Patient Care In Pastoral Formation

From the very beginning of Her existence, the Church has been encouraging Christians to care for the poor and the sick. Such an attitude is the fulfillment of the double commandment of loving the Lord and loving one’s neighbor. It is on fulfilling this commandment that salvation of man depends. Christ does not exclude anyone for religious, social or cultural reasons. The believers undertook numerous charity initiatives and provided institutional care in hospitals and hospices. The attitude profoundly affected the conscience forming of the then active physicians and generations of physicians to come. In time, lay institutions gradually took over patient care. Thus, a need emerges for priests to acquire knowledge of advances in medical sciences and of their ethical assessment. The task is executed by lecturers and authors of textbooks of pastoral medicine. The teaching of the Church supports the thesis that hospitals are the sites where Loving God is present and a school of humaneness