Pope Francis: We must not abandon the elderly

 Pope Francis on Thursday addressed members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who are meeting in Rome for their General Assembly.

In his remarks, the Holy Father spoke about the theme of the Assembly: “Assisting the elderly and palliative care.” Palliative care, he said, “is an expression of the properly human attitude of taking care of one another, especially of those who suffer. It bears witness that the human person is always precious, even if marked by age and sickness.”

Pope Francis also spoke of the duty of honouring the elderly, which he associated with the biblical commandment to honour one’s parents. On the contrary, he said, the Bible has a stern warning for those who neglect or mistreat their parents. This judgement applies today when parents, “having become older and less useful, are marginalized to the point of abandonment.”

The Pope explained that “to honour” can be understood in our day “as the duty to have extreme respect and to take care of those who, because of their physical or social condition, could be left to die, or ‘made to die’.”

Palliative care, Pope Francis said, recognizes, at the end of life, the value of the person. He called on all those involved in palliative care to preserve this spirit of service, and to remember that “all medical knowledge is truly science, in its most noble sense” only if it has in view the true good of the human being, a good that can never be achieved when it acts contrary to human life and dignity. “It is this capacity for service to the life and dignity of the sick, even when they are old, that is the measure of the true progress of medicine, and of all society.”

Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father's address to the Pontifical Academy for Life: 

Dear brothers and sisters,

I cordially welcome you on the occasion of your general Assembly, called to reflect on the theme “Assisting the elderly and palliative care,” and I thank the President for his kind words. I am especially happy to greet Cardinal Sgreccia, who is a pioneer... Thank you! 

Palliative care is an expression of the properly human attitude of taking care of one another, especially of those who suffer. It bears witness that the human person is always precious, even if marked by age and sickness. The human person, in fact, in whatever circumstance, is a good in and of himself and for others, and is loved by God. For this reason, when life becomes very fragile and the end of earthly existence approaches, we feel the responsibility to assist and accompany the person in the best way.

The biblical commandment that requires us to honour our parents, understood broadly, reminds us of the honour we must show to all elderly people. God associates a double promise with this commandment: “that you may have a long life” (Ex 20:12) and, the other, “that you might prosper” (Dt 5:16). Faithfulness to the fourth commandment assures us not only of the gifts of the earth, but especially of the possibility of enjoying them. In fact, the wisdom that makes us recognize the value of the elderly person and that brings us to honour them, is the same wisdom that allows us to appreciate the numerous gifts that we receive every day from the providential hand of the Father, and to be happy. The precept reveals to us fundamental pedagogical relationship between parents and children, between the elderly and the young, with regard to the preservation and transmission of the teachings of religion and wisdom to future generations. To honour this teaching and those who pass it on is the source of life and blessing.

On the contrary, the Bible reserves a severe warning for those who neglect or mistreat their parents (cf. Ex 21:17; Lv 20:9). The same judgement applies today when parents, having become older and less useful, are marginalized to the point of abandonment. And there are so many examples!

The Word of God is always living, and we see well how the commandment proves topical for contemporary society, where the logic of utility takes precedence over that of solidarity and gratitude, even within families. Let us hear, then, with docile hearts, the word of God that comes to us from the commandments – which, let us always remember, are not bonds that imprison us, but are words of life.

“To honour” today might well be translated as the duty to have extreme respect and to take care of those who, because of their physical or social condition, could be left to die, or “made to die.” All medicine has a special role within society as a witness of the honour that is due to elderly persons, and to every human being. Neither the medical evidence and efficiency, nor the rules of health care systems and economic profit, can be the only criteria governing the actions of doctors. A State cannot think of making a profit with medicine. On the contrary, there is no more important duty for a society than safeguarding the human person.

Your work in these days explores new areas for the application of palliative care. At first, they were a precious accompaniment for cancer patients, but now there are many different illnesses, often related to old age and characterized by a chronic and progressive deterioration, that can make use of this kind of assistance. The elderly, first of all, need the care of family members – whose affection cannot be replaced by more efficient structures or more competent and charitable healthcare workers. When this is not sufficient, or in the case of advanced or terminal illness, the elderly can be benefitted by truly human assistance, and receive adequate responses to their needs thanks to palliative care offered in such a way that it supplements and supports the care provided by family members. Palliative care has to objective of alleviating suffering in the last stages of illness and at the same time of assuring the patient of adequate human accompaniment (cf. Evang. Vitae, 65). It deals with the important support for the elderly, who, for reasons of age, often receive less attention from curative medicine, and are often abandoned. Abandonment is the most serious “illness” of the elderly, and also the greatest injustice they can suffer: those who helped us to grow must not be abandoned when they need our help, our love, and our tenderness.

I therefore welcome your scientific and culture efforts to ensure that palliative care can reach all those who need it. I encourage professionals and students to specialize in this type of assistance, which has no less value on account of the fact that it “does not save lives.” Palliative care recognizes something equally important: recognizing the value of the person. I urge all those who, under whatever title, are involved in the field of palliative care, to practice this duty of conserving the spirit of service in its fulness and recalling that all medical knowledge is truly science, in its most noble sense, only if it finds its place as a help in view of the good of man, a good that is never achieved by going “against” his life and dignity.

It is this capacity for service to the life and dignity of the sick, even when they are old, that is the measure of the true progress of medicine, and of all society. I repeat the appeal of Saint John Paul II: “Respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!” (ibid., 5).

It is my hope that you will continue your studies and your research, that the work of the promotion and defence of life might be ever more efficacious and fruitful. May the Virgin Mother, the Mother of life, assist you and may my Benediction accompany you. Please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you!

(from Vatican Radio)

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Holy See to UN: Countries should strive to end the death penalty

The Holy See on Wednesday declared “bloodless means” are capable of defending the common good and upholding justice, and called on States to abolish the death penalty.

Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, urged countries to use a “more humane” form of punishment.

“As for those countries that claim it is not yet feasible to relinquish this practice, my Delegation encourages them to strive to become capable of doing so,” Archbishop Tomasi said.

The full text of Archbishop Tomasi’s intervention is below

Statement by His Excellency Silvano M. Tomasi

Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva

at the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council

Item 1 - Biennial High-Level Panel on

“The Question of the Death Penalty”

4 March 2015

 Mr. Chairman,

The Delegation of the Holy See is pleased to take part in this first biennial high-level panel discussion on the question of the death penalty and joins an increasing number of States in supporting the fifth UN General Assembly resolution calling for a global moratorium on the use of the death penalty.  Public opinion and support of the various provisions aimed at abolishing the death penalty, or suspending its application, is growing. This provides a strong momentum which this Delegation hopes will encourage States still applying the death penalty to move in the direction of its abolition.

The position of the Holy See on this issue has been more clearly articulated in the past decades.  In fact, twenty years ago, the issue was framed within the proper ethical context of defending the inviolable dignity of the human person and the role of the legitimate authority to defend in a just manner the common good of society.[1]  Considering the practical circumstances found in most States, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, it appears evident nowadays that means other than the death penalty “… are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons.”[2]  For that reason, “public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.”[3]

Political and legislative initiatives being promoted in a growing number of countries to eliminate the death penalty and to continue the substantive progress made in conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order are moving in the right direction.[4]

Pope Francis has further emphasized that the legislative and judicial practice of the State authority must always be guided by the “primacy of human life and the dignity of the human person.”  He noted as well “the possibility of judicial error and the use made by totalitarian and dictatorial regimes… as a means of suppressing political dissidence or of persecuting religious and cultural minorities.”[5] 

Thus, respect for the dignity of every human person and the common good are the two pillars on which the position of the Holy See has developed. These principles converge with a similar development in international human rights law and jurisprudence. Moreover, we should take into account that no clear positive effect of deterrence results from the application of the death penalty and that the irreversibility of this punishment does not allow for eventual corrections in the case of wrongful convictions.

Mr. Chairman,

My Delegation contends that bloodless means of defending the common good and upholding justice are possible, and calls on States to adapt their penal system to demonstrate their adhesion to a more humane form of punishment.  As for those countries that claim it is not yet feasible to relinquish this practice, my Delegation encourages them to strive to become capable of doing so.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the Holy See Delegation fully supports the efforts to abolish the use of the death penalty. In order to arrive at this desired  goal, these steps need to be taken: 1) to sustain the social reforms that would enable society to implement the abolition of the death penalty;  2) to improve prison conditions, to ensure respect for the human dignity of the people deprived of their freedom.[6]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[1] Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 25 March 1995, n. 56.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Cf.,  Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 30 November 2011.

[5]  Pope Francis, Address to the Delegates of the  International Association of Penal Law, 23 October 2015, nos. I and  IIb.

[6] Cf., Ibid. 

(from Vatican Radio)

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Pope Francis: Charism of unity anchored in Eucharist

 In the Paul VI Audience Hall before his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis met with the Bishop Friends of the Focolare Movement.

Founded in Italy in 1943 by Chiara Lubich, the Focolare, also known as the Work of Mary, is an ecclesial movement that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood. Since 1977, a number of Bishops who desired to live out the spirituality of communion promoted by Focolare, have gathered together as the Bishop Friends of the Movement. The Bishop Friends hold regular meetings at international and regional levels.

In his address to the Bishops, Pope Francis called to mind the theme of their current meeting: “The Eucharist, Mystery of Communion.” He said, “the charism of unity proper to the Work of Mary is strongly anchored in the Eucharist, which gives it its Christian and ecclesial character.” It is the work of the Bishop to gather the community “around the Eucharist, around the double table of the Word and of the Bread of Life.” This, the Pope said, “is our service, and it is a fundamental one.”

Pope Francis said, “the Bishop is the principle of unity in the Church, but this does not take place without the Eucharist: the Bishop does not gather the people around his own person or his own ideas, but around Christ present in His Word and in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.” When the Bishop is conformed to Christ, “nourished with faith in Christ the living Bread,” he is “is urged on by his love to give his life for the brothers and sisters, to go out, to go to meet those who are marginalized and despised.”

The Holy Father had special words of greeting for those Bishops present who had come from “the blood-soaked lands” of Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine. “In the suffering you have lived with your people,” he said, “you experience the strength that comes from the Eucharistic Jesus, the strength of going forward united in faith and hope.” He assured the Bishops the Church is united to them in the daily celebration of the Mass.

Concluding his address, Pope Francis encouraged the Bishops to carry on their “commitment in favour of the ecumenical journey and inter-religious dialogue” and thanked them for the contributions they make “to a greater communion between the various ecclesial movements.”

Below please find the full text of the Pope’s address to the Bishop Friends of the Focolare Movement:

Dear brothers,

I welcome you, and I thank Cardinal Kovithavanij for his introduction. And I thank the President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement for their presence.

You have brought together in Rome the friendship with this Movement and an interest in the “spirituality of communion.” In particular, in these days your reflection has centred on the theme of “The Eucharist, Mystery of Communion.”

In effect, the charism of unity proper to the Work of Mary is strongly anchored in the Eucharist, which gives it its Christian and ecclesial character. Without the Eucharist, unity would lose its divine pole of attraction, and would be reduced to simply human, psychological, sociological feeling and dynamic. Instead, the Eucharist guarantees that at the centre there is Christ, and there is His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to move our steps and our initiatives of encounter and of communion.

The Apostle Paul writes: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor 10:17). As Bishops, we gather the communities around the Eucharist, the double table of the Word and of the Bread of Life. This is our service, and it is fundamental. The Bishop is the principle of unity in the Church, but this does not take place without the Eucharist: the Bishop does not gather the people around his own person or his own ideas, but around Christ present in His Word and in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. And in the school of Jesus, the Good Shepherd made Himself the Lamb sacrificed and risen, the Bishop gathers the sheep entrusted to him with the offering of his life, himself taking on a form of Eucharistic existence. And so the Bishop, conformed to Christ, becomes a living Gospel, becomes Bread broken for the life of many with his preaching and his witness. He who is nourished with faith in Christ the living Bread is urged on by his love to give his life for the brothers and sisters, to go out, to go to meet those who are marginalized and despised.

In a particular way I thank you, Brothers, who come from the blood-soaked lands of Syria and of Iraq, and also of Ukraine. In the suffering you have lived with your people, you experience the strength that comes from the Eucharistic Jesus, the strength of going forward united in faith and hope.

In the daily celebration of the Mass we are united to you, we pray for you offering the Sacrifice of Christ; and from it the many initiatives of solidarity in favour of your Churches gain their strength and significance.

Dear Brothers, I encourage you to carry on your commitment in favour of the ecumenical journey and inter-religious dialogue. And I thank you for the contribution you make to a greater communion between the various ecclesial movements.

May the Lord bless you and the Madonna protect you. Let us pray for one another. I thank you for your prayers.

(from Vatican Radio)

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