By Verghese V Joseph –
At the Tuesday Press Conference, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith presented the publication of a letter approved by Pope Francis on 25 June and entitled Samaritanus bonus (“The Good Samaritan”): On the Care of Persons in the Critical and Terminal Phases of Life,” which again strongly voiced out against euthanasia, assisted suicide and end-of-life provisions.
The literary genre of the letter was chosen and the date of 14 July 2020, the liturgical memorial of San Camillo de Lellis (1550-1614), the patron saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians.
In the sixteenth century – the time when the saint lived – the incurable were mostly handed over to mercenaries; some of them, criminals, were forced into that work; others resigned themselves to this work, for not having had different earning possibilities. Camillo wanted “new men for new assistance”. And a fixed thought had grabbed him: replacing mercenaries with people willing to be with the sick only for love. He wished to have with him people who “not for pay, but voluntarily and for the love of God would serve them with that kindness that mothers usually do towards their sick children”.
The Eminence Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, SI, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, took part; HE Mons. Giacomo Morandi, Secretary of the same Congregation; Prof. Gabriella Gambino, Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; and Prof. Adriano Pessina, Member of the Board of the Pontifical Academy for Life in their interventions spoke about how every sick person, “needs not only to be listened to, but to understand that their interlocutor” knows “what it means to feel alone, abandoned, anguished in the face of the prospect of death, the pain of the flesh, the suffering that it arises when the gaze of society measures its value in terms of the quality of life and makes it feel a burden for the projects of others ”
They felt that Christian witness shows how hope is always possible, even when life is wrapped and burdened by the “throwaway culture”. And we are all called to offer our specific contribution, because – as Pope Francis said (addressing the leaders of the Orders of Doctors of Spain and Latin America, on 9 June 2016) – what is at stake is the dignity of human life and the dignity of the medical vocation.
It is proper to the Christian community, to the Church in her very nature, “to accompany the weakest with mercy on their journey of pain, to maintain the theological life in them and direct them to God’s salvation”. And the Church does not cease to affirm “the positive meaning of human life as a value already perceptible by right reason, which the light of faith confirms and values in its inalienable dignity” they stated.
In reality, they remarked that, “human compassion does not consist in causing death, but in welcoming the sick, in supporting him in difficulties, in offering him affection, attention and means to alleviate suffering”.
In their opinion, they said this also applies to children of prenatal and pediatric age, with respect to whom it is necessary to shed light on two issues: firstly, the principle of prevention, which is never substantiated in the deliberate killing of an innocent human life to prevent them from being born sick children or children destined for a short life.
Selective and eugenic abortion is gravely illicit, as well as, after birth, the suspension or non-activation of treatment for the child only because of the possibility or fear of developing disabilities. The child, before and after birth, is entitled to the same continuity of care and care as adults, which today can be implemented in Hospicesperinatal.
The second principle is that of the “best interests of the child”: in no way can it be used to decide to shorten the life of a child in order to avoid suffering with actions or omissions that can be configured as euthanasia. Rather, it implies that essential life-sustaining cures are always guaranteed as long as the organism is able to benefit from them, taking all the necessary measures to ensure that they are administered in a personalized, gentle, painless and proportionate way, i.e. in its true interest.
The Magisterium of the Church has at heart and wishes to clearly reaffirm the integral good of the human person. The sick person, in particular, is the one who lives a condition of suffering and need, in which the split between body and soul requires – in the relationship of care – the recomposition of the person’s integrity. In illness, the patient is in desperate need of help in grasping and taking upon himself the meaning of that unspeakable suffering, overcoming mere human reason and feelings, in a perspective capable of gathering the whole spiritual and transcendent dimension of the person.
The Good Samaritan is, then, a theological and anthropological figure capable of restoring a human gaze.
It is the conscious gaze of those who do not confuse the concept of incurable with the concept of incurable. The gaze of those who do not use the criterion of “quality” to abandon the person to his despair, knowing instead to recognize a quality intrinsic to man himself: that “quality” which in secular terms is called dignity of human life and in Christian terms sacredness of human life.
The chronicles of recent months, moreover, have highlighted how the figure of the Good Samaritan is an urgency and a social emergency. In full pandemic – in this sort of our painful journey from Jerusalem to Jericho – Covid19 patients have found in doctors, nurses, health workers, the good Samaritan who was able to stay close to them: a stabat that testifies that when not there is nothing to do there is, indeed, a lot to do.
Very uplifting to read about Samaritanus Bonus, Pope Francis letter on maintaining the sacredness of ALL life, from the womb to natural death. I hope and pray that all countries take this seriously.