Continuing the Meeting (22)
Observing the three "Pietàs" of the great artist
by Mario Carrera
Faith not only inspires the artist's imagination, but works and shapes his very life. This consideration is evident in Michelangelo's artistic works and, in particular, in the three "Pietàs" that he sculpted. At the age of twenty-four he sculpted the "Pietà", the best known one, the "Pietà" par excellence that we admire in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is a hymn to the love of a young mother who loses a child in a dramatic way. A hymn to faith and resignation. As the years pass, the drama of dying knocks on the artistic vein of the Florentine artist and death takes its face in the "Pietà". The sculptures of the three "Pietàs" have an almost private itinerary in the artist's life. At twenty-four he sculpted a sumptuous beauty, even in the drama of the death of the Son of God. The last two "pietas", that of the Museum of the Cathedral of Florence and that of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, are the mirror of his state of mind as a facing death. “The unfinished”, in Florence, in the physiognomy of Nicodemus holding Christ, gives us his self-portrait, his face. The “Pietà” in Milan, usually referred to as the “Pietà Rondanini”, is Michelangelo's last work. The Master dedicated his last thoughts and even the last hours of his life to it.
Doctor and nurse as guarantors of the rights of the terminally ill
by Flavia Caretta
It cannot be forgotten that the central element in medicine, but even more so in the terminal phase, is to find and maintain a communication channel with the patient, so that he can express his needs, his fears, his questions, trying to overcome the sense of loneliness and isolation that often condition him.
Solidarity and hospitality are the requirements to accompany us to the final frontier
Written by Super User
Ivan was a man who spent his life teaching human "the craft of living". Being a master of life, over the years of his existence he met an innumerable series of people and his wife Nadège had to "share" her husband with many men and women who had turned to him in search of help to overcome the obstacles of them to live. by Mario Melazzini
Illness, pain and the role of the doctor
As a doctor and as a patient, I read with great dismay the testimony of the Sardinian doctor who admitted having «put thousands of people to sleep, in a hundred cases I went further. I did this whenever necessary, but I don't have a list. I have never regretted it, also because it was the patients who asked me to intervene. In all situations there was no other way out. This is a consolidated practice throughout Italy." How can you argue that certain behaviors are consolidated throughout Italy: I say very firmly that this is not the case! Faced with these statements, I wonder what the meaning of our role as doctors is? Euthanasia: dialogue between Bonaccorti and Avvenire
Dear Editor,
The arrival at eternity
«We must get used to celebrating with "the foreigner" that is in us, grateful with that gratitude of the blessing of the olive - as Marcus Aurelius wrote in ancient times - which, falling on the ground, thanks the tree that produced it» . The catechesis of Pope Francis
«There is a wrong way to look at death. Death concerns us all, it questions us in a profound way, especially when it touches us closely, or when it affects the little ones, the defenseless in a way that seems 'scandalous' to us. I have always been struck by the question: why do children suffer?, why do children die? If it is understood as the end of everything, death scares, terrifies, transforms into a threat that shatters every dream, every perspective, that breaks every relationship and interrupts every path. This happens when we consider our life as a time closed between two poles: birth and death; when we do not believe in a horizon that goes beyond that of the present life; when you live as if God didn't exist.
The collaborator of the magazine La Santa Crociata in honor of San Giuseppe, Dr. Stefania Severi, was interviewed by Vatican Radio in recent days to present our 2014 Calendar, depicting the panels of the bronze door of the Basilica of San Giuseppe al Trionfale. We report the audio interview.
by Graziella Fons
Accompany and humanize with charity
Death and dying are two realities that our society tends to set aside, forgetting that love and death are the letters of the alphabet with which human existence is expressed. Since humanity's first mourning, death has become an enigma that disturbs everyone's conscience and projects a cone of thick shadow over the days of existence which becomes for some a distressing prospect and, for those who have faith, a birth in the light of God after a prolonged gestation throughout life.
by Giulia Facchini Martini
Dear uncle, uncle as I liked to call you in recent years when illness dispelled your natural modesty towards the manifestation of feelings: this is my last, intimate farewell.
I feel it, You would like us to talk about the agony, the struggle of facing death, the importance of a good death.
Dying is certainly an unavoidable step for all of us, just like being born and, just as pregnancy gives, every day, small new signs of the formation of a life, even death often announces itself from afar. You too felt it coming closer and you repeated it to us, so much so that for this reason, at times, we affectionately teased you. Then the physical difficulties increased, you swallowed with difficulty and therefore ate less and less. You were afraid not of death itself, but of the act of dying, of passing away and everything that precedes it. You were afraid, above all afraid of losing control of your body, of suffocating to death. If you could use human words today, I think you would tell us to talk to the patient about his death, to share his fears, to listen to his wishes without fear or hypocrisy.
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Testimony of the funeral of a heroic woman of today
A young woman, Chiara Corbella (28 years old), and her husband Enrico Petrillo. Both Romans, a very normal couple who were very believers, so much so that they met in Medjugorie. A story that grew up in pain and ended badly, very badly.
Chiara is no longer here. She died on June 13th. She went through two pregnancies, both of which ended in her death at the birth of her babies.
Maria first and Davide later, both victims of malformations that leave them no escape. Chiara still gets pregnant. You are a male, Francesco. This time everything was going well: the ultrasound scans finally confirmed the baby's health. Bad luck seemed to have turned the other way. But no.
In the fifth month of pregnancy, Chiara was diagnosed with a bad lesion of the tongue and after an initial operation, the doctors found a carcinoma. He must be treated with chemo, but chemo would kill the fetus. Faced with this eventuality, Chiara and Enrico decide to go ahead with the pregnancy, putting their mother's life at risk.
Reflection from the prof. Mario Melazzini
«People with disabilities can be happy». We asked Mario Melazzini, former hospital head, suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and now national president of Aisla, the association for research on ALS, for a reflection on living today in disability, starting also from the personal experience of he. «In our society, living with a serious illness or disability - as Melazzini begins - creates anguish and we do everything we can to ward off the thought of it, or if it actually happens, to ward off the situation.
An edifying testimony
of p. Camillo Maccise
When the tumor was discovered just over a year ago, the first thing I did was to thank God for the 73 years of health he had granted me and therefore I put myself in his hands. One of our religious people asked me if I was experiencing this trial that the Lord had sent me in a dark night. I replied to him… about the dark night, nothing. Rather, that I had a kind of absence of feelings and the impression of an emptiness, but in peace. Furthermore, the conviction has grown in me that the best thing, as Edith Stein said, is to let ourselves be guided by the Lord.
A father's letter to his son
If one day you see me old: if I get dirty when I eat and I can't get dressed... have patience, remember... the time I spent teaching you.
If when I talk to you I always repeat the same things, don't interrupt me... listen to me, when you were little I had to tell you the same story every night until you fell asleep.
When I don't want to wash don't blame me or make me ashamed... remember when I had to run after you making excuses because you didn't want to take a bath.