Vatican City, Feb 28, 2018 / 17:07 pm
Palliative care is a reminder that love for those who are dying means accompaniment, not abandonment, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Wednesday.
In a Feb. 28 letter, the Holy See's Secretary of State told the Congress on Palliative Care that medicine is based on an "untiring commitment" for new knowledge, but must also recognize the limits of disease and illness.
"And this means not abandoning sick people, but rather being close to them and accompanying them in the difficult test that makes itself present at the end of life."
He said the mutual dependence of love "emerges with particular emphasis in moments of sickness and suffering, especially at the end of life, but which in reality permeates all human relationships and indeed constitutes their most specific feature." The cardinal cited St. Paul's Letter to the Romans about "the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law."