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Vatican Mrdia
Seeing brothers and sisters in the sick to be taken care of and not a burden or a cost, but people with their dignity. Pope Francis emphasizes a concept expressed several times in the course of his teaching, in the audience with the “Federsanità” Confederation which brings together the Local Health Authorities, Hospitals, and the Institutes of Hospitalization and Care of a Scientific nature, together with the representatives of the Association of Municipalities Italians. He then looks to the news, denouncing the shortcomings of the health system:
The pandemic has taught us that “save whoever can” quickly translates into “everyone against all”, widening the gap between inequalities and increasing conflict. Instead, we need to work so that everyone has access to care, so that the health system is supported and promoted, and so that it continues to be free. Cutting resources for health is an outrage to humanity.
In his speech, Francesco points out some ways to promote social-health and social-welfare integration paths. The first is proximity, the “antidote to self-referentiality”. “Seeing another self in the patient – he says – breaks the chains of selfishness, makes the pedestal fall on which we are sometimes tempted to climb and pushes us to recognize ourselves as brothers, regardless of language, geographical origin, social status or health condition “. Brothers to care for, take charge of, accompany as Jesus did with the disciples of Emmaus.
Being close also means breaking down distances, making sure that there are no “Serie A” and “Serie B” patients, putting energy and resources into circulation so that no one is excluded from social and health care.
Francesco hangs up on the words of the president of Federsanità and underlines the importance of public health, especially in Italy. When a country loses this wealth that is public health, begins to make distinctions among the population; those who have access, who can have health care, for a fee, and those who are without health services. For this reason, here in Italy, public health is your treasure: do not lose it, please, do not lose it!
“If everything is connected – affirms the Pope – we must also rethink the concept of health from an integral point of view, which embraces all dimensions of the person “. “Integrality” is the other path suggested by Francis who looks at the healing that Jesus performed as a way to restore dignity to the person. In fact, the Pope adds, pathologies will never be able to nullify the value of human life, from conception to the natural end. A horizon that research and those who work in healthcare must keep in mind.
A holistic vision of care helps to contrast the “throwaway culture”, which excludes those who, for various reasons, do not meet certain standards. It is a culture of today, like this: of waste. What you don’t need is outside. Disposable, but at all levels. In a society that risks seeing the sick as a burden, a cost, it is necessary to put back at the center what is priceless, cannot be bought or sold, that is, the dignity of the person.
Francis indicates the ultimate antidote to the common good, “remedy for pursuing vested interests”. In the health sector too, the temptation to make economic or political advantages of some group prevail to the detriment of the majority of the population. And this is also true on the level of international relations.
Finally, the encouragement to work at the service of the sick and society, looking at the example of San Giuseppe Moscati, “a good Samaritan” who was able to embody a style of integral care in the territory “.