Cardinal calls Catholic health leaders to evangelize medical world

Published: 2005-06-06

SAN DIEGO (CNS) -- A Honduran cardinal challenged U.S. Catholic health care leaders June 5 to be witnesses in their professional and personal lives to the "humanizing and transforming spirit" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, gave the keynote address on the first day of the Catholic Health Association's June 5-8 assembly in San Diego. "It is not important to 'do a lot,' but to take better care of the 'evangelical quality' of what we do, purify the content of our action, its evangelical value," the cardinal said. "There are little and simple gestures that could show great love, intimate closeness with the ill, brave defense of their rights, and could point toward a more human and humanizing medical world." The gestures include providing assistance to "the most forgotten and marginalized" and attending to the "most vital needs" of each person, he said.

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