RADIO VATICANA REPORT: Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday sent a Message to the President General of the
Italian Federation for the Transport of Sick Persons to Lourdes – OFTAL. The
Message was read by the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, at a Mass
for the OFTAL offered Saturday morning in St Peter’s Square.Below is the full text of Vatican Radio’s unofficial translation of the Message.
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To the Rev. Monsignor Giampaolo Angelino, President General of OFTAL
I join spiritually with you and the entire Opera Federal Transportation of the Sick to Lourdes in occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding and the centennial of the first pilgrimage to the Holy Grotto of the late Msgr. Alessandro Rastelli, of blessed memory, worthy founder of your Association.
With you, I thank the Lord for all that your ecclesial reality has represented in these years of fruitful apostolate: the various initiatives aimed at promoting devotion to the Immaculate Virgin among the people; the commendable support and assistance to the sick; the opportune moments of spiritual training offered to personnel, in support of support the OFTAL’s noble mission of charity.
I hope that the significant anniversaries you are gratefully celebrating might encourage everyone to make a more incisive Christian witness, continuing to produce spiritual fruit in fidelity to the charism and the ends of your association, and always in communion with the bishops and the Church.
In this regard, I assure you of my prayers that you might serve the Lord and our brothers in joy, successfully completing your every good work.
With these sentiments and wishes, I invoke abundant outpouring of graces and heavenly comforts on you, on chaplains, doctors and nurses, ambulance attendants and ladies, and especially over the sick, whom I greet with great affection. Upon the whole OFTAL and on every one of you, in token of my fatherly affection, I impart my special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, March 17, 2012
POPE BENEDICT XVI.
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