Rome, Italy, May 28, 2010 / 15:05 pm
The president of the Pontifical Council for Health Ministry spoke about the significance of living by faith through experiences of suffering and disease this week. Faith, said Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, leads a person to adopt an attitude that transcends sickness and health.
Launching the Genoan Days of Christian Culture in Rome, Archbishop Zimowski delivered a talk on “Therapy, Ethics and Religion.” The event is running from May 26-29 under the theme "I, the Lord, am your healer. Disease versus religion between ancient and modern eras."
The archbishop began his talk by looking at how disease and suffering are phenomena that, if examined, raise questions that go beyond medicine to reach the essence of the human condition.
In the trauma of experiencing disease we perceive the fragility of human nature, he said, since it can cause fear, dependence and discouragement. A person's "confidence in life" can be put to the test, the Vatican's head of health noted, "but also his very faith in God and his or her love of the Father."