2. In her approach to the sick and to the mystery of suffering, the Church is guided a precise concept of the human person and of his destiny in God's plan. She holds that medicine and therapeutic cures be directed not only to the good and the health of the body, but to the person as such who, in his body, is stricken by evil. In fact, illness and suffering are not experiences which concern only man's physical substance, but man in his entirety and in his somatic-spiritual unity. For that matter, it is known how often the illness which is manifested in the body has its origins and its true cause in the recesses of' the human psyche.

Illness and suffering are phenomena which, if examined in depth, always pose questions which go beyond medicine itself to touch the essence of the human condition in this world (cf Gaudium et spes, no. 10). 'Therefore, it is easy to understand the importance, in the social-health care services of the presence not only of pastors of souls, but also of workers who are led by an integrally human view of illness and who as a result are able to effect a fully human approach to theca sick parson who is suffering. For the Christian, Christ's redemption and his salvific grace reach the whole man in his human condition and therefore reach also illness, suffering and death.