Caring for the sick is not an option for Christians, or something to be left to professionals, according to Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin (pic'd here).Jesus reminded us we shall be judged at the end of time on how we visited the sick, he told the congregation at a special Mass last Sunday in Raheny to mark World Day of the Sick .
He spoke of the ‘strange paradox’ of legal attempts to enable medical professionals to take the life of the terminally ill, and ‘at the same time there are those who will go to any end to prolong life to an extent which seems to reject the fact that natural death is precisely that'.
In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI called for the development of treatments for the terminally ill.' It is necessary to support the development of palliative treatments that offer integral care and dispense to incurably sick people that human support and spiritual accompaniment they so need,’ said Benedict XVI.
World Day of the Sick this year was dedicated to the material and spiritual assistance of the incurably or terminally ill.
On Saturday, during a meeting with Costa Rica’s new ambassador to the Holy See, the Pope praised that country for its defence of human life.
He acknowledged, in particular, ‘the traditional closeness to positions held by the Holy See in various international forums on such important questions as the defence of human life and the promotion of marriage and the family'.
In past years Costa Rica headed the International Convention Against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings, which had the support of the Holy See and numerous countries within the United Nations.
In addition, the Costa Rican constitution, guarantees all physical persons the right to life from the moment of conception until natural death.
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