Vatican City, Feb 11, 2010 / 09:48 am
Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass on Thursday at St. Peter’s Basilica for the three-fold occasion of the World Day for the Sick, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Health Ministry. In his homily, the Holy Father stressed the “truly incalculable” value of the Church's ministry to the sick and suffering.
“The Church, to which is entrusted the task of prolonging in space and time the mission of Christ, cannot disregard these two essential works: evangelization and the treatment of the sick in body and in spirit,” declared the Holy Father.
At the root of this mission is the fact that God “wants to cure the entirety of man and in the Gospel the treatment of the body is a sign of the most profound cure which is the remission of sins,” the Pope stated.
“It’s no surprise, then, that Mary, mother and model of the Church is invoked and venerated as ‘Salus informorum, Health of the sick.’” The Blessed Mother, Pope Benedict taught, has always shown a special “mindfulness” for the suffering by offering her example as the “first and perfect” disciple of her Son.