Pope Francis says ".. the suffering become...signs of the presence of Christ, the Son of God, who came to heal.." Full Text

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO MEMBERS OF THE GVM CARE & RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Clementine room
Saturday, February 1, 2020

Dear brothers and sisters,

I cordially welcome you, representatives of the Villa Maria Group: doctors, nurses, administrative staff and managers. I thank the President for his words. I listened to the illustration of the purposes and purposes from which the life of your Group is animated, for forty years active in the health sector and at the service of human health. I congratulate you on the dynamism that has led you to extend your business, as well as in Italy, to other countries, always at the service of human life marked by disease. I encourage you to persevere with dedication in the works undertaken, and I hope that your structures, places of suffering but also of hope and human and spiritual experience, can be increasingly marked by solidarity and attention for the sick person.

Technological evolution and the same changes of a social, economic and political nature have changed the fabric on which the life of hospitals and healthcare facilities rests. Hence the need for a new culture, especially in the technical and moral preparation of health workers at all levels.

In this perspective, what the Villa Maria Group has done so far to meet the needs of patients and their families, sometimes forced to migrate to specialized centers far from their territory, is important. The commitment to widen the range of action with the acquisition or creation of new structures and the expansion of infrastructure, denotes the desire to ensure the equipment and comfort necessary for the hospitalization of the sick and for their recovery.

It is desirable that the places of care are more and more houses of welcome and comfort, where the patient finds friendship, understanding, kindness and charity. In short, you find humanity. The patient is not a number: he is a person who needs humanity. In this regard, it is necessary to stimulate the collaboration of all, to meet the needs of the sick with a spirit of service and an attitude of generosity and sensitivity. This is not easy, because the patient is sick, and he loses patience and many times he is "out of his mind". It is not easy, but it must be done. To achieve these objectives, it is necessary not to let oneself be absorbed by the "systems" that aim only at the economic-financial component, but to implement a style of proximity to the person, in order to be able to assist them with human warmth in the face of the anxieties that invest them in the most critical moments of the disease. . In this way it contributes concretely to humanize medicine and the hospital and health reality. I said a word, proximity: We must not forget it. Proximity - let us say - is also the method that God used to save us. Already to the Jewish people he said: "Tell me, what people have their gods so close, as close as you have me?". The God of closeness made himself close in Jesus Christ: one of us. Proximity is the key to humanity and Christianity.

Those who recognize themselves in the Christian faith are called to carry out their service in the spirit of the words of Jesus: "All that you have done to one of these younger brothers of mine, you have done to me" (Mt 25,40). Here is the evangelical foundation of service to others. Thus the sick and the suffering become for those who have faith living signs of the presence of Christ, the Son of God, who came to heal and heal, taking on our frailty, our weakness. Taking care of the brother who suffers will mean, in this sense, making room for the Lord. From the places of treatment and pain also comes a message for everyone's life; a great lesson that no other chair can teach. In fact, the man who suffers understands more the need and the value of the divine gift of redemption and faith, and also helps those around him to appreciate and seek this gift.

And I would like to express my closeness, my closeness, to the sick and to the people in your facilities, which I ask you to convey to them. I join in their expectation of recovery, spiritually sharing their trial and hoping that it will soon end, so that everyone can return to their home, to their family as soon as possible. For them I invoke the gifts of patience and trust from the Lord, together with so much strength of endurance, to always be docile to the will of God, trusting in his paternal and provident goodness.

To all of you, dear friends, I renew my appreciation for your service to the sick, the service of humanity. Thank you, thank you for this! I entrust your work to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary Health of the Sick and I cordially bless you all. Please don't forget to pray for me. I need this too.
Full Text Source: Vatican.va - UnOfficial Translation - Image Source Google Images