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Skriven 2007-04-24 06:52:44 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service (Press Release)
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                               VIS-Press releases

PAVIA: THE POPE GREETS YOUTH AND THE SICK

VATICAN CITY, APR 22, 2007 (VIS) - Immediately on arriving in Pavia yesterday
evening, the Holy Father travelled by car to the city cathedral where he
appeared at the balcony to greet young people gathered in the square below.

The Pope called on them not to be afraid to commit their lives to Christ Who,
he said, "never disappoints our expectations because He knows what is in our
hearts ... The Church - which needs your commitment to carry the evangelical
message, especially to your peers - supports you on the road of knowledge of
the faith and of love for God and for our fellow man. ... Society ... awaits
your contribution in order to create a less selfish and more cohesive form of
shared coexistence, one truly animated by the great ideals of justice, freedom
and peace."

At 9 a.m. today, Sunday, Benedict XVI visited the "San Matteo" hospital which
treats sick people from Pavia and all Italy. Having greeted the president and a
representative of the patients, the Pope expressed his thanks to the doctors,
nurses and all the hospital staff.

Here, said the Holy Father, "truly inspiring results are achieved. It is my
heartfelt hope that vital scientific and technological progress will always be
accompanied by a concern to promote, alongside the good of sick people, such
fundamental values as respect for and defense of life at every stage, upon
which the authentically human quality of coexistence depend."

Benedict XVI highlighted the fact that "in each person suffering from illness
it is He Himself Who awaits our love. Of course, suffering is abhorrent to the
human heart, yet it remains true that when accepted with love and illuminated
with faith, it becomes a precious opportunity that unites us mysteriously to
Christ the Redeemer, the Man of suffering Who on the Cross took upon Himself
the pain and death of man. With the sacrifice of His life He redeemed human
suffering and made it the fundamental means of salvation.

"Dear sick people," he concluded, "entrust to the Lord the discomfort and pain
you have to face, and in His plan you will become means of purification and
redemption for the world entire."
PV-ITALY/YOUNG PEOPLE:SICK/PAVIAVIS 070423 (380)

SUMMARY

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