Pope Francis receives Italian missionary physicians
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis
addressed the participants in a major gathering of Doctors with Africa CUAMM –
an acronym for the original Italian name of the organization which was the first
NGO in the field of healthcare to be officially recognized in Italy:
University College for Aspiring Missionary Doctors, founded in 1950 in the
Diocese of Padua by Dr. Francesco Canova, a missionary physician in
Jordan, and Bishop Girolamo Bortignon.
Under the leadership of don
Luigi Mazzucato, who headed the organization for more than 50 years, CUAMM
gained its current position as the leading Italian organization engaged in
Sub-Saharan Africa, operating in 7 African countries (Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) where it delivers
medical aid and expertise with its international and local teams.
In remarks to the CUAMM
membership on Saturday, Pope Francis said, “In the wake of these great
witnesses of missionary and evangelically fruitful closeness, you carry on your
work with courage, giving expression to a Church that is not a clinic
exclusively for super A-list VIPs, but rather a ‘field hospital’: a Church
with a great heart, close to the many wounded and humiliated of history, to the
poorest of the poor.”
The Holy Father concluded,
saying, “I assure you of my closeness and my prayer: I bless all of you, your
families, and your commitment to the present and the future of the African
continent.”
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