Dear Friends,<\/p>\n
I sincerely thank dr. Larkin for the invitation to participate in this\u00a0important world congress. On behalf of the Pontifical Academy for Life, I\u00a0wish to extend the greeting of Pope Francis and the Catholic Church to all of you. The Pontifical Academy for several years is committed to promoting \u00a0palliative care in the world.
\nProfessor Centeno will introduce you to the White Book soon.\u00a0Now I want to emphasize a single aspect that affects the role that religions\u00a0can play in the field of palliative care, both in the clinical and cultural\u00a0aspects. Overall today, while we are witness of marginalization,\u00a0discrimination, and the elimination of the weakest of human beings, such as\u00a0those suffering from a serious, disabling or incurable disease. We want to\u00a0oppose the \u201cthrow-away culture\u201d\u2014 and we know how pervasive it is in\u00a0most of contemporary society\u2014 by promoting a \u201cpalliative care culture,\u201d\u00a0that overcomes the attraction of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and that\u00a0leads to the greatest possible acceptance of a culture of care that enables us\u00a0to accompany the dying with love until the end.<\/p>\n
To accomplishing this, I think we must reflect as deeply as possible about\u00a0the great anthropological questions and enormous ethical challenges we face in dealing with the end of earthly life. For this reason, our efforts in\u00a0this Congress will be directed to exploring what palliative care can offer to those human needs that arise from the power of the human spirit. We will\u00a0take consider not only clinical experience, but also the contributions that science and the deathless truths that religions preach about mystery of\u00a0humanity.<\/p>\n
All of us recognize the important role that religions play in advancing this\u00a0form of accompaniment of the sick or dying, given the ability of religions to reach the peripheries of humanity, those who in every community are in\u00a0some way most in need. While this is certainly true, religions are and do
\nmuch more. Religions are not only able to facilitate a greater presence of\u00a0palliative care where it is needed, but they are one of the true component \u00a0forces of palliative care itself. Total attention to the person is made much\u00a0more difficult by economic hegemonies that colonize contemporary cultures and societies. The result of this situation can be only a culture, or rather\u00a0anti-culture, of wastefulness.
\nAn understanding of human existence and of reality that values religious\u00a0experience allows us to see and affirm a good that surpasses and is not\u00a0limited by economic calculus. Recognition of the integral openness of the\u00a0person to transcendence makes it possible to state that in human life, even\u00a0when it is fragile and seems to be defeated by illness, there is inalienable\u00a0value. Palliative care represents a vision of man that is preached and protected by the great religious traditions. In terms of motivation and\u00a0inspiration, this is the most profound and trenchant contribution palliative care can receive.<\/p>\n
Palliative care today represents for all of us a concrete initiative within a\u00a0climate of vanishing love for humanity and a crisis of social ties that\u00a0beginning with a generic disengagement is now reaching a real social\u00a0disintegration that involves all social structures, beginning with the family.
\nSocietas as a communion of persons, no matter what form it takes, is\u00a0necessary for self-realization of the individual. While the individual is not\u00a0the servant of society, society is not merely an instrument for the selfrealization\u00a0of the individual. It is rather a condition that allows for the such\u00a0realization. It is difficult to make what is human develop in a society where\u00a0relationships are mummified. The ego, as it is more and more conceived of\u00a0by postmodernity, becomes an force for dissolution, not for bonding;\u00a0exclusion, not inclusion; fluidity, not consolidation. It is therefore essential\u00a0to foster not only problem-solving, which can be superficial, but also the\u00a0lasting dream of a new humanism for all, and of universal Brotherhood.<\/p>\n
Reinventing a new brotherhood is the anthropological and social challenge\u00a0of our day and is the specific charge that Pope Francis gave to the Pontifical\u00a0Academy for Life.
\nHere too, religions have a very special word to say, not onlz for religious\u00a0people but for everyone. Dependency\u2014a human condition that is a focus of\u00a0religions and palliative care\u2014is indeed human and should be appreciated,\u00a0when freely chosen, as an inalienable human value. The ego finds its\u00a0fulfillment in relationship, in the \u201cwe.\u201d The \u201cwe\u201d is no less innate in us than\u00a0the \u201cI.\u201d It is clear that our existence is marked by a permanent movement\u00a0from the \u201cI\u201d to the \u201cwe.\u201d Humanism must necessarily be marked by\u00a0solidarity. The task of \u201ccaring for\u201d the other, and for creation, is very different from the false, predatory and destructive attitude so often adopted \u00a0by man\u2014not only towards nature and the earth, but also against brothers,\u00a0especially when they are perceived as obstacles or no longer useful.<\/p>\n
In this perspective, the Pontifical Academy for Life has promoted the\u00a0creation of a common manifesto of the three great monotheistic religions, – Christian, Muslim, Jews – on palliative care. The project is at an advanced\u00a0stage and I hope it can be signed by the top representatives of the three great religions before the end of this year.
\nThe palliative care community bears witness to a new way of living that\u00a0focuses on the person and his good, to which not only the individual but the whole community tends. In this community the good of each person is\u00a0pursued as a good that benefits everyone. Palliative care is a human right, and various international programs are working to implement it; but the\u00a0basic human right is to continue to be recognized and accepted as a\u00a0member of society, as part of a community.<\/p>\n
Thank you very much for your attention!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Berlin, 23th of may<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friends, I sincerely thank dr. Larkin for the invitation to participate in this\u00a0important world congress. On behalf of the Pontifical Academy for Life, I\u00a0wish to extend the greeting of Pope Francis and the Catholic Church to all of you. The Pontifical Academy for several years is committed to promoting \u00a0palliative care in the world. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-interventi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/D7kpd5XWkAAJS8k-e1558964178941.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5mkxU-6xB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25148,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25147\/revisions\/25148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}