The 30th World Day of the Sick was celebrated today, 11 February, and this year Pope Francis chose the theme: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful – Standing beside those who suffer on a path of charity.” A message, taken from the Gospel of Luke, which fully reflects the founding motto of the Order of Malta, tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum, with which the pontiff wanted to express a special thought to physicians, to nurses, to all healthcare workers and to “the numerous volunteers who donate their precious time to assist those who suffer”.
The Solemn Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, celebrated by Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, former Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, was followed by the rite of the anointing of the sick attended by a hundred sick. A delegation from the Order of Malta, with its members and volunteers from the Italian Association, the Relief Corps and the Military Corps, was present. Volunteers of the Grand Priory of Rome’s youth group accompanied about twenty young Our Lords the Sick, who, together with their families, enthusiastically took part in the Eucharistic celebration and the choir. The delegations of Unitalsi and the Italian Episcopal Conference also accompanied the malades they assisted.
In hospitals, homes for the elderly and in all places where the most fragile people are cared for, being merciful “acquires a special meaning for all healthcare workers” said Cardinal Turkson in his homily adding that, thanks to the Holy Spirit, we can become “balms of life for others”. And he concluded by inviting us to look to Lourdes “where in the healing of infirmities and bodily ailments the Blessed Virgin Mary gives men a foretaste of the salvation that her Son gives!”
Yesterday, on the occasion of the World Day of the Sick celebrations, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, established by Pope Francis in 2016, organized a webinar to illustrate the value of the initiative, which this year reaches its 30th edition. The Order of Malta’s Grand Hospitaller, Dominique de La Rochefoucauld-Montbel, also spoke at the seminar to stress the importance of voluntary service in contemporary society.
