"In our society there is a tyrannical dominance of an economic logic that excludes and at times kills, and of which nowadays we find many victims, starting with the elderly..........we see the existence of a “throwaway” culture, in which those who are excluded are not only exploited but also rejected and cast aside.
“Health is without doubt an important value, but it does not determine the value of a person. Furthermore, health is not by itself a guarantee of happiness, which may indeed by experienced even by those in a precarious state of health...........poor health and disability are never a good reason to exclude or, worse, eliminate a person; and the most serious deprivation that the elderly suffer is not the weakening of the body or the consequent disability, but rather abandonment, exclusion, and a lack of love”.
“The teacher of welcome and solidarity is, instead, the family: it is in the bosom of the family that education draws in a substantial fashion upon relationships of solidarity; in the family it is possible to learn that the loss of health is not a reason to discriminate against certain human lives; the family teaches us not to fall prey to individualism and to balance 'I' with 'we'. It is there that 'taking care' of one another becomes the foundation of human existence and a moral attitude to promote, through the values of commitment and solidarity”.
- Pope Francis
Message to the participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of its institution.
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