Dear Brothers and Sisters!
I gladly accepted the invitation to pay a visit to the Hospice
Foundation of Rome and I am very grateful to be with you. I
address a cordial thought to the Cardinal Vicar Agostino Vallini,
to the most excellent auxiliary bishops and to the priests who
are present. I warmly thank Professor Emanuele Emanuele,
president of the Rome Foundation, and Father Leopoldo of Duchi
Torlonia, president of the Circle of St. Peter, for the
meaningful words that they courteously addressed to me. Along
with them I greet the leadership of the Hospice Foundation of
Rome, its president, Alessandro Falez, the health, infirmary and
administrative personnel, the sisters and those who contribute
in various ways to this worthy institution. I address a special
greeting to the volunteers of the Circle of St. Peter; I know of
the zeal and generosity with which they bring help and comfort
to the sick and their families.
The Hospice Foundation of Rome was born in 1998 and was called
the Sacred Heart Hospice. It was launched through the initiative
of the then general president of the Circle of St. Peter, Father
Marcello dei Marchesi Sacchetti, whom I greet with warm and
grateful deference. The work of the institution is the care of
terminally ill patients. It tries as far as possible to
alleviate their sufferings and lovingly accompany them through
the course of the sickness. In 11 years those hospitalized in
Hospice have gone from three to more than 30, looked after daily
by doctors, nurses and volunteers. To this we must add the 90
who are cared for in their home. All of this contributes to make
the Hospice Foundation of Rome -- which has also been enriched
by Unità Alzheimer and an experimental project assisting persons
affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- a particularly
significant reality among the health care organizations in Rome.
Dear Friends! We know how some grave pathologies inevitably
cause, for those who suffer from them, moments of crisis, of
bewilderment and serious confrontation with their personal
situation. Progress in the medical sciences often offers the
necessary instruments to face these challenges, at least with
respect to the physical aspects. Nevertheless, it is not always
possible to find a cure for every sickness, and, consequently,
in the hospitals and health care facilities in every part of the
world we often meet suffering of many incurable brothers and
sisters, who are frequently in the terminal phase.
Today the prevalent mentality of efficiency often tends to
marginalize these persons, regarding them as a burden and a
problem for society. Whoever has a sense of human dignity knows
instead that they must be respected and supported while they
face the difficulties and sufferings linked with their health
conditions. Toward this end, today one takes recourse more and
more to the use of palliative care, which is able to soothe pain
that comes from the illness and to help infirm persons to get
through it with dignity. Nevertheless, together with the
indispensible palliative care clinics, it is necessary to offer
concrete gestures of love, of nearness and Christian solidarity
to the sick, to meet their need for understanding, comfort and
constant encouragement. This is what happily occurs here, at the
Hospice Foundation of Rome, which places at the center of its
work the care and solicitous welcoming of the sick and their
families, in consonance with the teaching of the Church, which,
through the centuries, has shown herself to be a mother who
loves those who suffer in body and spirit. In congratulating you
for your work, I would like to encourage those who -- as
concrete icons of the good Samaritan, who "shows compassion and
takes care of his neighbor" (cf. Luke 10:34) -- daily offer the
patients and their loved ones the assistance that is appropriate
and attentive to each person's needs.
Dear patients, dear families, I have just met with you
individually, and I saw in your eyes the faith and the strength
that sustain you in difficulties. I have come to offer to each
of you a concrete witness of nearness and affection. I assure
you of my prayers, and I invite you to find in Jesus support and
comfort, to never lose trust and hope. Your illness is a very
painful and unique trial, but before the mystery of God, who
took on our mortal flesh, it receives its meaning and becomes a
gift and an occasion for sanctification. When the suffering and
discomfort are the worst, know that Christ is associating you
with his cross because through you he wants to speak a word of
love to those who have strayed from the road of life and, closed
within their empty egoism, live in sin and separation from God.
In fact, your health conditions testify that the true life is
not here, but with God, where every one of us will find joy if
we humbly walk in the footsteps of the true man: Jesus of
Nazareth, Master and Lord.
The season of Advent, in which we are immersed, speaks to us of
God's visit and invites us to prepare his way. In the light of
faith we can read in sickness and suffering a special experience
of Advent, a visit from God, who, in a mysterious way comes to
bring liberation from solitude and meaninglessness and transform
suffering in time into a meeting with him, into hope and
salvation. The Lord comes, he is here, with us! May this
Christian certainty help us also to understand "tribulation" as
a way in which he can come to meet each of us and become for
each of us the "God who is near," who liberates and saves.
Christmas, which we are preparing for, offers us the possibility
of contemplating the Holy Child, the true light that comes into
this world to manifest the "the grace of God, that brings
salvation to all men" (Titus 2:11). With Mary's sentiments, we
all entrust ourselves, our lives and our hopes to him. Dear
brothers and sisters! With these thoughts I invoke upon all of
you the maternal protection of the Mother of Jesus, whom in
tribulation the Christian people call upon as "Salus infirmorum"
(Health of the Sick) and I offer from my heart a special
apostolic benediction, pledge of spiritual and interior
happiness and authentic peace in the Lord.
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
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