In Memoriam: Pope Francis, a Compassionate Champion of Mental Health

Pope Francis with Victor Pereira-Sanchez, MD, PhD

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

Introduction by H. Steven Moffic, MD

After Pope Francis died recently, it somehow immediately came to my mind that I should do a eulogy about him, though the only other nonpsychiatrists that I have eulogized for Psychiatric Times have been requested ones of the actor Robin Williams and the neurologist Oliver Sacks. I did feel a bit of trepidation, though, being of the Jewish faith and thereby having less insider knowledge and lived experience with the Pope. To the rescue came the unexpected and serendipitous offer from Catholic psychiatrist Victor Pereira Sanchez, MD, PhD, to do one. I did not know him at all. And what a beautifully written and meaningful mental health eulogy he has written. It also certainly makes for a strong general connection between religion, spirituality, and psychiatry and, more specially, the connection between my Judaism and his Catholicism, along with the death of Pope Francis the day after Easter and the last day of Passover. Tomorrow, too, is Pope Francis’s funeral. Hopefully, this guest column gives our field a connection to his mental health legacy and upcoming mourning.

“I’m a psychiatrist,” I told Pope Francis at the end of our very brief meeting in December 2023, when he blessed my wife and me alongside other newlywed couples at a Wednesday public audience in the Vatican, a moment immortalized in the accompanying picture. The Pope, visibly tired and sick in a wheelchair, yet with an attentive, caring presence and gaze, said with a smile “¡Dios me libre! [God spare me!]”

Jokes aside, Pope Francis was not scared of psychiatrists, but rather familiar with and supportive of our work. He is already being remembered for the many tender and pioneering aspects of his pontificate, and I want to highlight here, without exhaustiveness, his compassionate championing of psychiatry and mental health. In a world and a Church where stigma still lingers deep, Pope Francis disclosed having received psychoanalytic treatment for anxiety from a psychiatrist back in Argentina. He was then at risk of retribution by an authoritarian government due to his hiding and helping of dissidents, and he admitted that therapy provided him with valuable tools he kept using to manage anxiety and make sound decisions through the difficulties of his life.¹ Later, as the leader of the Catholic Church, he supported innovative Church initiatives in mental health in collaboration with the professional sector through the new Vatican Dicastery of Integral Human Development and the first mental health conference at the Vatican,² as well as with the appointment of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to Vatican roles at a commission to tackle abuses against minors.³ He also explicitly appreciated and encouraged the work of mental health practitioners and researchers for the good of individuals and society and called for the overcoming of stigma.⁴

Beyond supporting professional mental health, Pope Francis emphasized the role of the Church in spiritual and social accompaniment of its faithful afflicted by mental disorders. He acknowledged the suffering of many people with mental disorders, sharing explicit messages regarding depression,⁵ suicide, and hopelessness among the youth,⁶ and recognizing the role of social and global determinants, especially the COVID-19 pandemic.⁷ He supported the development of local ministries at parishes and dioceses to have individuals and families welcomed and embraced in the Church, encouraging the pioneering work of Deacon Ed Shoener and colleagues at the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers, which partnered with the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network to promote awareness and prayer for individuals with mental disorders.

None of those were isolated papal actions and words, but were consistent with, and a consequence of, Pope Francis’ love for God, whose mercy he emphasized, and his Catholic vision of the irrepressible, beautiful dignity of all humans⁴ regardless of their faith and circumstances as loved images of God, and conceiving the Church as a “field hospital” for a wounded humanity.⁸ His loving care for people with mental disorders stemmed as well from his “integral ecology,”⁹ in which care for the Creation is intrinsically connected to care for every human from conception and through health and disease, wealth and poverty, and from his “preferential option for the poor” and people at the “peripheries.”¹⁰ While many individuals with mental disorders worldwide still face discrimination and violence, Pope Francis’ criticism of a culture that “throws away” those who are seen by many as weak is a call for care and respect for the human rights of those most marginalized and vulnerable.¹⁰

And beyond those neologisms and that articulated vision orienting traditional Catholic teaching to the needs of the 21st century humanity, his public behavior, rich in humility, simplicity, and tenderness, incarnated those teachings through, for instance, his open display of his own physical and psychological vulnerability and his repeated and consistent acts of care such as hugging people with disabilities and disfigurement, meetings with survivors of various traumas and abuses, and, notably in his last days of life in the hospital and at the Vatican, his daily calls to Christians in Gaza.

I am grateful for the life of this Holy Father, and the opportunity to have met him and receive a blessing for our marriage. We hope to meet him again in heaven and prolong our conversation and jokes. I think not only Catholics but also many people of good will around the world are feeling orphaned and join my hope for a new pontificate that will further compassion for those with mental illnesses and inspire more mental health efforts in and from the Church. Rest in the peace of our Lord, Mother Mary, and Saints Joseph and Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis!

Dr Pereira-Sanchez is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist from Spain, a New Yorker since 2019, and a cradle Catholic with active involvement in the life and ministries of his parish church of St. Elizabeth in Washington Heights, Manhattan, where he met his wife and had his firstborn. He is dedicated to local and global mental health, with leading involvement in pioneering and awarded efforts to improve mental health especially for the underserved. He’s currently a global mental health and implementation science research fellow at Columbia University, where he is coleading multilateral partnerships between mental health, academic, government, and nonprofit sectors with local Catholic churches in underserved Hispanic neighborhoods in New York City, including his parish. He is also coleading a new mental health ministry at his parish and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers. His wife and he had the privilege of joining other newlywed couples for a blessing and greeting by Pope Francis at a Wednesday audience in December 2023, a few days after their wedding.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

References

1. Castro N. Entrevista con el papa Francisco: “a las neurosis hay que cebarles mate.” La Nación. February 27, 2021. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.lanacion.com.ar/opinion/entrevista-con-el-papa-a-las-neurosis-hay-que-cebarles-mate-nid26022021/

2. Tulloch J. Vatican holds first-of-its-kind mental health conference. Vatican News. January 30, 2024. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-01/vatican-mental-health-conference-catholic-ministers-ed-shoener.html

3. Psychologists, psychiatrist among 10 appointed to Pope’s panel on sex abuse. Aleteia. September 30, 2022. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://aleteia.org/2022/09/30/psychologists-psychiatrist-among-10-appointed-to-popes-panel-on-sex-abuse/

4. Pope Francis. Message of the Holy Father to the participants in the second National Conference for Mental Health (Rome, 25-26 June 2021). June 14, 2021. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/06/25/210625b.html

5. 2021–11–TPV–Press Release-People who suffer from depression. Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. November 3, 2021. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.popesprayer.va/2021-11-tpv-press-release-missionary-disciples/

6. Pope Francis. To the Delegation of the Italian National Youth Council. November 16, 2024. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2024/november/documents/20241116-delegazione-giovani.html

7. Accompanying people in psychological distress in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.humandevelopment.va/en/risorse/documenti/accompagnare-le-persone-in-sofferenza-psicologica-nel-contesto-d.html

8. Spadaro A. A big heart open to God: an interview with Pope Francis. America Magazine. September 30, 2013. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis

9. Pope Francis. Laudato si’. May 24, 2015. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

10. Pope Francis. “Evangelii Gaudium”: Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World. November 24, 2013. Accessed April 25, 2025. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html