The crisis of moral values is the cause of mental illness

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day on October 10. cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical council for the Pastoral of Health, in a letter dated October 8, made clear the obvious correlation between the destruction of moral values and the rise in mental illness, thus opposing the report of “medical science which acknowledges a tenuous link between the manifestation and the aggravation of certain pathologies and mental disorders, and the current crisis in moral values”.

 Speaking on the theme of the Day: “Mental and physical health throughout life”, the Mexican cardinal stated that it was “not possible to remain silent in the face of continual aggression against tranquility of mind and mental stability. This aggression is the act of “social models which encourage the instrumentalization of man and the dangerous conditioning of his liberty”. The crisis in moral values brings “the abandonment of traditional forms of social cohesion”, and particularly “the institution of the family”, when at the same time, “our selfish society refuses to consider the suffering it causes and marginalizes its victims”.

 For this reason, cardinal Barragan reaffirmed the necessity “of an effective education on matters of health”, and the teaching of “healthy lifestyles, consistent with a culture of moral values”. Believing that mental illness “affected to a greater degree, the people in need intellectually, culturally and economically”. The cardinal requested to this effect, the “elementary right of access to care and the respect of the patient”. He recalled the duty of “society leaders responsible for public health”, to provide “urgent help for these sick people, many of whom are on the street, or with their families where they are not able to receive the scientific technical help they need”.