Vatican City, Nov 18, 2017 / 05:59 am
Pope Francis on Saturday sent a message to health workers and organizations, saying compassion is the heart of what they do, and stressed the need for a more equitable distribution resources and services throughout the world.
"A healthcare organization that is efficient and capable of addressing inequalities cannot forget its raison d'être, which is compassion," the Pope said Nov. 18.
This includes the compassion of doctors, nurses, support staff volunteers and all others able to "minimize the pain associated with loneliness and anxiety," he said, and stressed the importance for healthcare workers to focus not just on good organization, but on listening, accompanying and supporting the people they care for.
Compassion, Francis said, is "a privileged way to promote justice," since empathizing with what others are experiencing allows us to not only understand their struggles, hardships and fears, but also "to discover, in the frailness of every human being, his or her unique worth and dignity."