Paths to the Person

PATHS TO THE PERSON The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland Faculty of Theology, Institute of Family Studies Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology SERIES: THE HUMAN PERSON AND HEALTH Under the patronage of The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workes PATHS TO THE PERSON COMMUNITY ASSIGNMENTS IN AcHIEVING INDIVIDUAL PREVENTION GOALS Editors MIRosłaW KALINOWSKI, IWONA NIEWIADOMSKA Lublin–Rome 2010 Reviewer Prof. Ryszard Maciejewski Cover design Patrycja Czerniak English translators Piotr Czyżewski, Natalia Szarzyńska, Anna Zagórna-Bartnik Maksymilian Kobyłecki, Marylka Hawrylecka English revision and proofreading Jan Kobyłecki Coordinator of cooperation with the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers Rev. Dariusz Giers, PhD © Copyright by Wydawnictwo KUL & The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers Lublin–Rome 2010 ISBN 978-83-7702-127-9 Wydawnictwo KUL ul. Zbożowa 61, 20-827 Lublin tel. 81-740-93-40, fax 81-740-93-50 e-mail: [email protected] http://wydawnictwo.kul.lublin.pl The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers Via della Conciliazione, 3-00120 Vatican City www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils To the Holy Father John Paul II – Servant of the dignity of the human person – the Founder of the Pontifi cal Council for Health Care Workers Twenty-Five Years at the Service of Love for the Suffering: The Pontifi cal Council for Health Care Workers H.E. ARCHBISHOP ZYGMUNT ZIMOWSKI PRESIDENT OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS Introduction It is my great joy to see that in the year of the 25th Anniversary of the foundation of the Pontifi cal Council for Health Care Workers we are launching this series entitled ‘The Human Person and Health.’ This is a joint venture between the Pontifi cal Council established by the Venerable John Paul II and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, where he was once a professor and which actually bears his name. Moreover, we are doing this in his homeland. In his apostolic letter on the Christian meaning of human suff ering, Salvifi ci Doloris, John Paul II, affi rms that ‘in Christ “every man becomes the way for the Church.” It can be said that man in a special fashion becomes the way for the Church when suff ering enters his life’ (Salvifi ci Doloris, 3). The Venerable Father also calls for an integral approach in the care of the sick and suff ering. He therefore asserts that “in her approach to the sick and to the mystery of suff ering, the Church is guided by a precise concept of the human person and of his destiny in God’s plan. She holds that medicine and therapeutic cures be directed not only to the good and the health of the body, but to the person as such who, in his body, is strick- en by evil. In fact, illness and suff ering are not experiences which concern only man’s physical substance, but man in his entirety and in his somatic- spiritual unity’ (Dolentium Hominum, 2). On her part, the Pontifi cal Council for Health Care Workers ‘shows the solicitude of the Church for the sick by helping those who serve the sick 8 FOREWORD and suff ering, so that their apostolate of mercy may ever more eff ectively respond to people’s needs’ (Pastor Bonus, 152). To help our readers know more about the Pontifi cal Council for Health Care Workers, I would like to recall some important dates and the activities of this Dicastery of the Roman Curia. During its deliberations, the Second Vatican Council was not directly concerned with the question of pastoral care in health as such. This does not mean, however, that one cannot fi nd precise references and allusions to the constitutive concern of the Church for the suff ering and the sick in the various documents of that Council.1 In Lumen Gentium (LG), for example, we can read this signifi cant and profoundly eloquent statement about our subject: ‘Christ was sent by the Father “to bring good news to the poor, to heal the contrite of heart” (Lk 4:18), “to seek and to save what was lost” (Lk 19:10). Similarly, the Church encompasses with love all who are affl icted with human suff ering and in the poor and affl icted sees the image of its poor and suff ering Founder. It does all it can to relieve their need and in them it strives to serve Christ’ (LG, n. 8). And in Gaudium et Spes (GS), before off ering a small but authentic tract on Christian theological anthropology (GS, nn. 12-22), the Council begins the document with the following solemn and almost programmatic declaration: ‘The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way affl icted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts’ (GS, n. 1). These very important declarations go beyond simple affi rmations of principle and were destined to be taken up and translated into various initiatives and action programmes that were permanent and institutionally coordinated at various levels of the action of the Church. 1. The Creation of the Dicastery for Health Care Workers The fi rst and real response to the highness of these noble words of the Second Vatican Council was certainly the creation by the Venerable John Paul II, by his Motu Proprio Dolentium Hominum of 11 February 1985, of the Pontifi cal Commissions for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, which three year later would become the Pontifi cal Council for 1 Cf. AA, 8,3; AG, 38,3; CD, 30,7; LG, 41,5; OT, 8,1; PO, 8,3. FOREWORD 9 Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers (Apost. Const. Pastor Bonus, 28 June 1988). In this founding document the Supreme Pontiff referred in the following way to the history and the interest of the Church as regards the world of the suff ering: ‘over the course of the centuries the Church has felt strongly that service to the sick and suff ering is an integral part of her mission, and not only has she encouraged among Christians the blossoming of various works of mercy, but she has also established many religious institutions within her with the specifi c aim to fostering, organ- izing, improving and increasing help to the sick. Missionaries, on their part, in carrying out the work of evangelization have constantly combined the preaching of the Good News with the help and care of the sick’ (Do- lentium Hominum, n. 1). The reasons for such a strong founding gesture were many in number. The Holy Father listed the principal ones, amongst which were the constitutive interest of the Church for man who suff ers, the great advances achieved by medical science, and the need to coordinate all the bodies concerned with the world of health and health care in order to be able to respond in an adequate way to the new challenges of the world of suff ering, of illness, and of care. Given that individual action was not suffi cient for such a task, in a compelling way the need imposed itself for joint, in- telligent, constant, and generous work. The principal tasks assigned to the Pontifi cal Council were those of stimulating, promoting, coordinating, and working with local Churches and carefully following national and international health-care programmes as well as their repercussions for the pastoral action of the Church. The present structure of the Pontifi cal Council is made up of a governing body made up of the President, the Secretary, and the Under-Secretary, helped by a permanent secretariat made up of offi cials and by a group of volunteers. In addition, this dicastery has about thirty Members, repre- sentatives of the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia and health-care religious institutions, together with a group of forty Consultors who come from all the continents of the world. The governing body, the Members, and the Consultors are appointed by the Pope; their mandates last for fi ve years and can be renewed. Since its foundation, the Pontifi cal Council has had three Presidents: Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini (1985-1997), Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán (1997-2009) and Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski (2009-). As regards the activities of the dicastery, its daily work involves: – a permanent secretariat; – administration; – numerous meetings; 10 FOREWORD – relations with the Bishops’ Conferences and health-care bodies – visits to the dicastery, for example; – pastoral visits or visits involving representation of the dicastery (the international sphere); – the publication of the review Dolentium Hominum in four languag- es; – the publication of a great deal of support material such as the Charter for Health Care Workers, a handbook on drugs and drug addiction, an Index which catalogues health-care centres owned by the Church or in which the Church is active, etc; – the organisation of an annual international conference on a topical subject connected with questions and issues related to the health-care world; – the organisation of various conferences and seminars in large measure on subjects connected with pastoral care in health; – the World Day of Health, which is celebrated every year on 11 Feb- ruary, the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. 2. The Direction of the Pontifi cal Magisterium as Regards Pastoral Care in Health 2.1. John Paul II The creation of the Pontifi cal Commission for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers did not take place in a totally unexpected way.

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