On November 14, 2022, Pope Francis gave a speech to Apoteca Natura, a network of European pharmacists who specialize in providing advice on natural therapy. The speech mostly passed by popular media unnoticed. This lack of coverage is unfortunate because the speech contains pearls of wisdom about the proper attitude and intent for medicine. Although the speech was given to a pharmacist network seemingly on the peripherals of medical care, its message resonates for all health care professionals. In praising Apoteca Natura for its good work, for example, the Pope called all listeners to remember the human-oriented nature of all medical work.

Francis lauded Apoteca Natura for its commitment to “a personalized relationship with the people of the area, a certain capacity for listening in order to be able to advise and to guide.” The Pope continued, “However, while this is not your invention, you propose to ‘invest’ in this aspect, which is very important from the point of view of basic health care.” Genuine medicine, as evident from the Pope’s praise, aims to care and not merely to cure. Sadly, there has been a tendency to focus on cure at the expense of care. For this reason, the Pope laments that modern health care and the medical relationship are increasingly characterized by bureaucracy and computerization, such that “the elderly or poorly educated find themselves effectively excluded or marginalized.” Tragically, modern health care tends to remove the face from the patient. In other words, it sees the patient as a problem to be solved as efficiently as possible rather than as a person in need of healing.

The Pope identified two essential aspects of the medical relationship, harmony and care, necessary for living well. Living well, the Pope explained, is “harmony of the person, the family, the people, living with Creation.” Even modern society, he claims, exhibits something of this attitude insofar as it intuits an “overriding need today to rediscover a new harmony … between us human beings, and creation.” Considering the Pope’s emphasis on creation, it comes as no surprise when he refers back to his encyclical Laudato si’. It is from that line of argument that the speech draws its reference to harmony and care. Speaking from a theological viewpoint, the Pope preached that harmony can be achieved in a lasting way only by recognizing the presence of the Holy Spirit in creation. Moreover, it is precisely the Spirit that fosters the harmony of the natural world. Since the Holy Spirit is harmony and all of creation images the Spirit, the harmony that we find in the natural world always points us towards our origin and end in God.

Francis astutely explained that “creation, inasmuch as it is ‘created’ by God who is harmony, reflects the plan of the Creator and, while being intimately marked by the evil that has contaminated it, it always aspires to goodness and harmony.” For this reason, genuine medicine aims not to be efficient for efficiency's sake but instead to encounter and care. Tragically, the evil that contaminates creation pervades everything and everyone. Recognizing the conflict born from our fallen natures, Francis speaks frankly about the fundamental choice before each and every medical practitioner—choose either a culture of consumerism and nihilism or a culture of care.

Again, Laudato si’ calls out to the listener, especially insofar as the Pope’s speech links “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” to the purpose of medicine. Francis implied that the cry of the sick contains these other cries of need. Since there is only one harmony, one Spirit present throughout the world, there can be only one principle of care. Although he did not state it explicitly, I believe Francis called for a renewed life of prayer for those in the medical field to help them hear the guidance of the Spirit and choose to care.

Obviously, this speech presents nothing new morally or theologically. Nevertheless, its pearls of wisdom can strike the hearts of those who read and internalize them. They promise to inspire those who work in medicine to remember what their vocation is all about—encounter over efficiency, awareness of the suffering over the statistics, and a stark reminder to face the patient as a person.

Colten Maertens-Pizzo works for the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic School System.

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