Pope says if world lacks hope it offers death to those who suffer

Published: 2005-01-21

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A world lacking hope ends up offering death as a solution to those who suffer, Pope John Paul II said. Meeting members of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers Jan. 21, the pope said the church is called to respond to "the most delicate and unavoidable questions that rise from the human heart in the face of suffering, illness and death." Even in the face of suffering, he said, people can draw hope from Christ, who died yet rose again. "The modern world, which often does not have the light of this hope, suggests the solutions of death," he said. In response to those who would sell death as a solution to suffering, the Catholic Church has an obligation to proclaim the value of every human life, especially through the witness of those who care for the sick and dying, the pope said. The sick, he said, have a "special mission" in the church: "in union with the suffering Christ, they can cooperate in the salvation of humanity, increasing the value of their prayers with the offering of their suffering."

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