Pope Francis proposes to the members of the “Health Alliance” three “solutions” for promoting the process of social-health integration: close care, holistic care and public interest.
(Vatican News Network)Treat sick brothers and sisters as objects to be cared for, not burdens; the sick also have dignity. Pope Francis emphasized these ideas several times during an audience with members of the Italian Federation of Healthcare (Federsanità) on June 4. The federation is a federation of associations of health authorities, hospitals, convalescent centres and municipalities across Italy. In his speech, the Pope looked at the reality, referring to the scarcity of the health care system.
The Pope pointed out that under the new crown epidemic, the mentality of “seeking more for one’s own happiness” has quickly changed into “everyone is once morest each other”, the problem of inequality is getting worse and the conflict is getting more and more intense. However, we “work to keep everyone cared for, to support and improve the health care system and to continue to provide free services. Cutting back on health care is tantamount to violence once morest humanity”.
In order to promote the process of social-health integration, the Pope proposed three “solutions”, the first of which is “close care”. It is an antidote to the “self-respecting attitude”. “Seeing another self in the patient helps to break the chains of selfishness” and “urges us to recognize each other as brothers and sisters, regardless of language, origin, social class or health status”. We are brothers and sisters to take care of each other and should be with each other as Jesus did to the disciples of Emmaus.
When everything is closely related, we must also re-examine the concept of health and hygiene with a holistic view, taking all aspects of the person into consideration. The second solution given by the Pope is “total care”, as the healing performed by Jesus is a way of restoring human dignity. The Pope stressed that the symptoms of the disease must never remove the value of human life from conception to its natural end. A holistic care perspective is good for “fighting the throwaway culture,” which is: throw away everything that’s useless, and throw it away when it’s used. This happens at all levels. “Society may see patients as burdens and costs. In such a society, the dignity of human nature, which is neither priced nor sold, must be re-placed at the center.”
The third “solution” pointed out by the Pope is the public interest, which can cure “the pursuit of one-sided interests”. He pointed out that “there is also a temptation in the field of health care, which is to take the economic or political interests of individual groups as the main consideration, regardless of the well-being of the majority of the people. This is also true at the level of international relations.”
The Pope finally encouraged all those present to continue serving the sick and the community, and encouraged them by the example of Giuseppe Moscati. The Pope praised the medical saint as a “charitable Samaritan” who “knows how to practice a holistic approach to care in his place”.
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