Sofrimento e morte: aconselhamento pastoral na capelania hospitalar a pacientes oncológicos paliativos

Abstract

This study aims to reflect on the contributions of pastoral counseling in hospital chaplaincy to palliative cancer patients, with an emphasis on suffering and death. To this end, the work is divided into three parts. The first aims to understand cancer, which affects an increasing number of people, in its general aspects and to analyze how this disease can affect all areas of the person's life, and the suffering, which is inevitable, can be reframed in the light of theology. The second investigates hospital chaplaincy and the importance of pastoral counseling in the context of the disease. As a properly qualified person, the chaplain must apply his or her knowledge in spiritual assistance to provide peace and tranquility to the people being assisted. The third analyzes palliative care and pastoral counseling in preparation for death, an area that the chaplain will certainly have to face with some regularity. This work tries to shed more light on the most difficult moment in the life of every human being, when one is between life and death.