On March 18, the event “Today Who Is My Neighbor” was held in Rome, promoted by the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), and the World Health Organization (WHO). During the meeting, some data from the Second European Report on the State of Health Equity (HESRi2) were presented.
“Health cannot be a luxury for the few. On the contrary, it is an essential condition for social peace”, emphasized Pope Leo while receiving the participants of the Conference in audience. “Universal health coverage”, he noted, “is not merely a technical goal to be achieved; is not merely a technical goal to be achieved; it is primarily a moral imperative for societies that wish to call themselves just. Healthcare must be accessible to the most vulnerable, then, not only because their dignity requires it but also to prevent injustice from becoming a cause of conflict”.
“Viruses and bacteria know neither borders nor customs duties; nor do they recognize industrial patents,” affirmed H. Em. Card. Matteo ZUPPI, President of the CEI, recalling that “health care is far more global than one might imagine”. This vision goes beyond the boundaries of medicine and intertwines with the destiny of peoples: “the peace of peoples,” he declared, “depends on recognizing the dignity of every human life from the moment it begins to appear”.
“In various ways,” he continued, “as national Bishops’ Conferences, we are the voice of that part of the population that is most vulnerable—those who are ill, those who are wounded—where certain psychological wounds, and I think of war, I think of children, will remain forever as indelible scars, more in the mind than on the skin”. Hence the commitment to “make every effort—and this includes the insistence of prayer—for the realisation of peace in our lands and throughout the entire world,” said the President of the CEI, encouraging all “to look with hope, with trust, and with great industriousness at the lives that are being born, because their future is rooted in our present.”
According to Cardinal Zuppi, “we must look together toward a shared, meaningful project, and this is what we are doing: getting to know one another today in order to reflect on the fundamental equalities of our common humanity and on the unevenness and inequalities of the health systems and services of different European countries”. Because, he noted, “differences are a value and, if lived well, a source of mutual enrichment, whereas inequalities create and fuel injustice.”
It is precisely along this line—between concrete vulnerabilities and structural inequalities—that H.E. Msgr. Giuseppe BATURI, General Secretary of the CEI, recalled the Catholic Church’s commitment “to promote the humanisation of care and to affirm each person’s right to be treated”. This task becomes decisive especially where frailty risks turning into exclusion from access to care. Therefore, the principle of Universal Health Coverage has “an important ethical dimension”. “Health must be protected without any discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, religious affiliation, culture, or economic means”. This because, he warned, “the human being must be respected and cared for as such”. Referring to the “universality of care” and the “primordial sacredness of human life,” Msgr. Baturi reiterated that “all lives deserve to be lived; there are no fragments of life that do not deserve to be lived”, and “all human beings deserve acts of care and our own compassion”. “Upon this matter”, he declared, “our democracy depends.” According to the CEI Secretary, it is necessary “to give a voice to those who have none, to those who no longer have a voice, to those who do not yet have a voice, always uniting human and evangelical promotion—inseparable for human dignity—as a fundamental condition for our societies to be truly just.”
Throughout the course of the day, an integral vision of health emerged – one that unites the clinical, social, and human dimensions. “The Church’s contribution to rebuilding Europe from a Christian perspective also involves a rightful social and economic renewal, working together with the peoples and governments of Europe toward a recovery that leaves no one behind”, said H.E. Msgr. Gintaras GRUŠAS, President of the CCEE, who affirmed that, “The first step toward a just renewal is investing in the family and in the defence of human life”.
“It is essential”, he observed, “to care for younger generations—who must be protagonists, not spectators, of the recovery; to care for the most fragile members of society, for the poor and migrants, for the sick and those who care for them—so that a dignified life may be offered to all.
Not least, we must care for the environment around us, beginning with the deep ecological conversion to which Pope Francis calls us in Laudato Si’”. He recalled that the parable of the Good Samaritan is a call to be human, to feel the pain of others, and to act concretely by caring for one another. Preaching the Gospel and caring for the sick are, according to Archbishop Grušas, the task of the entire Christian community; they are the heritage that Jesus entrusted to his disciples—the continuation of Christ’s healing work.
“We believe in a Europe that is a family: united in solidarity and subsidiarity, respectful of diverse peoples, knowing that the Gospel continues to be an inexhaustible contribution for building an earthly Civitas that is not closed in on itself or imploding, but open beyond itself—with feet on the ground and eyes toward Heaven. A place where, in response to God’s question: “Where is your brother?”, each person can respond saying: “I am my brother’s keeper”, concluded the President of the CCEE.
Hans Henri KLUGE, Regional Director of WHO Europe, recalled the value of health as a space for dialogue even in the most difficult contexts: “in a time of war, health remains one of the tables around which one can sit and dialogue on the basis of universality”. This because, he concluded, “health care is a resilient bridge: if we safeguard health, we safeguard peace”.
During the public session, held at the Pontifical Lateran University, contributions were also offered by biblical scholar Stefano Vuaran; Orazio Schillaci, Minister of Health of the Italian Government; Alberto Siracusano, President of the Italian Superior Health Council; and Chris Brown, Head of the WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development.
Photo: Vatican Media