Proximity is the most important “medicine” for terminally ill people

Sebastian Samson Ferrari – Vatican City

“Healing is not always received. But we can always care for the sick, caress the sick.” These are the words of the Holy Father in the Pope’s video intended for prayer for February 2024, in which he asks us to pray “so that terminally ill people and their families always receive the necessary care and support from a medical point of view “Can see us as human beings.” In this sense, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, assures that when all possible tools are exhausted, Christians have the responsibility to be close to those who are suffering in the last stages of existence.

Paglia recalls that Pope Francis in his message for the World Day of the Sick 2024 presents us with the parable of the Good Samaritan and invites us to focus on “the ability to slow down in an attitude of tenderness and to be neighborly” . Soothes the wounds of the brother who is suffering.” “We are created for love, we are called to unity and fraternity,” writes the Bishop of Rome.

The Bishop affirmed that as disciples of Jesus we must always care for the sick from the beginning to the end of life. And family support is very important for people facing terminal illness. In this regard, Andrea Sarubbi, coordinator of the Pope’s video, explains that sometimes families get tired before the sick, because the burden they carry becomes too heavy. In this scenario, faith plays a relevant role, as presented in the Pope’s video, Sarubbi says.

Monsignor Paglia comments that the Pontifical Academy for Life has promoted a strong development of palliative care as a technical aid and an effort to eliminate pain and suffering. He also emphasizes the primacy of love and the need to accompany the terminally ill with the hope of finding “on the other side, Jesus, the merciful Father who embraces us”.

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