EXPERIENCE ILLNESS IN KEEPING WITH HUMAN DIGNITY

VATICAN CITY, FEB 11, 2006 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 4.30 p.m. today, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the 14th World Day of the Sick, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, celebrated Mass for the sick and for pilgrims of UNITALSI (Italian National Union for Transport of the Sick to Lourdes and International Shrines), and of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi.

  Following Mass, Benedict XVI arrived in the basilica to bless the sick and address some words to those present.

  The Pope recalled how "in the grotto of Massabielle, the Virgin showed the tenderness of God towards those who suffer. ... Appearing to Bernadette as the Immaculate Conception, Mary Most Holy came to remind the modern world, which risked forgetting, of the primacy of divine Grace which is stronger than sin and death."

  The Holy Father went on to refer to a congress held in the Australian city of Adelaide on February 9 and 10, promoted by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry on the theme: "Mental health and human dignity."

  "The human person," he said, "is a single entity the various dimensions of which may be distinguished but not separated. The Church always aims to consider persons in this light, and this concept characterizes both Catholic health care institutions, and the approach of those who work in them."

  Benedict XVI made a special appeal for those suffering mental illness and for their families: "We feel close to [people in] such situations, with our prayers and with the numerous initiatives implemented by the ecclesial community all over the world, especially in places where legislation is lacking, where public structures are insufficient and where natural disasters or, alas, war and armed conflict, create grave psychological trauma in individuals."

  "To all doctors, nurses and other health care workers, and all volunteers who work in this field, I would like today symbolically to consign the Encyclical 'Deus caristas est,' with the hope that God may ever remain alive in their hearts, so as to animate their daily work, their projects, their initiatives and above all their relationship with the sick. Acting in the name of charity and in the way of charity, you also offer your precious contribution to evangelization, because the announcement of the Gospel has need of coherent signs to confirm it. And these signs speak the language of universal love, a language that everyone can understand."

  The Pope concluded his address by calling on the Virgin Mary "to keep our hope alive so that, faithful to Christ's teaching, we may renew our commitment to raise up our brothers and sisters in their sickness. May the Lord ensure that people do not remain alone and abandoned at the moment of need but, rather, that they may experience even illness in accordance with human dignity."
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