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(Vatican Radio) The World Day of the Sick, established by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1993, is celebrated each year on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 11 February. This year marks the 25^th annual commemoration of the day.

The theme chosen for World Day of the Sick 2017 is “Amazement at what God has accomplished: ‘The Almighty has done great things for me’.” In his message for the Day, Pope Francis said, “This celebration likewise gives the Church renewed spiritual energy for carrying out ever more fully that fundamental part of her mission which includes serving the poor, the infirm, the suffering, the outcast and the marginalized” – echoing the words of St John Paul.

Pope Francis also focused on the Marian aspect of the commemoration, saying, “I encourage all of you, the sick, the suffering, physicians, nurses, family members and volunteers, to see in Mary, Health of the Infirm, the sure sign of God’s love for every human being and a model of surrender to his will.”

The Holy Father noted the role of the Blessed Mother in assisting the Church in her work of aiding the sick. “The gaze of Mary, Comfort of the Afflicted,” he said, “brightens the face of the Church in her daily commitment to the suffering and those in need.”

The full text of the Pope’s Message for World Day of the Sick 2017 can be read below:

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE TWENTY-FIFTH WORLD DAY OF THE SICK 2017

 Amazement at what God has accomplished:
“The Almighty has done great things for me…” (Lk 1:49)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On 11 February next, the Twenty-fifth World Day of the Sick will be celebrated throughout the Church and in a special way at Lourdes. The theme of this year’s celebration is “Amazement at what God has accomplished: ‘The Almighty has done great things for me….’” (Lk 1:49). Instituted by my predecessor Saint John Paul II in 1992, and first celebrated at Lourdes on 11 February 1993, this Day is an opportunity to reflect in particular on the needs of the sick and, more generally, of all those who suffer. It is also an occasion for those who generously assist the sick, beginning with family members, health workers and volunteers, to give thanks for their God-given vocation of accompanying our infirm brothers and sisters. This celebration likewise gives the Church renewed spiritual energy for carrying out ever more fully that fundamental part of her mission which includes serving the poor, the infirm, the suffering, the outcast and the marginalized (cf. John Paul II, Motu Proprio Dolentium Hominum, 11 February 1985, 1). Surely, the moments of prayer, the Eucharistic liturgies and the celebrations of the Anointing of the Sick, the sharing with the sick and the bioethical and theological-pastoral workshops to be held in Lourdes in those days will make new and significant contributions to that service.

Even now, I am spiritually present at the grotto of Massabielle, before the statue of the Immaculate Virgin, in whom the Almighty has done great things for the redemption of mankind. I express my closeness to all of you, our suffering brothers and sisters, and to your families, as well as my appreciation for all those in different roles of service and in healthcare institutions throughout the world who work with professionalism, responsibility and dedication for your care, treatment and daily well-being. I encourage all of you, the sick, the suffering, physicians, nurses, family members and volunteers, to see in Mary, Health of the Infirm, the sure sign of God’s love for every human being and a model of surrender to his will. May you always find in faith, nourished by the Word and by the Sacraments, the strength needed to love God, even in the experience of illness.

Like Saint Bernadette, we stand beneath the watchful gaze of Mary. The humble maiden of Lourdes tells us that the Virgin, whom she called “the Lovely Lady”, looked at her as one person looks at another. Those simple words describe the fullness of a relationship. Bernadette, poor, illiterate and ill, felt that Mary was looking at her as a person. The Lovely Lady spoke to her with great respect and without condescension. This reminds us that every person is, and always remains, a human being, and is to be treated as such. The sick and the those who are disabled, even severely, have their own inalienable dignity and mission in life. They never become simply objects. If at times they appear merely passive, in reality that is never the case.

After her visit to the Grotto, thanks to her prayer, Bernadette turned her frailty into support for others. Thanks to her love, she was able to enrich her neighbours and, above all, to offer her life for the salvation of humanity. The fact that the Lovely Lady asked her to pray for sinners reminds us that the infirm and the suffering desire not only to be healed, but also to live a truly Christian life, even to the point of offering it as authentic missionary disciples of Christ. Mary gave Bernadette the vocation of serving the sick and called her to become a Sister of Charity, a mission that she carried out in so exemplary a way as to become a model for every healthcare worker. Let us ask Mary Immaculate for the grace always to relate to the sick as persons who certainly need assistance, at times even for the simplest of things, but who have a gift of their own to share with others.

The gaze of Mary, Comfort of the Afflicted, brightens the face of the Church in her daily commitment to the suffering and those in need. The precious fruits of this solicitude for the world of suffering and sickness are a reason for gratitude to the Lord Jesus, who out of obedience to the will of the Father became one of us, even enduring death on the cross for the redemption of humanity. The solidarity shown by Christ, the Son of God born of Mary, is the expression of God’s merciful omnipotence, which is made manifest in our life – above all when that life is frail, pain-filled, humbled, marginalized and suffering – and fills it with the power of hope that can sustain us and enable us to get up again.

This great wealth of humanity and faith must not be dissipated. Instead, it should inspire us to speak openly of our human weaknesses and to address the challenges of present-day healthcare and technology. On this World Day of the Sick, may we find new incentive to work for the growth of a culture of respect for life, health and the environment. May this Day also inspire renewed efforts to defend the integrity and dignity of persons, not least through a correct approach to bioethical issues, the protection of the vulnerable and the protection of the environment.

On this Twenty-fifth World Day of the Sick, I once more offer my prayerful support and encouragement to physicians, nurses, volunteers and all those consecrated men and women committed to serving the sick and those in need. I also embrace the ecclesial and civil institutions working to this end, and the families who take loving care of their sick. I pray that all may be ever joyous signs of the presence of God’s love and imitate the luminous testimony of so many friends of God, including Saint John of God and Saint Camillus de’ Lellis, the patrons of hospitals and healthcare workers, and Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, missionary of God’s love.

Dear brothers and sisters – the sick, healthcare workers and volunteers – I ask you to join me in praying to Mary. May her maternal intercession sustain and accompany our faith, and obtain for us from Christ her Son hope along our journey of healing and of health, a sense of fraternity and responsibility, a commitment to integral human development and the joy of feeling gratitude whenever God amazes us by his fidelity and his mercy.

Mary, our Mother,
in Christ you welcome each of us as a son or daughter.
Sustain the trusting expectation of our hearts,
succour us in our infirmities and sufferings,
and guide us to Christ, your Son and our brother.
Help us to entrust ourselves to the Father who accomplishes great things.

With the assurance of a constant remembrance in my prayers, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

8 December 2016, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Francis

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis prayed the Angelus with pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. In remarks ahead of the traditional prayer of Marian devotion, the Holy Father offered a meditation on the Gospel reading for this Sunday, taken from the 5^th chapter of Gospel according to St. Matthew, in which Our Lord says:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Reflecting on the passage, Pope Francis said:

Today's liturgy presents us with another page of the Sermon on the Mount, which we find in the Gospel of Matthew (cf. 5:17-37). In this passage, Jesus wants to help his listeners to achieve a reinterpretation of the Mosaic law. What was said in the Old Covenant was true, but it was not all: Jesus came to fulfill and to enact definitively the law of God, down to the last iota (cf. Mt. 5:18). He manifests the Law’s original purposes and He fulfills its authentic aspects – and He does all this by His preaching and even more by offering Himself on the Cross. So, Jesus teaches how to do the will of God fully – and  He uses this expression: with a “justice superior” to that of the scribes and Pharisees (cf. Mt. 5: 20) – a justice animated  by love, charity, mercy, and therefore capable of realizing the substance of the commandments, avoiding the risk of formalism.

“Formalism,” continued Pope Francis, departing from his prepared text. “This I can do, that I cannot: up to here I can, up to here, I cannot.”

“No,” said Pope Francis, “more, more.”

The second moment of Pope Francis’ reflection concerned the second part of the Gospel reading – again from the 5^th Chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, in which Jesus says to His disciples:

You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.

You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.

It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife -  unless the marriage is unlawful - causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.

Pope Francis continued his reflection, saying:

In particular, in [this Sunday’s] Gospel, Jesus examines three aspects, three commandments: murder, adultery and oath-swearing.

With regard to the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” He affirms that it is violated not only by actual homicide, but also by those behaviors, which offend the dignity of the human person, including insulting words (cf. Mt. 5:22). Certainly, these injurious words do not have the same gravity and sinfulness of killing, but they are placed on the same line, because they are the premises of the more serious acts and they reveal the same malevolence. Jesus invites us not to establish a schedule [It. graduatoria] of offenses, but to consider them all harmful, insofar as they are all moved by the intention to do harm to one’s neighbor.

“Jesus gives the example,” Pope Francis went on to say, once again departing from his prepared text. “Insulting: we are used to insulting, it is like saying, ‘Good morning.’ And that is on the same line as killing. Anyone who insults his brother kills his brother in his heart. Please, do not insult! We earn nothing by doing so.” Pope Francis then returned to his prepared text, and continued with his reflection:

Another fulfillment is made to marriage law. Adultery was considered a violation of a man’s property right over [his] woman. Jesus, however, goes to the root of the evil. Just as one comes to murder through injuries, offenses, and insults, so one comes to adultery through intentions of possession with respect to a woman other than one’s wife.

Adultery, like theft, corruption and all other sins, are first conceived in our hearts and, once the wrong choice is made in the heart, they are actuated in concrete behavior. And Jesus says:

Again departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis continued, “He who looks with a possessing spirit at a woman who is not his own is an adulterer in his heart, he has begun to go down the road to adultery. Let us think a little on this: on the bad thoughts that are in this line.”

The Holy Father then turned his attention to the swearing of oaths:

Jesus then tells his disciples not to swear oaths, because the oath is a sign of insecurity and duplicity with which human relations are conducted. Oath-swearing exploits the authority of God to give assurance to our human affairs. Rather we are called to establish among ourselves, in our families and in our communities, a climate of clarity and mutual trust, so that we can be considered honest without resorting to higher interventions in order to be believed. Mistrust and mutual suspicion always threaten serenity!

Before leading the faithful in the Angelus, Pope Francis prayed that Our Lady – a woman of docile listening and obedience – might help us all to pause and spend more time with the Gospel, that we might be Christians not merely in appearance but in substance. “This,” said Francis, “is possible with the grace of the Holy Spirit, who permits us to do everything with love, and so to fulfil the will of God.”

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday spoke of the importance of the bond of brotherhood and of how easy it is for petty jealousies and envy to damage that bond and set off a process that can lead to the destruction of families and peoples.

The Pope was speaking during the homily at morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, a Mass that he offered to Father Adolfo Nicolás, the former Superior General of the Society of Jesus who is preparing to continue in his mission in Asia.   

Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni:

Brotherhood is destroyed by small things

Reflecting on the first reading of the day which speaks of Cain and Abel, Pope Francis said that in this reading from Genesis, for the first time in Bible we hear the word ‘brother’ and we listen to a “story of brotherhood that should grow and be beautiful, but ends up destroyed”.

“A story which begins ‘with a little jealousy’: Cain is irritated because his sacrifice does not please the Lord and he begins to cultivate a feeling of resentment, a feeling he could control but does not” he said.

The Pope said Cain chose to harbor this sentiment and let it grow.  The sin he will then commit is crouching within this sentiment. This, he continued, is how enmity between us begins with a tiny spark of jealousy or envy, and ends up growing so much that we see life only from that point of view: “the speck of sawdust becomes a plank in our eye, our life revolves around it and it ends up destroying the bond of brotherhood; it destroys fraternity.”

Resentment is not Christian

Gradually, the Pope said, one becomes “obsessed, persecuted” by that evil that grows and grows.

He said that this leads one to detach oneself from one’s brother turning him into an enemy who must be destroyed. “This enmity, he continued, ends up destroying families, peoples, everything!”
  
“This is what happened to Cain who ended up killing his brother” he said pointing out that this process must be stopped immediately, at the very first sign of bitterness and resentment.

“Bitterness is not Christian. Pain is, but not bitterness. Resentment is not a Christian” he said.

The blood of many people cries out to God from the soil

Taking note of the fact at the Mass at Santa Marta on Monday there were some newly appointed parish priests, Pope Francis urged them to be aware that “even within our episcopal colleagues” there are small cracks and rifts that can lead to the destruction of brotherhood.

When God, he said, asks Cain: “Where is your brother Abel? Cain's answer is ironic: I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?”

Yes, the Pope said: you are your brother's keeper. And the Lord then said: “your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil!”

Each of us - the Pope explained - can say we have never killed anyone, but anyone who has a bad sentiment towards his brother has killed him: “if you insult your brother, you have killed him in your heart”.

And turning his thoughts to those who find themselves under the bombs of war or who are driven from their homes as “they are not brothers” he said the process of killing starts from something small.

“How many powerful people of the world can say: I'm interested in this area, I'm interested in this piece of land… if a bomb falls and kills 200 children it is not my fault, it’s the fault of the bomb. I'm just interested in the land…” he said.

It all begins, Pope Francis said, with that feeling that makes you break away, not recognizing your brother, and it ends in a war that kills.

This, he said, is the process of bloodshed, and the blood of so many people in the world today cries out to God from the soil.

The Pope concluded his homily asking the Lord to help us to repeat His words: “Where is your brother?” and to think of those who “we destroy with our tongues” and of those who “in the world are treated as things and not as brothers, because a piece of land is more important than the bond of brotherhood”.

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Vatican Radio’s English Africa Service would like to inform listeners in Rome, Italy, that the English Africa Service programme broadcast four times daily on Rome's FM 103.8 frequency is moving to a digital platform beginning Tuesday, this week, 15 February 2017.

From this date onwards, the ‘English Africa Programme’ can be heard only through the Vatican Radio World Channel on Digital Audio Broadcasting standard known as DAB or its updated version DAB+, which will require the purchase of a digital radio receiver. However, listeners can continue to listen to the podcast of the daily programme throughout the day by logging on to our website www.radiovaticana.va, click on English and then go to the On-demand and Podcast section on the right hand side of the page; click on ‘English for Africa Programme.’

In recent years, Vatican Radio has experimented with digital transmission technologies, including DAB, which is said to be cheaper and has a better sound quality, according to experts.

In Africa, the main outlet for our daily English Africa programmes will continue to be through the re-transmission of the daily programme by several Catholic radio stations in Africa. Most of these radio stations are owned by various African Catholic dioceses, parishes, religious congregations and some by the Radio Maria network.

The times and frequencies of our Shortwave (SW) broadcast to Africa and the rest of the world remain the same.

The English Africa Service apologises to our Rome listeners for any inconvenience the change from FM to digital radio might cause. The times of broadcasts remain the same.

For further information kindly contact the English Africa Service through email: engafrica@vatiradio.va or by phone: (+39) 06 69883892

(Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

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(Vatican Radio) “How can a priest, at the service of Christ and of His Church, come to cause such evil? How can one who has consecrated his life to leading the little ones to God, end up instead devouring them in what I have called a ‘diabolic sacrifice,’ which destroys both the victims and the life of the Church?”

Pope Francis has once again spoken out strongly against the evil of sex abuse perpetrated by clergy and religious. His words come in the preface to a book by a victim of clerical sexual abuse, Daniel Pettit, today a husband and father of six children.

In his preface, the Holy Father describes meeting Mr Pettit at the Vatican during the Year of Consecrated Life. “I couldn’t imagine that this man, enthusiastic and passionate about Christ, was a victim of abuse by a priest,” the Pope writes. “And yet this is what he told me, and his suffering struck me deeply. I saw once more the fearful damage caused by sexual abuse, and the long and painful journey that awaits the victims.” In particular, Pope Francis notes that some victims have even taken their own lives. “These deaths weigh on my heart, on my conscience, and on that of the whole Church,” he says. “To their families I offer my sentiments of love and of sorrow, and I humbly ask forgiveness.”

Pettit’s witness, the Pope says, deals with “an absolute monstrosity, a horrendous sin, radically contrary to all that Christ teaches us.” Pope Francis recalls the Church’s duty to care for and protect the weakest and the most defenceless; and the duty to show proof of “extreme severity towards priests who betray their mission, and towards their hierarchy, Bishops or Cardinals, who protect them.”

And yet despite the sufferings Pettit has undergone, the Pope says, “he has come to see another face of the Church,” which has “allowed him not to lose hope in men and in God. The Pope note that Pettit has met with his “tormentor” – the priest who abused him – has taken his hand, and has forgiven him. He quotes Pettit’s words, “Many people can’t understand that I don’t hate him. I have forgiven him, and I have built my life on that forgiveness.”

Finally, Pope Francis thanks Pettit for his witness, “because testimonies such as his break down the walls of silence that stifled the scandals and the sufferings, and shed light on a terrible area of shadows in the life of the Church,” as well has helping pedophiles “become aware of the terrible consequences of their actions.”

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The All India Catholic Union (AICU), the largest lay Catholic organization in India, has called on the Prime minister Narendra Modi to use his influence and that of his government to negotiate with the countries of the Middle East to free Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, kidnapped in Yemen on March 4, 2016.  In the letter, signed by the President, Lancy Da Cunha, Catholics express the anguish of the Christian community over the long months of imprisonment undergone by the Salesian priest, in the hands of jihadi militants linked to the Islamic State. Cunha says: "We ask for your personal intervention and assistance to ensure that he will return home as soon as possible and in complete safety. We hope and pray that you will support us".

Since last March, Fr. Tom, a native of Kerala state, has been a captive of an Islamic group after it a home for the sick and elderly of the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, in southern Yemen.  In the attack four sisters of Mother Teresa and 12 other people present in the building were massacred. After months of silence, at the end of December a video was posted online in which the priest gave his personal details and stated he needed "urgent medical care".

AICU acknowledged "the surroundings are much more complex than other cases of kidnapping of Indians in Afghanistan.”  It expressed appreciation for the efforts of the Government and others for the release of Jesuit Father Alexis Premkumar, kidnapped in June, 2014 in Afghanistan and released eight months later. Even Judith D'Souza, the  Indian Catholic volunteer kidnapped in June last year, in the same country, and released later.  (Source: AsiaNews)

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The Colombian Foreign Ministry confirmed last Wednesday from the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá that Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti was kidnapped Tuesday evening while she was going about her charitable duties at the Catholic parish in the village of Karangasso, Mali.

The Colombian Embassy in the West African capital of Accra, Ghana, is coordinating with Mali military and police the safe release of the 56-year-old Franciscan nun who is believed to have been captured by four armed men who turned up in the remote village of the Sahel region, close to the border with Burkina Faso.

According to eyewitness accounts, the gang stormed the parish compound claiming to be jihadists. Narváez Argoti, was one of four nuns working in Karangasso, southern Mali, and the only one to have been taken hostage.

Search and rescue operations by Mali’s security forces have resulted in the arrest of two suspects, but as of Thursday, there has yet to be an official claim of responsibility from the country’s five main jihadist groups, mainly the al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Signed-in-Blood Battalion and Islamic Movement for Azawad

(The City Paper/IMA).

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In a scathing indictment of Pakistan's treatment of Afghan refugees, a human rights group charged Monday that the country is forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees back to their homeland, which is still beset by war and crushing poverty. It also said that a $400 stipend the United Nations refugee agency gives to refugees who return to Afghanistan is tantamount to a bribe to convince reluctant Afghans to leave Pakistan.  ``The exodus amounts to the world's largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times,'' the Human Rights Watch report said..  Both the U.N. and Pakistan denied the allegations. The report by the New York-based rights group was harsh in its criticism of the U.N. agency for not condemning what it insisted is Pakistan's forced return of the refugees.  The number of Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan, already at the highest level in years, may increase this year if Pakistan maintains its forceful policies, Human Rights Watch said.

 Last year, hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees left Pakistan, a 12-year-high that the rights group called the "world's largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times". Aid workers and Afghan officials worry that the returnees are coming back to a country in conflict and economic crisis, led by a government already struggling to maintain basic living standards. Pakistan has provided millions of Afghans with refuge for decades, and police and officials deny reports that they are targeting Afghans, though officials have said they should go home.  (Source: AP/Reuters)

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Myanmar is to investigate whether police have committed abuses against Rohingya Muslims, the government has said, after officials promised that allegations of atrocities against members of the Muslim minority would be looked into.  The United Nations human rights office said in a report this month Myanmar's security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages since October in a campaign that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine State, where many Rohingya live, and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign has been under way since nine policemen were killed in attacks on security posts near the Bangladesh border on Oct. 9.

The military said last week it was setting up a team to investigate alleged atrocities by the security forces and the interior ministry followed that up on the weekend with a promise to investigate police. The Home Ministry said in a statement a "departmental inquiry" would be conducted "to find out whether the police forces have committed illegal actions including violations of human rights during their area clearance operations".  The ministry, which is controlled by the military, said action would be taken against personnel "who failed to follow instructions".

Almost 69,000 Rohingyas have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since the security force sweep was launched in October, according to U.N. estimates.  More than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims may have been killed in the crackdown, two senior U.N. officials dealing with refugees fleeing the violence said last week. 

Rohingya have faced discrimination in Myanmar for generations. They are not classified as a distinct group under citizenship laws and are regarded instead as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, entitled only to limited rights. About 1.1 million Rohingya live in apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmar.  The violence has renewed international criticism that Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has done too little to help members of the Muslim minority.  (Source: Reuters)

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Vatican City, Feb 10, 2017 / 04:53 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has issued an updated version of their charter for healthcare workers, removing question marks from modern ethical concerns such as euthanasia and the creation of human-animal chimeras by offering a clear set of guidelines.

In the past 20 years “there have been two to situations, two events” that have made the production of a new healthcare charter necessary, Professor Antonio Gioacchino Spagnolo told CNA Feb. 6.

The first, he said, is “scientific progress. In these 20 years there has been a lot of scientific progress in the field of the beginning of life as well as in the phase of the end of life, in the context of living.”

But alongside advancements in science the Church’s Magisterium has also produced several texts dealing with new and current issues, offering an authoritative take on how they should be handled.

The charter, he said, “encompasses a sort of collection of the various positions there have been, the various pronouncements, keeping the progress of bio-medicine in mind.”

Spagnolo, director of the Institute of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, spoke to journalists at the Feb. 6 presentation of the new charter, and played a key role in drafting the new text.

A first edition of the charter was published in 1994, but in the wake of broad scientific advancements and various updates in the Church’s Magisterium, the Holy See Monday rolled out the new version of the charter for healthcare workers.

Released to coincide with the annual World Day of the Sick celebrations taking place in Lourdes, the updated charter includes all magisterial documents published since 1994 and will be sent to bishops' conferences around the world.

At roughly 150 pages including the index, the charter is structured much like the old edition, and is divided into three parts: Procreation, Life, and Death.

The section on procreation covers everything from contraception, IVF, and the scientific use of embryos, including freezing them, as well as newer topics such as the mixing of human and animal gametes, the gestation of human embryos in animal or artificial wombs, cloning, asexual reproduction, and parthenogenesis.

In the “Life” section, topics covered are “all of the health events that are in some way connected to living,” Spagnolo said, including vaccinations, preventative care, drug testing, transplants, abortion, anencephalic fetuses, as well as gene therapy and regenerative medicine.

The social part of the charter also covers areas specifically linked to poverty, such as access to medicines and the availability of new technologies in developing countries or countries that are politically and economically unstable. Rare and “neglected” diseases are also covered in the new text.

In his comments to CNA, Spagnolo commented on recent cases the new, updated charter would cover, including the creation of human-pig “chimeras,” as well as the case of an elderly woman with dementia who was held down by her family during a euthanasia procedure.

The first case refers to the recent high-level scientific research project that culminated in the creation of chimeras, or organisms made from two different species.

While the project initially began by conducting the experiment on rats and mice, at the end of January it culminated with the human-pig mix, marking the first time a case had been reported in which human stem cells had begun to grow inside another species.

In the experiment, which appeared in the scientific journal “Cell,” researchers from various institutes, including Stanford and the Salk Institute in California, injected pig embryos with human stem cells when there were just a few days old and monitored their development for 28 days to see if more human cells would be generated.

Human cells inside a number of the embryos had begun to develop into specialized tissue precursors, however, the success rate of the human cells was overall low, with the majority failing to produce human cells.

Commenting on the case, Spagnolo said this type of “hybridization between human and animal cells” was primarily done to garner more scientific information. “It’s important” that this research is done, he said, but cautioned that we can’t be “indifferent” to how the information is used.

If a scientist decides to mingle human cells with those of another species in order to create some sort of hybrid being, “this is of course something that can’t be accepted because in some way it means using the generation of a life as an instrument to reach one’s own ends.”

However, if it’s done for a purpose other than generating alternate beings, such as growing human organs for transplant, Spagnolo said this would be acceptable.

One thing that’s already being proposed, he said, is the possibility of xenografts, i.e. tissue grafts or organ transplants from a donor that is a different species than the recipient.

The idea of doing this, Spagnolo said, is to “inoculate” pigs with human cells, allowing the organs of the pig to receive human antigens, “so when a transplant were done with a liver or heart from the pig inside a (human being), there wouldn’t be the rejection that there is normally doing it with other species.”

Spagnolo said that using the hybrid cells for organ or tissue transplant “is acceptable because to transfer a human cell to a pig doesn’t mean creating a life.”

Rather, it allows the pig “to have a genetic patrimony similar to that of a human being to then be able to use the organs to help people,” he said, emphasizing the fact that it’s not pig cells being injected into human beings, but vice versa.

So to make a good, informed decision involves first of all seeing “what type of experiments” are being done, deciding from that “whether it’s acceptable or not,” then looking at what “one intends to produce, what are the objectives one intends to reach.”

Pointing to another touchy scientific case that came up recently when an elderly woman in her 80s was held down by her relatives as her doctors euthanized her, Spagnolo said this is the type of murky water which “advanced statements” or living wills wade into in countries where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal.

The woman, who lived in the Netherlands, had dementia and had reportedly expressed a desire for euthanasia when “the time was right” at an earlier date, but had not done so recently.

When the woman began exhibiting “fear and anger” and was sometimes found to be wandering the halls of her nursing home, the senior doctor at the home determined that the woman’s condition meant the time was right, and put a sleep-inducing drug into her coffee so he could administer the lethal injection.

The woman was not consulted, and woke up as the doctor was trying to give the injection. When she fought the procedure, her family members were asked to hold her down while the injection was completed.

“When medicine no longer does what it should” because in a living will someone expresses their desire for assisted suicide, “this statement completely alters the doctor-patient relationship,” Spagnolo said.

He pointed to a bill that is currently on the table in Italy that would effectively legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, requiring doctors to act on the advanced statements of their patients in this regard, and prohibiting them from conscientious objection.

This bill, as well as the case of the woman in the Netherlands, illustrates “the difficulty of advance statements,” Spagnolo said, explaining that if someone makes an advance statement and later decides against it, “the fact of having said it before is used and is done (by) drugging the patient.”

While the doctor-patient relationship is always key element of the discussion, Spagnolo noted that various studies have been conducted showing a doctor’s behavior toward patients differs based on whether or not the patient has an advanced statement, specifically on euthanasia.

“This disparity should be avoided. The doctor should always act the same way when the person is concerned,” he said.

So with the new charter, all healthcare workers will now have a point of reference for some of these sticky scenarios, he said.

“They can know that some things must be done, they are obligatory. Others, however, are only possibilities.

In this sense, “the will of the patient is very important, not in the perspective of ‘anticipating’ death, but in the perspective of knowing whether or not to accept and support certain interventions the doctor can do, but which the patient might think unsuitable.”

 

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