|
|
Health Care Chaplaincy in Portugal
At this moment, the legislation concerning healthcare chaplaincy is being
revised. In this process of dialogue between the Church and the
Government, one of the references is the Standards for Healthcare
Chaplaincy in Europe proposed by the ENHCC.
The National Coordination Board of the Hospital Chaplaincies is trying to
guide the development of Healthcare Chaplaincies according to some
fundamental guidelines:
-
A distinction between spiritual and religious dimensions and the
conviction that these two dimensions belong to an anthropologically based
concept of health without which there is no integral praxis of human
healthcare.
-
The development of a new concept of Chaplaincy-Community, making the
Church present near the patients.
-
The priority of a Pastoral of Presence, before all sacramental pastoral.
-
The search into ways of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue and
participation in the assistance of patients in the hospital.
-
The involvement with Healthcare Professionals and Students and their
education regarding the respect to the spiritual and religious identity of
the patients.
-
Integration and development of various expressions of voluntary service in
pastoral work with the patients.
-
Integration of the specific work of the Chaplaincies in the global dynamic
of Healthcare Pastoral.
Rev. Fr. José Nuno Ferreira da Silva
priest of Oporto Diocese since July 1989. Chaplain of the largest hospital
of Oporto, the Hospital de S. João. It has about 1400 beds and includes
the Medical School.
In 2003 he was appointed by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference to be the
National Coordinator of the Hospital Chaplaincies of Portugal; also
Diocesan Coordinator of Oporto.
Answering the pastoral requests of this Hospital, he completed a Master in
Theological Bioethics at the Portuguese Catholic University and the
Pontifical Master in Pastoral Healthcare at the International Institute of
Pastoral Theology of Health Care of Rome, known as the Camillianum.
Currently he is developing his studies in Bioethics.
He’s director of Medical Anthropology department, in Oporto University
Public Health Care Institute.
[May 2008]
|
