World Day of the Sick: A Reflection

During the pontificate of St. Pope John Paul II, the Church inaugurated the World Day of the Sick and gave us its Charter for Health Care Workers – “A beautiful and inspiring compendium of medical ethics and a call to greatly honor health care via the Gospel of Life” (Catholic Stand, 9/30/21).  In 2024, the World Day of the Sick is celebrated on February 11:

At this time of epochal change, we Christians in particular are called to adopt the compassion-filled gaze of Jesus. Let us care for those who suffer and are alone, perhaps marginalized and cast aside. With the love for one another that Christ the Lord bestows on us in prayer, especially in the Eucharist….

The sick, the vulnerable and the poor are at the heart of the Church; they must also be at the heart of our human concern and pastoral attention. May we never forget this! And let us commend ourselves to Mary Most Holy, Health of the Sick, that she may intercede for us and help us to be artisans of closeness and fraternal relationships (Message of Pope Francis for the 32nd World Day of the Sick, 2/11/24).

Pope Francis reminds us of our need to be Good Samaritans, providing compassionate care to our ailing brothers and sisters.  In that loving care, Good Samaritans must embrace the fullness of Catholic medical ethics.

The Vatican’s New Charter for Health Care Workers 

The magnificent Charter of St. Pope John Paul II’s pontificate was updated in 2017.  Please see the following excerpts:

Between its introduction and its conclusion, the New Charter follows the format of the original charter with sections on procreation, living, and dying….

 The New Charter reminds us that,

The inseparable bond between conjugal love and human generation, imprinted on the nature of the human person, is a law by which everyone must be guided and to which everyone is held” (# 11).   Each new human being has the right to originate in the loving embrace of her (or his) mother and father, who are married to each other.  Yet no matter how the young person came to be, the sanctity of her (or his) life is owed absolute/ uncompromising respect from the very first moment till natural death….

With regard to Directive # 36 of the USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, Chris Kahlenborn, M.D. and others maintain that hormonal contraception is likely working in an abortifacient manner in the treatment of rape victims and call for protocol changes in Catholic hospitals (cf, Statement on Emergency Contraception in Cases of Rape, Catholic Medical Association, 8/19/2015).  Dr. Kahlenborn clearly presents the issues in a video for non-medical audiences.  Unlike the ERDs, the New Charter offers NO guidelines for any supposed “moral” use of an interceptive or contragestative. (cf, Dignitas Personae, # 23).

With regard to reference #167 of the New Charter, we should recall that section 30 of  Dignitas Personae appeared to preclude the use of “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.”

While there may be a perception that the Church has unequivocally accepted so-called brain death criteria for the determination of death, that is not the case.  Father Mitch Pacwa’s 8/4/2021 interview with Dr. Joseph Eble, features uncomfortable and disturbing facts.  The New Charter includes this powerful caution from the Pope Emeritus:

In an area such as this, in fact, there cannot be the slightest suspicion of arbitrariness, and where certainty has not been attained, the principle of precaution must prevail. This is why it is useful to promote research and interdisciplinary reflection to place public opinion before the most transparent truth on the anthropological, social, ethical, and juridical implications of the practice of transplantation (cf, Benedict XVI, Discourse to Participants in the International Congress on Organ Donation (2008)) (Catholic Stand, 9/30/21).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB’s) Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs, 6th ed, 2019)

Via its REPORT: Largest Catholic Health Network Performs Sex-Change Operations (Lepanto Institute, 6/11/23), the Lepanto Institute alerted us to egregious practices happening under our Catholic banner.  In their June 2023 meeting, the USCCB voted to update its ERDs, to incorporate its 3/23/23 Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body:

Modern technology…produces possibilities not only for helpful interventions, but also for interventions that are injurious to the true flourishing of the human person….

Just as bodiliness is a fundamental aspect of human existence, so is either ‘being a man’ or ‘being a woman’ a fundamental aspect of existence as a human being, expressing a person’s unitive and procreative finality….

There are essentially two scenarios recognized by the Church’s moral tradition in which technological interventions on the human body may be morally justified:
1) when such interventions aim to repair a defect in the body;
2) when the sacrifice of a part of the body is necessary for the welfare of the whole body. These kinds of technological interventions respect the fundamental order and finality inherent in the human person. However, there are other technological interventions that aim neither to repair some defect in the body nor to sacrifice a part for the sake of the whole but, rather, aim to alter the fundamental order of the body. Such interventions do not respect the order and finality inscribed in the human person….

Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures.

Why is there any need for the bishops to clarify or vote on a document that simply affirms that “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures”?  This appears to have resulted in needless delay.

Conclusion

This past July, I wondered whether our bishops were … Being Faithful to Their Own Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Services.  I concluded the following:

For any bishop to PRETEND that there is any lack of clarity as to whether Catholic health care should be in any way involved with sex change operations strikes me as depraved. If a bishop is unwilling to proclaim God’s truth, he should do all of us a favor and step aside, so that God’s will can be clearly proclaimed.