PERSON-CENTERED CARE Lessons from Pope John Paul II ‘Theology of the Body’ Underpins Health Care BY KATHLEEN A. KALB, Ph.D., RN erson-centered” has always been a Catholic concept. Indeed, the body meaning of the human body of the human person is a surpassing gift which must be received as a gift and the greatness of the “Pfrom God, a gift which must be respected and reverenced. This is the vocation to love.2 The essen- dignity and vocation of health care professionals, to be guardians and servants tial elements of Theology of the dignity of the human person, and to bear witness to the inherent dignity of of the Body emanate from every human person in and through the body. Scripture, are connected with the patristic and theo- As health care professionals, we do ogy” of the human person. He pro- logical tradition of the church and not often talk about the body as a wit- poses that the human person, created reflect an organic development of the ness to Love. Indeed, the bodies of our in the image and likeness of God, is a church’s perennial teachings about the patients often seem to be witnesses of gift who is called to be a gift to others dignity of the human person, human illness and infirmity, of weakness and and to receive others as a gift. This gift sexuality, marriage, virginity and our vulnerability, of distress and depen- of self is manifested through, with and vocation to love. dency. Yet Pope John Paul II challenges in the body. By reflecting on the words “Ever ancient, ever new,” Theology us to see the body of the human person of Jesus in the Gospels about the gift of of the Body has a long history and rich as a “witness to Love” and a manifesta- our creation as human persons “from tradition in the church. Early fathers tion of the spiritual and divine. In his the beginning,” John Paul II invites us and doctors of the church wrote about Man and Woman He Created Them: to return to the “source” of our human the body and its relation to the soul, A Theology of the Body, John Paul II dignity and our vocation to love. created by God in his image and des- teaches us that “only the body is capa- tined for bodily resurrection (e.g., St. ble of making visible what is invisible: THEOLOGY OF THE BODY DEFINED Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and the spiritual and the divine. It has been John Paul II’s Theology of the Body St. John of the Cross). More recently, created to transfer into the visible real- contains a profound reflection on the Catholic theologians and philosophers ity of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a As health care professionals, we do not often sign of it.”1 This is the gift that John Paul II talk about the body as a witness to Love. Indeed, offers to health care professionals. In Theology of the Body, his cateche- the bodies of our patients often seem to be ses on human love in the divine plan, witnesses of illness and infirmity, of weakness and John Paul II describes the meaning of the body as a “theological anthropol- vulnerability, of distress and dependency. HEALTH PROGRESS www.chausa.org MARCH - APRIL 2012 41 40 MARCH - APRIL 2012 www.chausa.org HEALTH PROGRESS have written extensively about human dignity and “We find ourselves, therefore, within the very the meaning of the human body in the context of bone marrow of the anthropological reality whose morality, marriage and the vocation to love. All name is ‘body,’ human body. Yet, as can be easily recent popes have also contributed significantly observed, this marrow is not only anthropologi- to the development of Theology of the Body and cal, but also essentially theological. The theology our understanding of the dignity of the body in light of its divine origin, voca- In health care, this pedagogy of the tion and destination, including our cur- rent Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.3 body has particular importance for From the very beginning of his why health care professionals are priesthood, John Paul II had a “special love for love” and committed himself called to respect human dignity, and “to the service of ‘fair love,’ because love is fair, it is beautiful.”4 Even before more importantly, how health care his election as pope in 1978, Karol Woj- professionals are called to respect tyla consistently focused on the essen- tial themes addressed in Theology of human dignity in solidarity with the Body in his poetry, plays and major philosophical and theological writings. others by practicing with charity. In his first major catechesis as Pope, John Paul II presented Theology of the Body to the of the body, which is linked from the beginning world in a series of 129 “general audiences” (brief with the creation of man in the image of God . talks) from September 1979 to November 1984. As has its point of departure here in Genesis.5 John Paul II explains, the concept “theology of the “The fact that theology also includes the body body” emanates from reflecting on the ancient should not astonish or surprise anyone who is text of Genesis which describes the creation of conscious of the mystery and reality of the Incar- the human person, and therefore, the beginning nation. Through the fact that the Word of God of theology of the body: became flesh, the body entered theology — that is, the science that has divinity for its object — I would say, through the main door.” 6 John Paul II describes Theology of the Body as THEOLOGY OF THE BODY: AN OVERVIEW a specific, evangelical, Christian pedagogy that unfolds and explains the revelation of the body heology of the Body is the collective title of John Paul II’s 129 by reflecting on human experience. “Pedagogy Tgeneral audiences given as a catechesis to the universal church seeks to educate man by setting the require- between September 1979 and November 1984. This integrated vision of ments before him, giving reasons for them, and the human person focuses on the revelation of God’s mystery and plan indicating the ways that lead to their fulfillment,” for human life in and through the human body. Theology of the Body: he says.7 This pedagogy of the body, according to Contains the nucleus of John Paul II’s teachings about the dignity, John Paul II, provides the focus and fulfills the meaning and vocation of the human person based on the words of purpose of the Theology of the Body as a whole, Christ in Scripture that is, to provide an “adequate anthropology” Unfolds and explains the revelation of the body by reflecting on of the human person and to propose a response human experience to propose a Christian, philosophical and theological to questions about the church’s moral teachings anthropology which is a specific, evangelical pedagogy of the body related to human life and marriage described in Addresses the meaning of the body, specifically the “spousal the encyclical Humanae Vitae, promulgated by meaning of the body” that focuses on biblical reflections “from the Pope Paul VI in 1968. Indeed, John Paul II’s Theol- beginning” ogy of the Body enables us “to rediscover the full Emphasizes the human person’s creation in the image and like- treasure of biblical anthropology and the great ness of God, who is a communion of divine Persons and an eternal Christian tradition ... and to integrate it into a exchange of Love vision consonant with lived experience grasped Describes the power of the human body “to express love: precisely with new vividness,” writes Livio Melina, pres- that love in which the human person becomes a gift and — through this ident of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for gift — fulfills the very meaning of his being and existence” Studies on Marriage and Family, in the preface to Called to Love: Approaching John Paul II’s Theol- ogy of the Body, by Carl Anderson and Jose Grana- 42 MARCH - APRIL 2012 www.chausa.org HEALTH PROGRESS PERSON-CENTERED CARE dos (New York: Doubleday 2009). more importantly, how health care professionals are called to respect human dignity in solidarity JOHN PAUL II: THEMES with others by practicing with charity. Multiple themes emerge as central to John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and are emphasized in DIGNITY: THE HUMAN PERSON AS A BODY-PERSON his magisterial catecheses on human love in the The source of our dignity as human persons is divine plan. One of these themes addresses the our creation in the image and likeness of God. dignity of the human person and is based on a key Respect for human dignity is addressed in all text from Vatican Council II’s Gaudium et Spes: codes of ethics in the health professions. In the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic The truth is that only in the mystery of the Health Care Services, human dignity is incarnate Word does the mystery of man the focus of Directive 23: “The inher- take on light. For Adam, the first man, was ent dignity of the human person a figure of Him Who was to come, namely must be respected and protected Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by regardless of the nature of the the revelation of the mystery of the Father person’s health problem or and His love, fully reveals man to man him- social status.” Human dig- self and makes his supreme calling clear.