I'll just leave this here.
https://infovaticana.com/2018/05/29/francisco-se-refiere-al-aborto-como-interrupcion-del-embarazo/
Dear brothers and sisters:
I am pleased to welcome you and greet you
all, starting with the President, Dr. John Lee, whom I thank for his words.
Your qualification of "catholic
doctors" commits you to a permanent spiritual, moral and bioethics
formation in order to put into practice the evangelical principles in medical
practice, from the doctor-patient relationship until reaching the missionary
activity of improving the conditions of the health of populations in the
peripheries of the world. Your work is a peculiar form of human solidarity and
Christian witness; In fact, your work is enriched with the spirit of faith. And
it is important that your associations commit themselves to raise awareness
about these principles to medical students and young doctors by involving them
in associative activities.
The Catholic identity does not compromise
your collaboration with those who, from a different religious perspective or
without a specific creed, recognize the dignity and excellence of the human
person as the criterion of their activity. The Church is in favor of life, and
her concern is that nothing is against life in the reality of a concrete
existence, even if it is weak or defenseless, even if it is not developed or is
not very advanced. To be Catholic doctors, therefore, is to feel health
professionals who, from the faith and from communion with the Church, receive
the impulse to make their Christian and professional formation more mature,
their tireless dedication, and the inexhaustible necessity of penetrate and
know the laws of nature to better serve life (see PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter
Humanae Vitae, 24 ).
The fidelity and coherence with which the
associations of your Federation, in the course of the years, have given faith
of their catholic appearance are known, putting into practice the teaching of
the Church and the guidelines of its Magisterium in the medical field. moral.
This criterion of recognition and action has favored your collaboration in the
mission of the Church to promote and defend human life from its conception to
its natural end, the quality of existence, respect for the weakest, the
humanization of medicine and its full socialization.
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This fidelity has entailed and entails
hardships and difficulties that, in particular circumstances, can demand a lot
of courage. Continue with serenity and determination along this path,
accompanying the magisterial interventions in the fields of medicine with the
corresponding awareness of their moral implications. Nor has the field of
medicine and health been effectively spared the advancement of the technocratic
paradigm, the adoration of unlimited human power, and a practical relativism
where everything becomes irrelevant if it does not serve one's own interests (cf.
Lit. in Laudato si ', 122).
Faced with this situation, you are called
to affirm the centrality of the patient as a person and their dignity with
their inalienable rights, in pris The
right to life. It is necessary to confront the tendency to debase the patient
as if it were a machine to repair, without respecting moral principles, and to
exploit the weakest by discarding what does not correspond to the ideology of
efficiency and benefit. The defense of the patient's personal dimension is
essential for the humanization of medicine, in the sense also of "human
ecology". Worry about compromising in the respective countries and in the
international arena, intervening in specialized environments, but also in
debates related to legislation on sensitive ethical issues, such as the
termination of pregnancy, the end of life and genetic medicine. Do not miss
your request in defense of freedom of conscience, doctors and all health
workers.
At your next congress, which will be held
in Zagreb in a few days, you will reflect on the theme "The sanctity of
life and the medical profession, from
Humanae vitae to Laudato si
'". This is also a concrete sign of your participation in the life
and mission of the Church. This participation, as the Second Vatican Council
emphasized, is so necessary that "without it the same apostolate of the
pastors often can not fully achieve its effect" (Decr. Apostolicam Actuositatem, 10). Be
increasingly aware that today it is necessary and urgent that the action of the
Catholic physician be presented with a character of unmistakable clarity in the
field of both personal and associative witness.
In this sense, it is desirable that the
activities of the Associations of Catholic doctors be interdisciplinary and
also involve other ecclesial realities. In particular, know how to harmonize
your efforts with those of priests, men and women religious and of all those
who work in the pastoral care of health, being with them together with the
people who suffer: they have great need of your contribution and yours. Be
ministers, besides that of priests, of fraternal charity, transmitting to those
who approach you with the contribution of your knowledge, wealth of humanity
and evangelical compassion.
Dear brothers and sisters, many look at
you, as well as at your work. Your words, your gestures, your advice, your
choices have an echo that goes beyond the strictly professional field and
become, if they are coherent, a testimony of lived faith. The profession rises
to the dignity of a true apostolate. I encourage you to continue the
associative path with joy and generosity, in collaboration with all the people and
institutions that share the love of life and strive to serve it in their
dignity and sacredness. May the Virgin Mary,
Salus infirmorum, support your
purposes, which I accompany with my Blessing! And please, pray for me too.
Thank you.
Kathleen N. Hattrup | Jun 18, 2018
