All of us are mortal. The body will not survive. But the soul can always be healed, even to the last breath of a person. Skeptic Nuland allowed that religious faith is indeed a source of strength for many patients. Nuland cited Freudian theory that the human subconscious can t handle the idea of death.
People have to believe.
We have created an entire structure of belief that allows us to say, Something of me will continue. Where Nuland saw biology, however, his opposite number saw the hand of God. Margaret O Brien Steinfels, editor of the lay Catholic magazine Commonweal , served as moderator of the program, which drew an audience of 600 to the theater on Clarendon Street in Boston s Copley Square. The event was simulcast on the Boston College campus and in Washington, D.C., for 100 alumni and guests of the Boston College Alumni Association.