Inviting them sentative of the Department for munal pharmacy. The Secoyas to the city of Iquitos or meeting Pastoral Care in Health of the also have a traditional medical them in their communities, she Bishops’ Conference of Peru, figure in their medicine man. promoted oral re-hydration has continued to encourage the On 5 February 1985, His Ho- therapy and urged a positive participation of pastoral work- liness John Paul II went to Iqui- approach to breastfeeding. ers and health care promoters tos and addressed a message to In order to really appreciate from the river communities in the local population at the air- the real scale of this initiative actions involving prevention port of this city. He declared: ‘I we need only remember that and promotion, including those also know about – and this is the inhabitants of most of the from the remotest parishes something that causes me pain river communities do not have such as that of Caballococha or 53 – the insufficient attention you fresh water supplies and so the parish of the heart of Jesus can pay to your physical health drink water from the rivers; and of Orellana. These pastoral because of a lack of the medi- given that there is no sewage workers and health care pro- cines and means to keep your system they are forced to use moters, in these meetings or- lives healthy’. He also exhorted latrines. ganised by the Department for his listeners to foster their spiri- A positive approach to ma- Pastoral Care in Health of the tual and material advance. The ternal breastfeeding has also Bishops’ Conference of Peru, answer to this appeal came been very important because have found a space for reflec- from the vicariate, the non- mothers usually make addition and the exchange of expe- governmental organisations tions to the diet of their chil- riences. and public institutions. dren very early on. These take All the parishes of the mis- In 1989, an increase in the the form of cow’s milk and a sion have progressively trans- levels of the river Napo, which drink called ‘masato’, which is formed their activities, moving flooded the communities along from pastoral care involving its banks and produced the services to social pastoral care highest flood levels for the wa- for human promotion. Within ters of the river Napo in forty- its jurisdiction, the vicariate two years, had heavy repercus- contributed to the creation of a sions for the inhabitants of the health care structure in the rural communities of the zone who areas, which was then taken lost their domestic animals and over by the state, and to the saw their fields flooded. In ad- training of rural community dition, a large number of wild leaders in the field of health animals also died. Worried by and health care in order to pro- the situation, Msgr. Guibord mote an improvement in the provided for the mobilisation life conditions of their families of the vicariate to support the and communities. At the pre- communities involved. sent time, many of the pastoral In 1990, the second meeting workers who have borne wit- on evangelisation and health ness to the commitment to the organised by the ‘Episcopal Lord by bringing his words to Commission for Social Action based upon cooked and minced the remotest communities and in the Selva Region’ took place. cassava to which they add bits providing them with service – The next meeting was organ- of chewed cassava in order to an example of love for others – ised the subsequent year in Iq- facilitate the process of fermen- are no longer in the region. But uitos and one of the subjects tation. Another regional food they are alive in the memories discussed at the meeting was given to breast fed children is and the oral tradition of its in- the drawing up of a concept of called ‘maduro’ and this is habitants. overall health. The ‘Provvida’, made from cooked platan an institution organised by the which is then mixed with wa- Dr. CARLOS J. CHAVERA Catholic Church, which, to- ter. BIANCHI, Surgeon, gether with the organisation Amongst the forest children, former head (1989-1992) and management of communi- diarrhoea-related diseases are of the Health Area of the CAAAP, ty dispensaries, constituted the an important cause of fatal ill- Iquitos, Peru

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003

The Tiber Island: on the Island of Health for Five Centuries

The history of the Hospital monarchy, in 509 BC, follow- shipped in the form of a golden Order of St. John of God, better ing a precise episode which Ti- snake in which it was thought known as the ‘Fatebenefratel- tus Livy himself described in the god was present but which li’, is inseparably bound up the following way: ‘The territo- was rarely seen by the faithful. with the Tiber Island. At the ry of the Tarquinians to be This time, however, this snake same time the history of this found between the city and the came out immediately and af- Order is also linked to the his- Tiber was consecrated to Mars ter three days spontaneously tory of hospitals. Although the and thus became the Field of reached the Roman trireme and present-day hospital has a very Mars. It is said that exactly at then took the road to Rome. precise name (‘San Giovanni that moment there was a crop Although the banks of the Calibita’; ‘St. John the Calibi- of grain which was ready to be Tiber were high, the snake ta’), there are very few Ro- harvested. But because it threw itself into the river and mans, and nobody outside would have been sacrilege to reached the island. At the same 54 Rome, who know the hospital have taken advantage of such a time the epidemic stopped and, as such. For everyone it is the harvest, a great crowd of peo- obviously enough, it was de- hospital of the Tiber Island or ple went there and cut the grain cided to build a temple to Es- even more simply ‘of the Is- with all the stalks and bundled culapius on the island. The land’, and in this there is a sim- it up with cords, and threw it episode that has just been de- ple identification of a geo- into the Tiber, which as hap- scribed in essential terms and graphical connotation with the pens in the middle of summer in a very short way became en- identity of the structure to be was at that time very low.1 Thus riched in the accounts of the found on the island. the heaps of matter, lying in the different historians in various It is precisely this very spe- shallow points of the river bed, rich and picturesque terms that cial tie, which has lasted down ended up by settling and being cannot be related here.4 the centuries, that deserves covered by sediment. Gradual- The real reasons why the special analysis, an analysis ly accumulating everything Tiber Island was chosen for the which should not only and so else that the river usually construction of the temple of much be of a historical charac- brings down with it, an island Esculapius were many and can ter but one based upon refer- came to be formed’.2 be traced back to the wish to lo- ence to ‘the philosophy of Modern knowledge about cate the crowd of sick people care’. In fact, the Fatabene- watercourses provides us with who would have thronged there fratelli carry with them a her- a different idea of the facts and outside the centre of the city, to itage made up of a culture of attributes the formation of the suspicion towards a cult that hospitality, and that makes island not only to times that are was after all ‘foreign’ even them an advanced point of that much more remote but to the though popular, to certain diffi- Church which Paul VI deemed slow accumulation of the detri- dence towards the art of medi- an ‘expert in humanity’. tus of the river which later cine which was often exercised formed into sedimentary rocks. by charlatans, or more simply However, it should be ob- to the need to have large quan- 1. The Health Care Vocation served, in support of the an- tities of water for the needs re- of the Tiber Island cient legend, that there is the quired by worship in the temple fact that recent surveys have itself.5 The temple was built 1.1. The origins of the island found a notable quantity of where there is now the Church according to legend grain five metres beneath the of St. Bartholomew, the con- surface.3 struction of which employed Even though the Fatabene- certain materials of the temple fratelli ‘drew near’ to the island 1.2. The Temple of Esculapius which today take the form of only in the sixteenth century, marble fragments, certain mo- the history of the island already In 292 BC Rome was struck saics and columns. had, according to legend, a cen- by a very serious plague that However much it may be im- turies old health care tradition lasted for three years. At that mortalised by a copious iconog- from the times of its origins. point the Senate decided to raphy, the ‘rebuilding’ of the According to a very old pop- send an embassy to Epidaurus whole island in the form of a ular tradition recorded by Titus to beseech the god of medi- ship, the ‘ship of stone’ as it Livy and with a greater caution cine, Esculapius, for help. Up was called, is equally a matter by other historians of the is- to that point requests to him of legend. Such a possibility is land, the island came into being ‘from afar’ had produced no to be found solely in the exis- during the age of the Roman results. This god was wor- tence a ‘prow’ on one of the

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 sides of the island, but nothing gateway of his father’s home. ranean from the increasing dan- allows us to think that a plan- His father did not recognise ger of the Turks entered the ning of the whole site along him but took pity on him and Gulf of Lepanto. It was led by these lines was ever envisaged. allowed him to continue in this John of Austria12 and amongst activity. John only asked for a the ‘nurses’ to care for the sol- 1.3. Later Buildings hut where he could live diers were also to be found the (kalùbe) and it was for this rea- friars of St. John of God.13 Roundabout the year 1000 son that he was subsequently In Rome, in the meantime, AD, Otto II had a church built known as the ‘calibita’. Only a Pius V was involved in dis- on the ruins of the temple of little time before his death did cussing various affairs of state. Esculapius which was designed he reveal to his parents who he All of a sudden, according to to hold the relics of St. Adal- really was. Because of these certain witnesses of the time, bert of Prague.6 The church was various biographical events he he stood up and looking at the then dedicated to St. was soon seen as the patron sky said: ‘this is no longer the Bartholomew after his relics saint of pilgrims and – or so we time to discuss our affairs; hur- (or at least some of them) had would say today – of the been brought there by St. Ben- ‘homeless’, and he also had a eventure. notable reputation as a healer. After the temple of Escu- When the Fatebenefratelli lapius, the Church of St. took possession of the church Bartholomew was the second that was devoted to him, which health care connection of the amongst other things contained Tiber Island. And not because his tomb, they wanted to con- of activity involving care, serve the name, even though 55 which was probably never en- this in the meanwhile had given gaged in, but because of the rise to two difficulties. On the figure of the saint who by tradi- one hand, there was the confu- tion was linked to healing. In- sion made by some people who deed, many hospitals were identified this St. John (the Cal- named after him,7 and of these ibita) with other St. John (of the most famous is undoubted- God), who had founded the Fa- ly Old Bart’s of London, one of tabenefratelli, and on the other the most prestigious hospitals there was the fact that the rea- of Victorian England.8 The sons for the name were ab- ry to thank God; because our saint was prayed to above all solutely unknown because al- army at this moment has else for help in cases of convul- most everyone failed to realise gained a victory over the sions, muscular spasms, and that the Hospital of St. John the Turks’. Telepathy? Supernatur- nervous maladies in general.9 Calibita was not the Hospital of al inspiration? Mere legend? As testimony to that past, there St. John (another well known We do not know. But it is a fact still exists the well from which, Roman hospital) but the hospi- that as a result of this victory following a tradition that went tal of the Fatebenefratelli or the this Pope established the cult of back to ancient Asclepeius, wa- ‘Hospital on the Tiber Island’. the ‘Madonna della Vittoria’ ter was drawn that was held to The provision of health care (‘Our Lady of Victory’), subse- be ‘miraculous’, and this tradi- continued over subsequent cen- quently altered and changed to tion continued until recent turies when, side by side with the plural (‘Our Lady of the times. the building of the Church of Victories’), with a clear exten- On the other side of the is- St. John the Calibita, which had sion in a spiritual sense, as well land, where there the hospital sprung up on the site of the as a general reference to ‘Our of the Fatabenefratelli is to be chapel in which this saint had Lady of the Rosary’, to whose found, the Church of St. John died, a monastery was built intercession was attributed the the Calibita was built. This still which at the outset was inhabit- defeat of the Turks. exists and still today this is re- ed first by Benedictine fathers Probably, leaving aside a se- sponsible for the official name and then by Benedictine nuns.11 ries of internal contrasts that on the hospital. As is well known, hospitality arose along the return road be- John was the son of a noble and care provided to the sick tween the ‘Venetian’ compo- Roman family that probably and infirm is one of the specific nent and the ‘Spanish’ compo- had its palace on the exact prerogatives of the Benedictine nent of the army, there was a place where the hospital now order, which in this monastery supernatural explanation given stands or along the opposite engaged in this kind of activity to that event and thus a re- banks. Abandoning the family in an effective way. newed religious fervour took home and the brilliant future hold. This is, I think, to be seen that awaited him, John went to as a by no means secondary Bitania and became an acemeta 2. The Arrival of the factor in understanding the sub- (that is to say a non-sleeping) Fatabenefratelli in Italy sequent decisions taken by the monk. After returning to his hospital friars on their way homeland after six years he On the morning of 7 October back from the war. continued his life of penitence 1571 the Christian army sum- St. John of God had died in and of being a mendicant at the moned to liberate the Mediter- Granada on 8 March 1550

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 without leaving behind him a day) ‘entered and left’ such words of an accurate historian real and authentic ‘congrega- communities and at times pro- of the order: ‘after obtaining tion’ or religious ‘order’, even vided witness that was not very the dispatches and the Bull though we know with certainty edifying. In order to end this from His Holiness St. Pius V, that he wanted to create such a state of affairs, Pius VI himself the venerable Father Sebas- body.14 His early companions, in 1568 issued the papal Bull tiano Arias took on the respon- within the space of a few years, Lubricum vitae genus by which sibility of taking them to Spain. had founded hospitals in he obliged such people to Going through Naples with the Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba and choose one of the set of rules Servant of God (Friar Pedro that had already approved by Soriano) and visiting Naples, the ecclesiastical authorities they met in that city, the garden and to adopt a life in conformi- of the world, the most serene ty with it, either engaging in a John of Austria, the victor of profession of religious vows the famous battle of Lepanto, publicly or leaving their com- and as they had met him during munities for good. their presence in the army in For this reason it cannot be Granada, in which they had excluded that in the presence of served in order to care for this papal Bull, which also wounded soldiers and the sick obliged the community of the people of Alpajurras, they went brothers of St. John of God to to see him and speak to him. take this step, and given their And they received five thou- wish for recognition on the part sand ducats from His Highness 56 of the Pope, there was a strong to found a hospital-monastery impulse to ask the Pope for in that city, and this was the something more than mere first to be founded in Italy. The Lucena. In fact, beyond any conformity with his previous venerable Sebastiano Arias re- formal steps, they already order. turned to Spain with the Briefs amounted to a diocesan reli- Thus it was that Rodrigo da whilst the Servant of God Pe- gious family (as is clear from Siguenza, an senior brother of dro Soriano stayed on with the the existence of a habit and the the hospital of Granada, sent intention of proceeding with constitutions). Even though it Friar Sebastiano Arias and Fri- the foundation’.18 cannot be excluded that for ar Pedro Soriano to Rome to This hospital activity was ac- some time a formal recognition ask the Pope for the raising of tually begun at the already ex- of the institution was being their religious family (which by isting Hospital of Our Lady of thought about, worry about the now was existing in a real the Victory (situated in the pre- provision of care and treatment sense) to the level of an insti- sent-day square of the same were certainly far greater than tute by pontifical law. Agrisani name) in 1572, and this hospi- concerns about juridical mat- tells us that this took place in tal was subsequently joined to ters. Until, that was, a new fac- 156915, but it is likely that spe- the Hospital of St. James. After tor came to accelerate this cific approaches in this sense transferring for a brief period to process. In fact, exploiting the had already taken place in the Hospital of St. Mary in good name of the friars and the 1568.16 As events turned out, Agnone, the Fatebenefratelli ingenuousness of people, cer- Soriano and Arias were sent to acquired an aristocratic palace tain beggars had asked for alms Rome in the spring of 1571. in 1586 in the Tribunali district, in the name of, and behalf of, Given that papal approval and there they founded the the Fatabenefratelli of St. John was given specifically at the Hospital of St. Mary of Peace, of God. The juridical formali- beginning of 1572 in the form the structures of which still ex- sation of the institute became, of the Licet ex debito, one may ist, and where the Fatabene- from this point of view, even infer that for some months the fratelli would remain until more necessary. two friars stayed in Rome 1866.19 It is also possible that there while waiting for the hoped for was another factor that lay be- papal approval of their order. hind this step. At that time Obviously enough, in that peri- 3. The Fatebenefratelli there were numerous ‘commu- od they were not inactive and and the Tiber Island nities’ made up of members of as Celi tells us they found lodg- the laity who lived together ings in a small hospital where 3.1. Their establishment with a habit that was different they took care of the poor peo- in Rome from the clothes worn by ordi- ple who had been admitted to nary people and who were unit.17 This early presence and ac- Ever since his first ‘stay in der a sort of ‘superior’ but who, tivity of the two friars, as well Rome’, Rev. Soriano had want- obviously enough, were not as the Pope’s acquaintance ed to found a hospital in that subject in the least to the au- with them, and esteem for them, city but for various reasons this thority of the local bishop. Of- would be fundamental in bring- was not possible. After the ten the members of these ing about the subsequent estab- foundation in Naples he went groups (like many other spon- lishment of the order in the city. on a number of occasions to taneous groups with Church Subsequent events can be Rome. In 1581 he was success- commitments that still arise to- summarised by quoting the ful in the undertaking and es-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 tablished himself in an old or- 3.2. Fatabenefratelli! hood was used to bring back phanage (which had for some the offerings that did not take time transferred its activity to It was precisely to such beg- the form of money. For a cer- another place) in Piazza di ging for alms that the attribu- tain period of time this was the Pietra near to the ancient tem- tion of the name of the reli- ‘symbol’ of these religious who ple of Hadrian, of which cer- gious of St. John of God is in Rome were known as ‘the tain archaeological vestiges traced back: ‘Fate bene fratel- hood friars’. still remain today.20 li!’ (‘Do good brothers!’). We do not know very much This use goes back to the life 3.3. The Move about these early years of the of the saint himself who, as his to the Tiber Island activity of the Fatabenefratelli first biographer observes, had in Rome. The information we the custom of going through After three years at the hos- do have comes for the most the streets of Granada in the pital of Piazza di Pietra the reli- part from an old manuscript,21 evening saying: ‘hazeis bien gious transferred to the Tiber which is even attributed to So- por amor de Dios, hermanos Island, which was destined to riano himself.22 It is not possi- mios en Jesu Christo’.26 become over the next five cen- ble to understand from this This sung refrain was imme- turies the heart of their whole document why the friars specif- diately taken up by his reli- hospital order and almost a uni- ically settled in that district and gious who in the evening went versal symbol of religious in that building. Russotto sup- through the streets of Rome health care. poses that it was because of begging with their alms boxes The reasons for this move, I their proximity of this district on their shoulders together with believe, are rather obvious and and building to the other hospi- a bell with which they attracted are to be traced back to the in- tal structures, which were ad- the attention of possible bene- crease in hospital activity 57 ministered by the ‘Spagnoli’ factors. It is interesting to ob- which could not be carried out (the Hospital of St. Mary of serve, however, that this was in the small spaces of Piazza di Pity and the Hospital of St. not a simple matter of begging, Pietra, which, for that matter, James of the Spanish) and even that is to say a request for an could not be enlarged. to the Roman College of the Je- economic contribution for their The opportunity, this time, suits, of which at that time St. activity of care and treatment. derived from the availability to Francesco Borgia, a great ad- The friars, in fact, carried out a the religious of the Church of mirer of the Fatabenefratelli, real and authentic work of St. John the Calibita, together was the Superior General.23 evangelisation (which today with the adjoining monastery This explanation is plausible, has unfortunately been aban- which had first been inhabited but I am more led to believe doned) by speaking about how by the Benedictine nuns and that this decision arose more as short life is, the need for prayer, after their move to another a result of fortunate circum- the duty to do good and avoid place was occupied by the stances such as the chance evil, spiritual suffrage for souls Brotherhood of the Bolognesi. availability of free and suitable in purgatory, and so forth. The purchase was also made buildings, the convenient levels The custom of this itinerant possible by a generous gift of of their rent, the role of some preaching/begging for alms 3,000 ‘scudi’ by Gregory XIII. acquaintance etc. The activity was formally prescribed in the This gift, together with the of care began on 25 March, the first Constitutions of the Order concession of the church, had feast of the Annunciation, ‘with (1587) and was kept, albeit in a already taken place in 1582, only three beds, donated by more summarising form, in even though another two years Gaspar di Avila, a native of Al- those emanated in1616. were to pass before the act of magro, and a few items of The popularity of the ‘Fate- purchase was formally made equipment, they began to exer- bene-fratelli’ in Rome is also due to the fact that the Bolog- cise charitable hospitality to the attested to by a ‘villanella’27 of nesi already possessed the benefit of those who were con- 1572 which read as follows: building but had not yet fin- sidered most in need of care, ‘They go through Rome with ished paying the Benedictines who at times had been encoun- hoods on their necks, for it. tered in some public thorough- Crying Fate bene fratelli The act of purchase was fare’.24 To treat the poor sick people! signed on 21 August 1584 and In a short time the initial do- There is no woman so mean after a number of months nation of six beds was joined As not to give alms to them, which were dedicated to neces- by other such donations, and Or to be liberal and pious to- sary reconstructions the reli- within three months there were wards them’. gious transferred the sick and twenty-two beds and fifteen re- The reference to a hood re- all their hospital activity to it. ligious together with various quires a clarification. This was After a few years they also ac- furnishings and other things. one of the characteristics of quired adjoining areas, and this As Perotti observes: ‘such were these religious, who once again to the point of practically occu- the beginnings of this hospital, followed the example of their pying the whole of the half of that those humble hospital fri- founder who used to beg for the island to the north of the ars had to labour a great deal in alms with a hood (capacha), two bridges. Since then one can searching for alms, not only in which is today kept in the small say that the activity of enlarg- that city but also in other cities museum of the Basilica of St. ing and restructuring, albeit as well’.25 John of God in Granada. This within the necessary limits im-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 posed by the ‘boundaries’ 3.5. Hospital Activity tients when they moved the themselves of the island, have curtains that surrounded their never ceased! The original ward of the hos- beds. All the friars were present pital (which I will discuss in at the medical examination and 3.4. Our Lady of the Lamp greater detail later in this pa- they read the so-called ‘memo- per) usually contained fifty ry sheets’ which were the fore- An episode that certainly beds which were lined up runners of our ‘clinical sheets’. deserves to be remembered, against the walls of the ward, There was also a ‘physician’s even though it does not direct- with twenty-five beds lined up book’ in which the prescrip- ly concern the sphere of pro- on each side. In special circum- tions were also recorded, and viding care and treatment but stances at least twenty-five which we could call an ‘nurs- rather the spiritual sphere, re- beds could be lined along the ing sheet’ ante litteram. lates to the rediscovery of the middle of the hall.28 It appears, Food was distributed by all so-called ‘Madonna of the in fact, that these beds were put the religious present, including Lamp’, whose feast is still cel- on special trolleys with wheels those who had the highest posi- ebrated today every 9 July. called ‘cariole’. From certain tions in the institution. The on- The name goes back to a points of view they were fore- ly ‘dispensation’ they enjoyed fresco of the thirteenth century runners not only of our contem- was that they did not have to that was originally to be found porary mobile beds but also of take part in night duty. The on the outside wall of the ambulances, given that the sick food that was given included Tiber Island on the side of the person was often taken from not only a first hot course but Fabricio bridge. This image his home and moved on these also a second course of meat, was held particularly dear by ‘cariole’ to the hospital. During which was rather unusual for 58 the boatmen who passed by it emergency times of epidemics, the time given that meat was and in a sign of devotion however, the total number of considered a luxury commodi- looked at the face of Mary beds was over two hundred and ty in those days, and certainly which was illuminated by a they were placed almost every- something that was not eaten small oil lamp that burned be- where, including the upper every day. neath it. floors. The patient stayed in the hos- In 1557 this fresco was the On entering the hospital the pital until he had recovered, protagonist of an episode that friars washed the feet of the pa- and this included his convales- was thought to be miraculous. tient. This was without doubt a cence. In order to encourage, as It had been completely sub- gesture of humility, in memory we would say today, a greater merged when the Tiber was in indeed of the famous episode ‘rotation’ in the use of the hos- flood but when the waters had when St. John of God washed pital beds, in the seventeenth gone down the lamp was the feet of a sick man and this century a building was pur- found to be still alight. A fur- latter was transfigured into chased in today’s Via Agostino ther miraculous episode, to Christ.29 But it was also a ges- Depretis to serve as a convales- which the liturgical celebra- ture which was a matter of hy- cent home (‘S. Maria della tions are linked, goes back to 9 giene given the conditions of Sanità’ ‘St. Mary of Holiness’). July 1796 and is to be placed the time when the sick person amongst a series of phenome- went around without shoes. 3.6. Health Care during na to which a supernatural The religious performed this the Epidemics character was attributed and act singing the Benedictus or a which caused a stir amongst psalm. In addition to ordinary hospi- half the population of Rome: The general information tal care and treatment, the Hos- about thirty images of Mary, about the sick person was then pital of the Fatebenefratelli according to the Romans, recorded and he was given stood out in particular for the moved their eyes. The phe- clean sheets, slippers, and a service it rendered during the nomenon began to manifest it- nightshirt and nightcap. Once various epidemics that afflicted self with the image of Our La- the sick person had been put to the city of Rome. And this was dy of Archetto and repeated it- bed (it is to be observed that the not only because of the special self in many other churches. hospital practically only admit- dedication shown towards sick The images that were involved ted people with a fever and sent people by the religious order in this phenomenon included those suffering from scrofula, but also because of its actual that of Our Lady of the Lamp, ringworm or other pathologies geographical location within and this obviously enough led or ‘not critical’ illnesses as we the city – it was central but at to a further intensification in would call them today some- the same time it was also isolat- devotion to it, which was any- where else), he received con- ed. way already well consolidated fession so that he could take The first epidemic took place by that time. Holy Communion before his on 1591. It was a terrible ‘pesti- The image was then taken first medical examination. lence’ that lasted only a few down and taken to the Church This examination took place months and from the descrip- of St. John the Calibita, where the day after the celebration of tions of it that have been hand- it is still to be found, and in Holy Mass, which took place in ed down to us it was in all front of which, still today, the front of the altar that was posi- probability a typhus epidemic. community meets every Satur- tioned at the foot of the ward We do not have many docu- day afternoon in prayer. and could be seen by all the pa- ments bearing on this episode

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 yet we know that the Fatabene- which the work of the Fa- so that it would be in conformi- fratelli also admitted patients tabenefratelli on the Tiber Is- ty with that welcoming. Two from the nearby ‘Ospedale del- land stood out included cholera initiatives on the Tiber Island la Carrozze’ (‘Hospital of Car- epidemics, in particular during bear witness in a special way to riages’) that the Camillians had that of 1837, when Rev. this intention: the Sala Assunta opened in the present-day Piaz- Benedetto Vernò, who a few and the Sala Amici. za Bocca della Verità and months previously had been Until the eighteenth century which they had been forced to elected General of the order, there was only one hall in close probably because they was called to work together which the patients were placed, were short of friars, all of with Cardinal Sala, the Presi- and with all probability it was whom had indeed died because dent of the Commission for not particularly functional giv- of the disease. Because of the Public Safety.32 It appears that it en that it was high up com- care and treatment that they was because of the esteem that pared to the level of the street had given during this episode, Rev. Vernò won as a result of Pope Gregory XVI defined the his activities during this epi- Fatabenefratelli in the follow- demic that he was proposed for ing way in his papal Brief of the Cardinal’s hat. In addition 1591: ‘Those that engage in to the care and treatment pro- works of hospitality and every vided during the later epi- other form of charity in a demics of 1854-55, reference praiseworthy way, in Rome and should also be made to the epi- elsewhere, providing a very demic of 1867 in Albano which high example of humility and broke out with great intensity. charity and of edification of the The friars of the Tiber Island 59 faithful’.30 worked hard to support the The second epidemic was community of that town and the (authentic) pestilence of they also acquired the manage- 1656, which has gone down in ment of the two local pharma- history as ‘the plague of Cardi- cies. nal Gastaldi’, given that it was this Cardinal who was entrust- 3.7. Two Great Restorations: ed with co-ordinating preven- the Sala Assunta tive measures throughout the and the Sala Amici city at the time. He did this and had no more than about fif- with great care and wisdom, It would be impossible to teen beds. In 1702 building was and to such an extent as to no- outline in a few pages the vari- begun on a much larger hall on tably reduce the number of in- ous building initiatives con- the ground floor which was fected people in Rome com- cerning the hospital on the able to hold fifty beds and was pared with other cities in Italy. Tiber Island, even though these built according to real criteria In this work of his as an ‘epi- have been closely correlated of ‘structural humanisation’. At demic specialist’ he was well with the work of the Fatabene- the end of this hall, as was the helped by a French medical fratelli. The historical experi- custom, there was an altar with doctor who was a member of ence of their founder, in fact, a large tapestry, the work of the order of the Fatebenefratelli was closely connected to ‘hos- Andrea Gennaroli, depicting – Rev. Pasquale de l’Homme. pital structures’; not only to the Assumption, and this was After the epidemic was over care and treatment in a general framed by a Baroque triumph the people of Rome praised this sense provided to sick people. of angels that gave special man as the person who had, af- After being incarcerated in the solemnity to the whole milieu. ter a certain fashion, defeated lunatic asylum wing of the This room was inaugurated on the pestilence. Amongst the Royal Hospital of Granada, St. 1 March by Pope Clement XI most important measures of John of God prayed to God to as was recorded by a tapestry prevention that was employed allow him to be able to have ‘a that unfortunately was de- was that of creating an isolation hospital where one can look af- stroyed in the bombings of ward on the Tiber Island which ter sick people as I would wish 1943. could be easily controlled giv- it’33 after he was discharged This room or hall was partic- en that access could only be from that wing. This orienta- ularly bright given that large gained to it from the two tion was at the centre of the windows opened directly onto bridges to the island. It is inter- charism that was then handed the floor next to the street and esting to observe that it is pre- down to his spiritual sons. the light that came through cisely to this period that we can In this sense, one of the most them was reflected onto the trace back one of the miracles interesting experiences, at least large white facing wall. The thanks to which St. John of during the first two decades of beds, with canopies and a cur- God was canonised, and more the history of the order, was ex- tain so that one patient could be specifically Isabella Arcelli’s actly this kind of ‘building hu- isolated in a visual sense as recovery from the plague when manisation’, that is to say the well from another, were placed she was in the isolation ward building of a structure not only against the walls. The fifty beds on the Tiber Island.31 so that it could be a place to could easily be doubled in Other epidemics during welcome sick people but also number by placing others along

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 the middle of the hall, as has al- room and would have generat- rigorous application of their ready been observed. Six large ed a sort of ‘prison effect’. The charism, began to give drugs frescos were on the ceiling so problem was solved by the so- and medicines away without that they could easily be seen called ‘a libretto’ style win- charge. But this, too, obviously by the sick people as they lay dows, which allowed the two enough, was not something that on their backs on their beds. positions alternatively and pleased the chemists of the This hall with various struc- which were thus introduced in- time. tural changes remained in large to Rome for the first time. Decrees of various Popes, measure as it was until the year Heating was provided by from Clement XII to Benedict 1981, when the patients were twelve pipes that were connect- XIV, then prohibited the open- transferred and the hall was ed to two fireplaces. Two chair ing of conventional pharmacies transformed into a modern and commodes, with a clay vase to the general public, with the functional conference hall. and then a zinc vase under- sole exception of the pharmacy As regards the Sala Amici, neath, were used for sanitary on the Tiber Island, as long as purposes.34 the profits from it were all used This hall was in use until for the pharmacy itself or for 1993 when it was demolished the hospital. to be rebuilt into the present Special praise was given to surgery section. this pharmacy by the already referred to Cardinal Antonio 3.8. The Pharmacy Sala, who with reference to what the friars had done during Even though we do not have the cholera epidemic of 1837 60 evidence on the original cre- said: ‘How could the commis- ation of the pharmacy, this sion say nothing about the no- must have taken place at the ble disinterest with which so same time as the foundation of many drugs and medicines the hospital, as for that matter were supplied by the pharmacy was the custom with the other of the Fatebenefratelli at a very houses of this religious order. low cost?’ The pharmacy appears in vari- Unfortunately, the bad laws ous apostolic reports and visits that suppressed the religious from the early part of the sev- orders also involved in 1873 enteenth century onwards and the pharmacy meeting with the this had different origins. In was always described with same fate as the hospital, with 1858, thanks to a large dona- words that expressed apprecia- the property being taken away tion made by Francesco Amici, tion of its orderly character and from the religious. However, a new hall was built whose its efficiency. the Commission for Hospitals construction was entrusted to The pharmacy did not consigned a convention with Rev the architect, Azzurri, who was fine itself to producing pharma- Alfieri, the Superior General of a real authority in the field of cies for patients within the hos- the order, and rented the phar- hospital buildings in which he pital but in time it also opened macy to the ‘Civil association had specialised abroad follow- to external customers, as for of the Fatabenefratelli’. In ing precise orders from Pius that matter the pharmacies 1892 (as will be described in IX. Azzurri infused into the managed by other monasteries greater detail later in this pa- new construction all his profes- (run by the Benedictines, the per) the religious managed to sional skill and expertise and at ‘Cassinesi’, the ‘Minimi’, etc.) regain possession of the hospi- the same time brought about began to do,(35) selling drugs tal and of the pharmacy as well. the first expression of ‘environ- and medicines at more moder- The pharmacy was then radi- mental humanisation’. To the ate prices than was the case cally restructured in the years principal room, which had with other pharmacies in the 1930-1934 and acquired what space for twenty beds, he city. This gave rise to the was to remain its present form. added a small room for conva- protests of the ‘secular’ phar- lescent patients and a small iso- macies which turned to the 3.9. The Napoleonic and lation room with two beds. At University of Chemists, and Risorgimento Storms the end he put a room for the gave rise to numerous contro- overseers. For the system of versies which required the in- The events connected with ventilation he created eighteen tervention of the public author- the hospital have often been in- windows positioned in such a ities. These last sometimes pro- tertwined with the events of way that currents of air that hibited the sale of some drugs Roman politics, and this was could harm the patients were and medicines, then allowed especially the case on two oc- not present. In fact, the most their sale again on precise con- casions: during the French oc- logical arrangement as regards ditions, and then prohibited cupation of 1808 and during ventilation would have been to some religious orders from the events of the Italian Risorg- put the windows under the ceil- selling them and allowed other imento. ing but this would have de- such orders to offer them for French troops entered Rome prived the patients of the op- sale. The friars, in part out of on 2 February 1808 under Gen- portunity of looking out of the protest and in part out of a very eral Miollis. Despite the situa-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 tion of progressive and evident the ‘Ospedale di S. Maria della happened in other parts of conflict between the French Consolazione (‘Hospital of St. Italy) ‘to ensure the assistance and the Romans which was Mary of Consolation’), was and service provided by the destined to end up with the ar- identified by the triumvirate as hospital, separated from rest of Pius VII by Napoleon, one to which the wounded of monastic ties’. The protests and General Miollis always demon- the fighting were to be brought. appeals of the Superior Gener- strated a special benevolence From the registers it emerges al, Rev. Alfieri, were to no towards members of religious that at that time more than one avail, the last of which was per- orders and the Church authori- hundred and fifty soldiers were sonally addressed to the King. ties themselves, and to such an admitted to the hospital on the On the morning of 8 February extent as to be accused of con- Tiber Island. As a result of the 1878 a committee headed by nivance or at least of weakness. fighting of 22 June, when Lu- the mayor of the city, Ruspoli, There were two reasons for his ciano Manara and Goffredo appeared at the hospital to pro- approach. Mameli, as well as the famous ceed with the expropriation. In The first was due to the fact Milanese painter Girolamo In- a very cold fashion Rev. Alfieri that General Miollis had a duno, were amongst the handed over the keys, accom- brother, a bishop, who had pre- wounded, these figures were panied the committee to see the viously taken refuge in Rome both cared for and treated by buildings, but refused to sign because he had refused to the friars, who also hid them, the official documents handing swear in favour of the civil given that the French authori- over the hospital. constitution of the clergy in ties were looking for them in However, the Town Council France. His brother, the Gener- order to put them on trial. was not of a sufficient compe- al, could not forget the protec- But it should not be thought tence to manage the hospital, as tion that had been given to his that at a time of war-induced the religious had done so dili- 61 brother, and where possible he hatred the friars did not engage gently for more than two cen- returned the favour. Secondly, a in their duty to provide health turies. It worked, therefore, to personal friendship existed be- care beyond national, religious rid itself of the hospital until it tween General Miollis and the or political boundaries. With found three buyers: a certain Superior General of the Fa- the same zeal, indeed, they Mr. Leitner and two partners – tabebefratelli, Rev. Romolini, cared for French soldiers, as for the priests Berthelin and whom he had met at Leghorn a that matter is borne witness to Menêtre, who asked to pur- few years previously when the by a letter sent by General Ros- chase it. In reality, these were latter, as a superior of the hos- tolan to the prior of the hospital three members of the Fatabene- pital of that town, had admitted on the Tiber Island, Rev. fratelli, and the whole of the a large number of French sol- Colognesi: ‘Après l’entrée de manoeuvre was arranged in se- diers and overcome every form troupes françaises à Rome, cret by Rev. Alfieri himself. In of parochial hostility. It is a vous avez reçu dans l’hôpital order to obtain the purchase matter of historical fact that af- dirigé par vous, un grand nom- price, which amounted to four ter the occupation the French bre de soldats malades; les hundred thousand Italian lire, government established a com- soins que vous n’avez cessé de all the houses of the order were mittee for the reorganisation of leur prodiguer, les attentions subject to a special tax. Thus in all hospital health care, which dont ils ont été l’object, le zéle a rather pantomime fashion the was to include the closure and et le désentéressement avec friars took back possession of fusion of certain health care lesquels vous avez rempli votre their hospital, and restarted structures. As events turned philantropique et charitable their previous activity of pro- out, not only was the hospital ministère vous ont mérité leur viding care and treatment as on the Tiber Island not in the reconnaisance. Ils vous ont though nothing had happened. least touched (indeed, even aussi donné des titres à notre The rest is history and is un- when it was subsequently taken bienvieillance et à notre sou- der the eyes of all those who to- over by the state the friars con- venir reconnaissant.’37 day go to the Hospital of the Is- tinued to work there undis- land to be admitted, for a con- turbed) but Rev. Romolini was 3.10. From its Elimination sultation in the clinic, or for a called to be part of the commit- to our Times visit to a family relative or to a tee of benefactors and was en- friend. Or why not? Sometimes trusted by the administrative With the fall of Rome, the as mere passers-by or as committee with renewing the laws suppressing the religious tourists who stop and look. ‘Ospedale di Santo Spirito in orders and the expropriation of Sassia’ (‘Hospital of the Holy their goods and property, which Spirit in Sassia’). had already existed for some 4. Conclusion The period of the Risorgi- time in the rest of the Kingdom mento was another period of Italy, extended their range. As has often been said in this which involved the hospital in Once the ‘Board for the Liqui- paper, it is not easy to sum- various vicissitudes, and more dation of Ecclesiastical Proper- marise in one paper centuries precisely the troubled period of ty’ had been established in the of the history of a hospital, and the creation of the Roman Re- city, the hospital on the Tiber what is more of what has been public.36 The hospital of the Fa- Island was expropriated, al- the driving engine of the order, tabenefratelli, together with the though the friars were allowed that is to say its general curia. Hospital of the Holy Spirit and to stay there (as had already In addition, when one attempts

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 such an undertaking one al- hospital, and finally he can re- Notes ways runs the risk of exposing ceive answers that are not only 1 To become aware of the character of oneself to inevitable and most scientific or technical in char- this statement one need only observe of the time involuntary omis- acter but also human. what happened last summer as a result of sions – but why wasn’t refer- A religious hospital that does the drought caused by the marked increase in the temperature of the environ- ence made to…why did you not know how to give answers ment – the deepest parts of the riverbed not speak about… in a way that respects freedom, were indeed left ‘high and dry’. It is exactly for this reason truth and love has no possibili- 2 T. LIVY, Ab Urbe condita, II, 5. 3 Romolo Augusto STACCIOLI ‘L’Isola that I have refused to venture ty of defining itself as such and Tiberina nell’antichità: storia e archeolo- into the impossible undertaking no right to define itself as such. gia’, in AA.VV., “L’isola della salute”, Amici dell’Ospedale Fatebenefratelli of addressing, albeit succinctly, To be really humanised it must dell’Isola Tiberina, (Rome, 1996), p. 29. the very many and splendid re- have the following characteris- 4 Valerius Maximus, Aurelius Vittore, ligious personalities who have tics: Festus, Pliny the Elder, Ovid and even St. Augustine. drawn near to the Tiber Island – a humanised hospital has 5 R.A. STACCIOLI, op. cit. , pp. 47-49. leaving behind themselves no doors, that is to say it is 6 Emperor Otto III was very close to ‘abundant fruits of good open, it is transparent. Every- St. Adalbert, the Bishop of Prague and the evangeliser of the Bohemians, be- works’. I will confine myself to body can not only frequent it, cause he had come to his court after all of citing just one, from recent respecting its efficiency, but his family had been exterminated in his times, who in a certain way can also see, criticise, help it to homeland. 7 By a singular coincidence it is proba- was representative of all the always be precise in its service; ble that in one of these, in the city of others and who through the – a humanised hospital has a Palermo, the Fatabenefratelli provided strength of his prophetic wit- well-defined map of power care for a certain period of time, as is suggested by some authorities who have ness left behind him a wake which is transparent at all lev- engaged in a careful reading of a number 62 that is certainly destined to re- els, and this includes the reli- of relevant documents (cf. S. LEONE, Sto- main not only in the history of gious. Trust in the lay collabo- ria dei Fatebenefratelli nella Provincia Romana, Bi.Os., Rome, 1999, p. 77). this hospital Order but of health rators characterises a human- 8 It appears that the decision to build it care in general. I am referring ised religious who works in was taken specifically after a visit made here to Friar Pierluigi Marchesi hospitals: he sees in the collab- to the Church of St. Bartholomew on the island. A minstrel of the court of Henry I (1929-2003), the Superior Gen- orators people who can in their (a certain Rahere), indeed, had asked the eral of the Order from 1976 to turn become humanising; for English delegation that had gone to 1988 and the ‘prophet of hu- this reason he supports them Rome for Lateran Council I to bring with him with them. But falling ill he had him- manisation’. and does not see them as com- self taken to St. Bartholomew’s and It is specifically to this sub- petitors, as people who ‘are on drank the waters from the ‘miraculous ject that he dedicated his funda- the other side’; well’. He promised that if he recovered he would have built a hospital in London mental document (Umaniz- – a humanised hospital be- dedicated to the saint. This is what in fact zazione, 1981), a subject that lieves in team work. The Prior actually happened (G. MAGLIOZZI, Ra- was taken up in nearly all of his and the community of a hu- here e l’Isola della salute, n. 7-8, 1967, pp. 210-212). writings, speeches and activi- manised hospital believe in the 9 It cannot be excluded, however, that ties. And I would like to take men who work under the same the connection between St. Bartholomew and healing had followed another path, from this volume certain pas- roof, and do everything to in- namely a medical one. After being mar- sages to summarise this paper, crease their trust, their spirit of tyred by being flayed alive, his effigy in from which one can well un- collaboration, and their work in statue form was often used as a model for the purposes of anatomic demonstrations. derstand how what has been common; For this reason he became a figure that exemplary in hospital health – in a humanised hospital was after a certain fashion held ‘dear’ by care, and has found in the Tiber there is on-going training. This medical doctors, as well, precisely because of his martyrdom, as being the an- Island not only its specific his- training involves all the collab- cient protector of the arts of surgery. torical implementation but also orators, and in particular the re- 10 In fact they lived in cenobitical com- a symbol of idealism that ligious; munities where prayer was continuous for twenty-four hours every day, thanks should always been striven for, – a humanised hospital is a to their special system of turns. Thus it is always to be placed ‘beyond’ family home; it is the fulcrum was the community as a whole that never a tension that –if only raised around which revolves the pro- slept rather than the individual monks themselves. It was not unusual, in monas- high – can never betray the glo- fessional, affective and intel- ticism with Syriac origins, for there to be rious past to which the Tiber Is- lectual life of the workers, the various and extravagant forms of ascetic land is itself a living witness. sick people, and the family rel- practices (cf. I. PEÑA, La straordinaria 38 vita dei monaci siri, Ed. Paoline, ‘To humanise a hospital is atives’. Cinisello Balsamo, 1990). not like putting a coat of paint 11 Because of the name of their on the walls of a house; it founder, the Blessed Santuccia da Gub- Prof. SALVINO LEONE, bio, they were popularly known as ‘le means acting in a radical way Director of the Service Santuccie’. on the structure of the house it- of Humanistic Medicine 12 The illegitimate son of Charles of self. It is an action that over- of the Roman Province whose existence the heir to the throne, of the Fatabenefratelli, Phillip II, only learnt after the death of turns relations, forms of com- Lecturer in Moral Theology his father. This is discussed in detail in munication, power, the affec- and Bioethics. the next section. tive life. This is because rela- 13 For further details see S. LEONE, Sto- ria dell’Ordine Ospedaliero nella tions, power, forms of commu- Provincia Romana, vol. 1 (Naples, nication and feelings are direct- Bi.Os, Rome, 1997). ed towards the sick person, to 14 This can be clearly deduced from what he confided a short time before dy- his well-being: the sick person ing to an acquaintance (cf. F. DE CASTRO, is the centre of a humanised Storia della vita e sante oepre di Giovan-

DOLENTIUM HOMINUM N. 54-2003 ni di Dio, Granada 1585, chap. XVIII). cally within the ruins of the temple. Suit- dotes than the presentation of rigorously 15 Cf. F.M. ANGRISANI, ‘Li fasti umili able walls closed the spaces between the historical episodes. After the revelation dell’ospitalità’, ms. of 1721 (General columns. of Christ in the form of the poor man, Archives of the Order, coll. Stor. 87). 21 The text (‘Memoria de conpra de Celi tells us that St. John of God heard There is no published version of this text. san Joan Colabvita in Ynsola’) was pub- Christ himself say: ‘John, when you We only have a typescript transcription lished for the first time by A. PAZZINI, As- wash the feet of the poor, it is mine that made by Rev. Gabriele Russotto which is sistenza e ospedali nella storia dei you are washing (D. CELI, Burgos, 1621, kept at the ‘Archivio della Provincia Ro- Fatebenefratelli (Marietti, 1956), pp. chap. IX). Hence the custom of these reli- mana’. The page references in these 119-120. gious that is referred to in the text. notes refer to this typescript. 22 Fra Gioacchino PEROTTI, ‘Memorie 30 A. PAZZINI, op. cit., p.374. 16 In that year the Lubricum Vitae storiche su la vita di san Giovanni di Dio 31 An interesting iconographical refer- Genus was issued by which the Pope or- e intorno al suo Ordine degli Spedalieri’¸ ence to this healing remains: a large ta- dered that within twenty-four hours the p. 141, Rome, General Archive of the Or- pestry by Francesco Solimena (1657- communities (which lived in the style of der. 1747) kept at the Museo Civico di Castel ‘religious communities’) had to say 23 G. RUSSOTTO, ‘Le origini dei Nuovo in Naples. whether they wanted to engage in a pro- Fatebenfratelli in Roma’ in Antologia per 32 G. RUSSOTTO op. cit. II, pp. 224-225. fession of religious vows. If they did, un giubileo (Centro Studi S. Giovanni di 33 F. DE CASTRO, op. cit. chap. IX. within a month they would have had to Dio, Rome, 1980), p. 23. 34 For all information on this subject choose a rule from among those that ex- 24 G. PEROTTI, op. cit. p. 151. see the monograph published by F. AZ- isted and make their vows. Otherwise, 25 G. PEROTTI, op. cit. p. 142. ZURRI, La nuova Sala Amici nel- they would be dissolved or the reluctant 26 ‘ Do good out of love for God, my l’ospedale dei Fatebenefratelli all’Isola religious thrown out. brothers in Jesus Christ’ (F. de CASTRO, Tiberina (Rome, 1865). 17 D. CELI, Miraculosa vida y santas op. cit. chap. XII). 35 I derive this and other facts about the obras del beato patriarca Iuan de Dios 27 A ‘villanella’ (from ‘villano’, a pharmacy at the hospital from L. HUET- (Burgos, 1621), chap. XXIII. peasant) is a versed dancing song with TER, ‘Farmacie conventuali in Roma’, Vi- 18 J. SANTOS, Chronologia Hospitalaria three or four voices, of Neapolitan ori- ta Ospedaliera, n. 1 (1951) pp. 11-17. y resumen historial de la sagrada Re- gins. 36 On this subject see L. HUETTER, ligión del glorioso Patriarca San Juan de 28 A good summary of the various re- ‘L’ospedale dei Fatebenefratelli per i fer- Dios (Madrid, 1715), p. 515 ports on canonical visits and inventories iti del 1849’, Vita Ospedaliera, n. 3 19 For the complex events of this peri- has been carried out by M. FRANCINI, Il (1949) pp. 57-60. od see G. RUSSOTTO, S. Giovanni di Dio e Tevere sotto il tetto (Centro di Documen- 37 From the Gazette du midi, Mar- il suo Ordine Ospedaliero, vol.1 (Centro tazione Giornalistica, Rome, 1982). seille, 6 December 1849 (quoted by A. 63 Studi San Giovanni di Dio, Rome, 1969). 29 The episode, which is one of the PAZZINI, op. cit. p. 343). 20 This building, which is still visible most recurrent in the iconography of this 38 P. L. MARCHESI, L’umanizzazione and the current location of the Roman saint is related to us by Celi in his biogra- (Centro Stampa Fatebenefratelli, Rome, stock exchange, was constructed specifi- phy, which is more a collection of anec- 1981), pp. 104-110.

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