A doctor’s tribute to Pope Francis

How faith intersects with the field of medicine

- CLINICAL MATTERS DR. EDSEL MAURICE T. SALVANA

I was preparing to do a vaccine talk when I saw the post on social media. Pope Francis was dead. Since you cannot trust anything that comes up on social media these days at face value, I quickly checked mainstream media webpages, and it was confirmed.

The Pope had died in the early hours of Easter Monday, and the Vatican announced the news that morning. I felt immensely sad and knew that we had lost a great man who had given hope to so many. Later on, it was revealed that he had suffered a stroke, gone into a coma, and had gone into heart failure, which eventually caused his demise. This is not unusual for having been so recently ill with a severe pneumonia, and it was a wonder that he still insisted on going out and seeing the faithful up to the day before he died.

The public perception of doctors is that we rely heavily on science and that religion is not relevant to the practice of medicine. While I have colleagues who are agnostics as well as atheists, the vast majority of doctors I know subscribe to some sort of religion. Even the atheist and agnostic doctors I know are quite spiritual and highly ethical, which means that doctors in general have some sort of moral compass. I suppose this makes sense, since a doctor’s job is to heal people, and putting in the work to become a good doctor entails a lot of self-sacrifice.

I was a very religious kid. My parents were Catholic Charismatics who went to church every day and were part of a prayer group that met weekly. After school, I would rush home so I could go to church with them in the afternoon.