MESSAGE TO HOSPITAL NUNS OF MERCY

VATICAN CITY, SEP 19, 2002 (VIS) - Made public today was a message from John Paul II to Sister Aurelia Damiani, superior general of the Congregation of the Hospital Religious of Mercy, and to the nuns who are celebrating the 62nd general chapter of the congregation during these days.
"Your mission has great merit!" writes the Pope. "With your work in hospitals, you help the sick and those who suffer, giving them witness to divine mercy. Keep this unique charisma alive."

Referring to care for the sick, the Holy Father affirms that it is "one of the most urgent ways of evangelization" and he invites the nuns to put into practice "'the imagination of charity ... that promotes not only the efficacy of the help lent but also the capacity to draw close to those who suffer'."

"The challenge of the lack of culture today requires believers to announce the Good News in languages and ways understandable to the people of our times. Before you unfold ... an urgent mission and vast apostolic perspectives. May concrete results spring forth from a close examination of the modern socio-cultural realities in order to make the presence of your institution more incisive in the field of health care, forging more ideal paths for apostolic endeavors at the same time."

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