Haiti convinced me that Pope Leo is right: Health care cannot be a luxury
“Health cannot be a luxury for the few.”
Fr Enzo Del Broco CP
Fortunately for us in Australia and New Zealand, universal health care is not a political ball game. Fr Enzo spent time in Haiti, with Fr Rick Frechette, and experienced the desperate needs of those who have so little.
It was there that I began to understand something simple and devastating: For many, illness was not what determined their fate. Access was.
In Haiti, health care is not taken for granted. It is fragile, often scarce, and for many, painfully out of reach. Yet in the midst of poverty, political instability and systemic neglect, I encountered a radically different vision of care, one rooted not in profit or privilege, but in human dignity.
Yet even the richest country in the world, the shining light of freedom, they tell us, chooses not to protect the health of their own citizens.
If health care becomes a privilege reserved for the few, we erode the very foundation of social peace. Inequality in care sends a dangerous message: that some lives are worth more than others. History has shown that such inequality cannot endure without consequence.
The lesson from Haiti is not that these challenges are insurmountable but that the response must be rooted in solidarity. Even in extreme poverty, a community can choose to prioritize the most vulnerable. Even with limited resources, it can affirm that no one should be abandoned.
Fead the full article here
This article first appeared in National Catholic Reporter Online. Reprinted by permission of NCR Publishing Company www.NCROnline.org”
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