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VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - N° 204
DATE 13-11-2012
Summary:
- SUFFERING AND HEALTHCARE: TESTIMONY TO EVANGELISATION AND HOPE
- PROTECTING PEOPLE ON THE ROAD/STREET IN AFRICA
___________________________________________________________
SUFFERING AND HEALTHCARE: TESTIMONY TO EVANGELISATION AND HOPE
Vatican City, 13 November 2012 (VIS) - "The Hospital, Setting for
Evangelisation: a Human and Spiritual Mission" is the theme of the
twenty-seventh international conference of the Pontifical Council for Health
Pastoral Care which will be held from 15 to
17 November in the Vatican's New Synod Hall. At the end of the conference,
participants are due to be received in audience by Benedict XVI.
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the dicastery, and Fr. Augusto
Chendi M.I., under secretary, presented the aims of the conference at the Holy
See Press Office this morning.
"Go, teach and heal the sick, is Jesus' mandate", said Archbishop Zimowski,
"upon which are based two of the most fundamental activities of His Church:
the proclamation of the Word and the care of the sick. … In the light
of the current Year of
Faith and the recent thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops, hospitals, as important places for evangelisation, ... today
constitute a crossroads of cultures and religions, areas where the apostolate
of mercy, as defined by Blessed
Pope John Paul II, finds exalted expression".
He observed, "In industrialised countries, aside from the grave economic and
financial crises which have struck a number of nations and led to a drastic
review of health services, serious challenges exist, beginning with the
preservation of the identity
of Catholic hospitals and other health centres, and the maintenance of their
specific role of 'subsidiarity'. This must be achieved without in any way
diminishing the importance of fundamental issues such as full respect for life
from conception to
natural end; the humanisation of healthcare (which means showing full respect
for patients, their identity and life experiences); palliative care, etc.".
With regard to those countries facing greater economic hardships, the
archbishop spoke of grave difficulties in accessing basic healthcare, and
recalled that "people often die on account of a lack of basic medicines
costing just a few dollars, as in the
case of anti-malarial treatments". He also emphasised the scarcity of basic
diagnostic instruments and specialised training for healthcare personnel, due
primarily to "the lack of opportunities" for further study, usually for
economic reasons. He also
noted that "the few resources available to hospitals in the poorest regions
must be used for the benefit of the population without discrimination on the
basis of faith or ethnic origin, in accordance with the Word, the teachings of
the Church and the
spirit and history of missions".
He concluded, "What unites large urban hospitals and the small rural clinics
… is the relationship between patients and healthcare workers, …
the fact that they belong to the Universal Catholic Church, and necessarily
adhere to her
principles and teachings".
In his address, Fr. Chendi announced that the Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Health Workers, on the occasion of the next World Day of the
Sick (11 February 2013) will publish a manual, translated into various
languages and valid for the
whole of the Liturgical Year. The new volume will offer patients and all those
involved in their physical and spiritual care a point of reference for
theological reflection, pastoral care and prayer.
"Our intention in entrusting this manual to the Church, and to the world of
healthcare, parishes and voluntary work, is to create a communion of grace,
prayer and mutual charity", he said. "This, we hope will help us see in the
mystery of suffering ...
the concrete and daily testimony of those who bring good to the sick, and who
bring good through their own sickness. In this way such people bear a valid
witness to the faith which, from the sickbed and close to those who suffer, is
an important source
of evangelisation and hope".
___________________________________________________________
PROTECTING PEOPLE ON THE ROAD/STREET IN AFRICA
Vatican City, 13 November 2012 (VIS) - Made public today was the final
document of the First Integrated Meeting on the Pastoral Care of the
Road/Street for the Continent of Africa and Madagascar, organised by the
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care
of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples in collaboration with the Episcopal
Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of Tanzania.
The event was attended by bishops, priests, religious and lay people from
thirty-one African countries:
Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic,
Congo, Congo R.D., Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry,
Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra
Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The meeting - which was held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in September and had
as its theme "Jesus came up and walked by their side" - examined all aspects
of life of the road/street including: road security, voluntary and forced
prostitution,
trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation, street children, and
human rights especially with respect to the human dignity of women, young
girls and children.
Among the conclusions they reached, the participants recognised that Africa
"is a continent where millions of people, either willingly or unwillingly, are
daily on the move, thus transforming African roads and streets into privileged
place of
evangelisation and education". They also noted how "the road/street in Africa
and Madagascar, which facilitates daily life, human and inter-cultural
communications, also poses serious danger to life, facilitates the
exploitation of human persons and
contributes to the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. These negative aspects
often arise from irregular long hours of work, lack of rest, lack of spiritual
guidance, corruption and organised criminality".
In order to combat such phenomena the document makes a number of
recommendations including the creation of special offices in episcopal
conferences and dioceses for education and formation programmes to promote
awareness about street women/young girls
and street children, long-distant truck drivers and road security, and about
practices which undermine human dignity and endanger life. The document also
suggests "the inculturation of the Gospel as a priority in all national and
diocesan pastoral
programmes in order to liberate women, young girls and children", and the
lobbying of "African governments to exercise law and order to protect the
dignity and life of innocent women/young girls and children at risk on the
continent".
The participants also identify a number of general actions to be taken,
including collaboration with episcopal conferences on other continents with a
view to coordinating efforts to prevent trafficking in women/young
girls/children for the purpose of
sexual and labour exploitation; the development of networking in order to
assist victims through ecclesial/interfaith collaboration at national,
regional and continental level, and the formation of mobile chaplains and lay
ministers with adequate
preparation and the skills necessary to minister to people on the road".
___________________________________________________________
Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il
sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va
Il servizio del VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta
elettronica che ne hanno fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo
non si desidera continuare a riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina
dinizio:
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/italinde.php
Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican
Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente
citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.
--Boundary_(ID_ecr7rLVvRgb++1/JWpm3UQ)
Content-type: text/html; CHARSETUS-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
VISnews121113
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE YEAR XXII - N° 204DATE 13-11-2012
Summary: - SUFFERING AND HEALTHCARE:
TESTIMONY TO EVANGELISATION AND
HOPE - PROTECTING PEOPLE ON THE ROAD/STREET IN AFRICA ___________________________________________________________
SUFFERING AND HEALTHCARE: TESTIMONY TO EVANGELISATION AND HOPE
Vatican City, 13 November 2012 (VIS) - "The Hospital, Setting for
Evangelisation: a Human and Spiritual Mission" is the theme of the
twenty-seventh international conference of the Pontifical Council for Health
Pastoral Care which will be held from 15
to 17 November in the Vatican's New Synod Hall. At the end of the conference,
participants are due to be received in audience by Benedict XVI.
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the dicastery, and Fr. Augusto
Chendi M.I., under secretary, presented the aims of the conference at the Holy
See Press Office this morning.
"Go, teach and heal the sick, is Jesus' mandate", said Archbishop Zimowski,
"upon which are based two of the most fundamental activities of His Church:
the proclamation of the Word and the care of the sick. … In the light
of the current Year
of Faith and the recent thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops, hospitals, as important places for evangelisation, ... today
constitute a crossroads of cultures and religions, areas where the apostolate
of mercy, as defined by
Blessed Pope John Paul II, finds exalted expression".
He observed, "In industrialised countries, aside from the grave economic
and financial crises which have struck a number of nations and led to a
drastic review of health services, serious challenges exist, beginning with
the preservation of the
identity of Catholic hospitals and other health centres, and the maintenance
of their specific role of 'subsidiarity'. This must be achieved without in any
way diminishing the importance of fundamental issues such as full respect for
life from
conception to natural end; the humanisation of healthcare (which means showing
full respect for patients, their identity and life experiences); palliative
care, etc.".
With regard to those countries facing greater economic hardships, the
archbishop spoke of grave difficulties in accessing basic healthcare, and
recalled that "people often die on account of a lack of basic medicines
costing just a few dollars, as in
the case of anti-malarial treatments". He also emphasised the scarcity of
basic diagnostic instruments and specialised training for healthcare
personnel, due primarily to "the lack of opportunities" for further study,
usually for economic reasons. He
also noted that "the few resources available to hospitals in the poorest
regions must be used for the benefit of the population without discrimination
on the basis of faith or ethnic origin, in accordance with the Word, the
teachings of the Church and
the spirit and history of missions".
He concluded, "What unites large urban hospitals and the small rural
clinics … is the relationship between patients and healthcare workers,
… the fact that they belong to the Universal Catholic Church, and
necessarily adhere to her
principles and teachings".
In his address, Fr. Chendi announced that the Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Health Workers, on the occasion of the next World Day of the
Sick (11 February 2013) will publish a manual, translated into various
languages and valid for the
whole of the Liturgical Year. The new volume will offer patients and all those
involved in their physical and spiritual care a point of reference for
theological reflection, pastoral care and prayer.
"Our intention in entrusting this manual to the Church, and to the world of
healthcare, parishes and voluntary work, is to create a communion of grace,
prayer and mutual charity", he said. "This, we hope will help us see in the
mystery of suffering
... the concrete and daily testimony of those who bring good to the sick, and
who bring good through their own sickness. In this way such people bear a
valid witness to the faith which, from the sickbed and close to those who
suffer, is an important
source of evangelisation and hope".
Vatican City, 13 November 2012 (VIS) - Made public today was the final
document of the First Integrated Meeting on the Pastoral Care of the
Road/Street for the Continent of Africa and Madagascar, organised by the
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral
Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples in collaboration with the Episcopal
Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of Tanzania.
The event was attended by bishops, priests, religious and lay people from
thirty-one African
countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Congo, Congo R.D., Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana,
Guinea-Conakry, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
The meeting - which was held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in September and
had as its theme "Jesus came up and walked by their side" - examined all
aspects of life of the road/street including: road security, voluntary and
forced prostitution,
trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation, street children, and
human rights especially with respect to the human dignity of women, young
girls and children.
Among the conclusions they reached, the participants recognised that Africa
"is a continent where millions of people, either willingly or unwillingly, are
daily on the move, thus transforming African roads and streets into privileged
place of
evangelisation and education". They also noted how "the road/street in Africa
and Madagascar, which facilitates daily life, human and inter-cultural
communications, also poses serious danger to life, facilitates the
exploitation of human persons and
contributes to the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. These negative aspects
often arise from irregular long hours of work, lack of rest, lack of spiritual
guidance, corruption and organised criminality".
In order to combat such phenomena the document makes a number of
recommendations including the creation of special offices in episcopal
conferences and dioceses for education and formation programmes to promote
awareness about street women/young
girls and street children, long-distant truck drivers and road security, and
about practices which undermine human dignity and endanger life. The document
also suggests "the inculturation of the Gospel as a priority in all national
and diocesan pastoral
programmes in order to liberate women, young girls and children", and the
lobbying of "African governments to exercise law and order to protect the
dignity and life of innocent women/young girls and children at risk on the
continent".
The participants also identify a number of general actions to be taken,
including collaboration with episcopal conferences on other continents with a
view to coordinating efforts to prevent trafficking in women/young
girls/children for the purpose of
sexual and labour exploitation; the development of networking in order to
assist victims through ecclesial/interfaith collaboration at national,
regional and continental level, and the formation of mobile chaplains and lay
ministers with adequate
preparation and the skills necessary to minister to people on the road".
Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il
sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va Il servizio del
VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta elettronica che ne
hanno
fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo non si desidera continuare a
riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina dinizio: http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vi
/italinde.php
Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican
Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente
citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.
--Boundary_(ID_ecr7rLVvRgb++1/JWpm3UQ)--
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