The Catholic Church in Portugal is preparing for its national Congress for the pastoral care of the sick, dedicated to the theme “At the service of the Person – Healing and Protecting”. Discussion will focus on the concepts of the person, the threats to life, to health and to dignity, and the responsibility of society and of the Christian communities for suffering people. The Congress is due to be held from 1st to 3rd February, in the “Grande Auditório do Centro Pastoral Paulo VI” (Fatima). Father Vítor Feytor Pinto, coordinator of the national commission for the pastoral care of health, declared that this meeting “represents a challenge to the responsibility of the Catholic Church for healthcare needs in Portugal”. The first such Congress, in 1995, debated the theme “The service to life”. Ten years later, according to the promoters, the Church needs to “review the progress made, and the Church’s new guidelines in support of the health of the population”. The objectives also include the need to “guarantee that all citizens be offered the spiritual and religious support they need, while bearing in mind the culture and the religion of each”. There is also a need to “innovate the action of the Church especially by providing services of ongoing assistance to invalids”. Those in charge of the pastoral care of the sick also underline the need always to take into consideration the most difficult situations of persons, the elderly, the chronically ill, and those in irreversible situations, because “it is in this phase of life that there is most need for integral support”.
