A Picture meant for history books, not headlines

by Michael Gannon

Families fleeing their homes, leaving their city behind forever, carrying on their backs the little they can cling to, with innocent little faces trailing them with tears dripping onto the desert sand beneath them…

Imagine that picture…spare a moment to try and sense the pain, the loss, and the trauma in need of healing that will lie ahead. You have probably seen the like in a history book, where you were taught about a past injustice and moved by the suffering faces you saw. You might have wondered how anything like that could happen, and you might have felt assured that it couldn’t happen again in our modern and progressive times. But the picture you are imagining now describes a reality that is current, happening today, and the pain is being felt by our brothers and sisters in their lives, in their hearts, and in their families.

The situation of persecuted religious groups in parts of the world is real, and has intensified. People are being pressured to renounce their religion against their true desire, or to face heavy tax penalties and societal discrimination that would incessantly burden if not cripple their families. If they refuse to submit to either, they are threatened with death. Most have chosen another option, that of fleeing their hometowns where they are no longer welcome. This reality is dramatic, extreme, tragic, and begging for compassion. The children are the most heart-wrenching victims of these crimes.

The health of these displaced people is more than at risk: it has already been damaged. The psychological effects of being forced to leave their homes are serious. The education of the children that have been displaced is a task that is on hold because mere survival must take precedence. The nutrition and basic health care of the individuals in these families is likely a daily concern.

These things are occurring in a land that may be distant from some of us, but our hearts cannot remain at a distance. Let us allow our hearts to cry for them. Our voices long to shout out to them and to tell them that they are loved, that they are a witness to the world, and that they must cling to hope even more firmly than they cling to the satchels they carry. Faith…it is the real treasure you possess. Love…it is the sword that will triumph over hate.

The world is full of differences. The globe is made up of much diversity. Different races, different creeds, different foods, different leisure, different ecologies, different political systems, and different stories to be told. Yet humanity is tied together on a level that is deeper our differences. A young boy can hold the door and bow to an old lady whose language he does not know, and acknowledge the common humanity between them.

The UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights is actively creating forums of dialogue for diverse religious thought leaders. The 4thInternational Workshop on Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion will be held in November 2014. Representatives from the world’s many different belief systems will be present to dialogue with their peers from a diverse vantage point. It is possible for different views to converge in peaceful ways. The world becomes more beautiful when we dialogue in mutual respect about our genuine differences. Let us dialogue about our differences, and we will discover what makes us the same.

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Chair Fellow Speaks on Person-Centered Health Care at Spanish University

UNESCO Chair Fellow Fr. Joseph Tham gave delievered two bioethical talks during his visit to the Universidad Franciso de Vitoria in Madrid Spain July 3-4.  Tham addressed the European Society for Person Centered Healthcare in his conference on “Person-centered Healthcare according to the Catholic Tradition.” Tham’s own abstract of the talk is included below.

Tham also commemorated the legacy of the late Dr. Edmund Pellegrino in an address to the Institute of Bioethics entitled “Testimony on Dr. Pellegrino, virtuous man and educator who lived what he preached.” Tham’s original Spanish abstract of the talk can be found below, followed by an English translation.

“Person-centered Healthcare according to the Catholic Tradition” Abstract

It is a little known fact that hospital is a Catholic invention.  In the Roman times, Christians in hiding began caring for those who were injured, solders and gladiators alike.  When Christianity became legal, they began to extend this care for the sick in houses of “hospitality”, which means places for strangers or guests.  This tradition was carried on in the monasteries for pilgrims, the poor and the sick, and later the foundation of hospitals and medical schools.  The core value of Catholic hospitals  is that of love or charity in action which is derived from the Gospel demand, “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.”

This means there is a special emphasis on the patient as a person.  This understanding of the person is based on a philosophical vision of man and enlightened by faith.  Hence, the centrality of the value of the person means that he has an intrinsic dignity from conception to natural death.  There is an on-going debate on the identity and moral status of the human embryo today.  However, it is clear in Catholic teaching that the very possibility that we are dealing with humans, even in their earliest stage of development, means that we must respect them as one of us.  Indeed, every one of us has at one point been an embryo.  The patient as a person also means we need to respect his and her dignity in all aspects of life.  This is especially important with regards to the areas of sexuality and procreation.  The Church’s teaching regarding abortion, family planning, sterilization, artificial fertilization and euthanasia are very clear and consistent.  It is important the Catholic hospitals fully share this vision and actively promote it not only as some prohibitions, but as positive safeguarding of our common human dignity.

One challenge all over the world is that the modern hospital has become very sophisticated and requires professional financial management.  This sometimes means closure of services, opening more profit-oriented ones, merging with secular hospitals or receiving government funding.  All these can at times enter into conflict with person-centered healthcare of serving the poor and the disadvantaged.   This is related to another challenge comes from the fact that the scientific technical aspect of medicine is deemed more important or even incompatible with the humanistic or spiritual mission of caring and hospitality.  Hence, the success of a hospital is measured in terms of size, technology and cure rates rather than compassionate care towards the patient’s integral needs.  Finally, there is a diminishment of the presence of chaplains, priests and religious in the hospital which further dilutes this Catholic identity.

Titulo: Testimonio sobre Dr. Pellegrino, hombre y educador virtuoso que vive lo que predica.

Tengo la enorme gracia de hacer mi doctorado bajo la dirección del Dr. Edmund Pellegrino. Fue un gran educador y promotor de la ética personalista basado en el pensamiento aristotélico-tomista y cristiano. En mis varios tratos y encuentros con este gran hombre, me ha iluminado más por sus ejemplos que sus escritos. Desde la antigüedad, no era fácil la pregunta: ¿cómo enseña las virtudes? Dr. Pellegrino nos dio la pista.  Vivió las virtudes que enseñaba, y las difundieron con su propio vida.

I had the great grace of doing my doctorate under the direction of Dr. Edmund Pellegrino. He was a great educator and promoter of personalist ethics based in the aristotelic-thomistic tradition of thought. In my various dealings and encounters with this great man, he enlightened me more with his example that with his writings. Since antiquity, it has not been easy to answer the question “How are the virtues taught?” Dr. Pellegrino left us a clue. He lived the virtues that he taught and spread them with his way of life.

UNESCO Chair Fellow Participates in NEUPSYCO 2013

UNESCO Chair Fellow Fr. Alberto Carrara, LC participated in the First International Congress Advances in Clinical Neurosciences and Psychiatry: Brain and Mind in La Habana, Cuba on November 18-20, 2013.

Two hundred and fifty participants from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom and United States gathered for the event in Palco Hotel in La Habana, Cuba.  During the three days congress, 80 papers were presented and discussed under the direction of Professor Giuseppe Bersani (La Sapienza University, Rome) and Professor Pedro Valdés Sosa (Cuban Neuroscience Center, Cuba).
Fr. Carrara was one of the two moderators of the final day’s plenary session dealing with “Bioethical Issues in Psychiatry and Neurosciences,” and also delivered the lecture titled: “Neurobioethics and human person.” Fr. Carrara spoke on the importance of neuroscience research in order to clarify some anthropological concepts and therefore provide a more profound definition of human person. His lecture was organized according to six main points.
1. Introduction to neuro-centrism and neuro-mania

2. Neurobioethics: an historical perspective

3. From Neuroscience to Neurobioethics

4. Transhumanism

5. The Human Person considered from the neuroscience point of view

6. Some conclusions related to the neuro-anthropological vision of human being.

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