As I Suffer So Must Ye All

AP/NY Times reports that

Vatican officials on Thursday held out Pope John Paul II's stoic suffering with Parkinson's disease as an antidote to the mentality that modern medicine must cure all, calling this a ``religion of health'' that is taking hold in affluent countries.

``While millions of people in the world struggle to survive hunger and disease, lacking even minimal health care, in rich countries the concept of health as well-being figures in creating unrealistic expectations about the possibility of medicine to respond to all needs and desires,'' said the Rev. Maurizio Faggioni, a theologian and morality expert on the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life.

I doubt the idea that stoic suffering is the morally desirable way to cope with illness will catch on outside the inner circle of the current Pope! - Art Caplan