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                                  VIS-Press releases   
      
   POPE'S MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD DAY OF THE SICK   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 18 DEC 2010 (VIS) - Made public today was the Holy Father's   
   Message for the nineteenth World Day of the Sick which will be held, as is   
   traditional, on 11 February, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.   
      
   The Pope begins his Message by recalling his pastoral visit to the Italian city   
   of Turin last May where, he writes, "I had the opportunity to pause in   
   reflection and prayer before the Holy Shroud, before that suffering face which   
   invites us to meditate upon the One Who took upon Himself the passion of   
   mankind in all times and places, including our own sufferings, difficulties and   
   sins".   
      
   Having noted that "suffering remains charged with mystery, and is difficult for   
   us to accept and to bear", Benedict XVI mentions the case of the Apostle   
   Thomas, who struggled to believe in the redemptive passion but, "faced with   
   Christ showing His wounds, his reaction was transformed into a moving   
   profession of faith: 'my Lord and my God'".   
      
   It is, the Pope goes on to explain, "through the wounds of Christ that, with   
   the eyes of hope, we can see the evils afflicting humanity. ... God, Truth and   
   Love personified, wished to suffer for us and with us. He became man in order   
   to suffer with man, to suffer truly in flesh and blood. Hence in all human   
   suffering we are joined by One Who shares and carries that suffering with us;   
   all suffering contains 'con-solatio', the consolation of God's compassionate   
   love, and so the star of hope rises".   
      
   Referring then to the next World Youth Day, due to be held in Madrid, Spain, in   
   August 2011, the Pope addresses himself to young people "who are undergoing the   
   experience of sickness. Often the Passion, the Cross of Jesus, scares us   
   because it seems to be the negation of life", he writes. "In fact, the opposite   
   is true! The Cross is God's 'yes' to mankind. ... Only He is capable of freeing   
   the world from evil, and of bringing His Kingdom of justice, peace and love, to   
   which we all aspire".   
      
   The Pope also expresses his affection for all sick people, whom he tells of his   
   "participation in the sufferings and hopes you experience every day, in union   
   with the crucified and risen Christ, that He may bring peace and healing to   
   your hearts. With Him, may the Virgin Mary also watch over you, the Virgin whom   
   we trustingly invoke as 'Health for the Sick' and 'Consoler of the Suffering'".   
      
   At the end of his Message, the Pope calls on the authorities "to dedicate ever   
   greater energy to healthcare structures capable of bring help and support to   
   the suffering, especially the poor and needy". He also greets "the bishops and   
   priests, consecrated persons, seminarians, healthcare workers, volunteers, and   
   everyone who lovingly dedicates themselves to cure and alleviate the wounds of   
   their suffering brothers and sisters, in hospitals, care homes and families.   
   Always be aware that in the face of the sick you see the Face of faces: the   
   Face of Christ".   
   MESS/VIS 20101220 (520)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)