ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE «INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL
MEDICAL EDUCATION»
AND TO THE «ITALO-AMERICAN MEDICAL
EDUCATION FOUNDATION»

Saturday, 1 February 1976

Dear friends,

We are mindful of the injunction of Sacred Scripture, given in the Book of Sirach: to hold the medical profession in honor. We willingly express this honor today, proclaiming that your wisdom is from God and that your knowledge and skill entitle you to admiration (Cfr. Sir. 38, 1-3). And so it is a great pleasure for us to extend a welcome to all of you who are participating in the Symposium jointly sponsored by the Italo-American Medical Education Foundation and the Institute of International Medical Education, on the subject of the training of doctors in Italy and in the United States.

You are involved in an exchange of ideas, information and techniques; and you are looking to the needs of tomorrow. We are vitally interested in your topic and unreservedly assert its great importance.

The training of doctors ! How could we not encourage you to pursue your dialogue in a spirit of fraternal collaboration, in the hope that you may make a worthy contribution to humanity.

On our part we express the hope that the formation of young men and women for the medical profession will indeed take into account all the medical discoveries and sound advances of our day, and that this preparation will inculcate the ideal of service.

And for all Christians, we would propose the ideal of service rendered in the name of Christ. We hope likewise that the young people of tomorrow who feel attracted to such a lofty calling will be imbued with the spirit of compassion for their brethren in need. And we pray that the figure of the doctor will be that of one who pursues a healing work in accordance with God’s laws, and who by upright personal conduct proclaims respect for life and for the God-given and inalienable right to life.

May there be true renewal and authentic progress in preparing doctors for tomorrow’s world, and may the stand ards that you proclaim and follow always render honor to your persons and your countries, for the well-being of all those who place their trust in you.