Monsignor Ozoria recalled that Pope John Paul II established this annual day 31 years ago on the day of Our Lady of Lourdes, protector of the sick.
“The main point of this year’s message is that we do this as a community, as God’s people, as civil society, that we think of the sick, that we are sensitive to disease and pain. Pope Francis sees us as having an action, an approach. This can be extended to organized, institutional care,” he said.
The whole community, he said, must face the sick, fulfilling the mandate: take care of him. “It is a challenge to the whole of society, and also a mandate to put humanity’s resources to the service of the sick, to invest in health, to care for the sick. We must move away from indifference to pain and disease For, well, this danger is very common.”
Ozoria recognized the staff of the Pastoral de la Salud and institutions dedicated to the care and accompaniment of patients and their caregivers, calling for creating solidarity with others and overcoming structural challenges to guarantee the common well-being .
Likewise, Sister Trinidad Ayala Adams, General Coordinator of Health Chaplains, thanked the trust in care in health establishments, the network of hospitals, primary care and home visits. “We highlight the Padre Billini Hospital with its officers and staff who have acted as a host to us as a health center. Never forget that the noun person always comes before the adjective sick.”
He expressed gratitude for the gestures of tenderness and closeness of health workers of the Catholic Church, of public, private, non-profit and voluntary organizations; as well as parishioners and family members dedicated to caring for the sick.
At the Eucharist, government officials and representatives of the health and pharmaceutical sectors met; as well as a large delegation of the Dominican Association of Hospital and Health Volunteers (ADOVOHS), parishioners and related
