ROME — Pope Francis said Tuesday that spiritual care is just as important as medical care, urging healthcare workers to be attentive to their patients’ psychological and spiritual needs.
The “worst discrimination suffered by the poor,” the pope said in his message for the 2022 World Day of the Sick, “is the lack of spiritual attention.”
Bearing this in mind, “we cannot fail to offer them God’s closeness, his blessing and his word, as well as the celebration of the sacraments and the opportunity for a journey of growth and maturation in faith,” he declared.
The pontiff went on to say that “closeness to the sick and their pastoral care is not only the task of certain specifically designated ministers” since “visiting the sick is an invitation that Christ addresses to all his disciples.”
“How many sick and elderly people are living at home and waiting for a visit! The ministry of consolation is a task for every baptized person,” he said.
Caregivers are called to attend not only the needs of flesh, but also of the mind and spirit, Francis proposed, and the sick have a special need to find meaning in their suffering.
A coronavirus patient is treated at the Oceanico hospital in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro. (Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty Images)
“When individuals experience frailty and suffering in their own flesh as a result of illness, their hearts become heavy, fear spreads, uncertainties multiply, and questions about the meaning of what is happening in their lives become all the more urgent,” he said.
“How can we forget, in this regard, all those patients who, during this time of pandemic spent the last part of their earthly life in solitude, in an intensive care unit, assisted by generous healthcare workers, yet far from their loved ones and the most important people in their lives?” he asked.
“This helps us to see how important is the presence at our side of witnesses to God’s charity, who, following the example of Jesus, the very mercy of the Father, pour the balm of consolation and the wine of hope on the wounds of the sick,” he added.
A mobile COVID-19 vaccination and booster shot site operates out of a bus on 59th Street south of Central Park as patients wait on the sidewalk, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
“Patients are always more important than their diseases, and for this reason, no therapeutic approach can prescind from listening to the patient, his or her history, anxieties and fears,” the pope asserted.
“Even when healing is not possible, care can always be given,” he said. “It is always possible to console, it is always possible to make people sense a closeness that is more interested in the person than in his or her pathology.”
The Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of the Sick annually on February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, but the Vatican released the pope’s yearly message for the event on Tuesday.