Pope sends greetings to UNITALSI
(Vatican Radio) “Beginning
the pilgrimmage this year with the Eucharistic celebration in the Basilica of
Saint Peter, presided at by His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Comastri, should be
for all of you the occasion of desiring to respond ever more generously to the
needs of the little ones, the sick, and those who have hearts broken by moral
and physical illnesses.”
That was the message of Pope
Francis in a letter sent to representatives of the Rome-Lazio section of
UNITALSI (Unione Nazionale Italiana Trasporto Ammalati a Lourdes e Santuari Internazionali)
on the occasion of the pilgrimage to Loretto of the whole UNITALSI family for
the 80th anniversary of the first pilgrimage to the Marian sanctuary.
UNITALSI is an Italian
organization that accompanies the sick and the disabled on pilgrimages to
Lourdes and to other international Marian sanctuaries. In 2013, UNITALSI
celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding.
Pope Francis noted that, in
the 80 years since the UNITALSIs first pilgrimage to Loretto, the group has
accompanied thousands of people entrusted to their care and their Christian
testimony – which, the Pope said, must always base itself “on the model of the
Holy Family of Nazareth, in reciprocal care and tenderness and mercy.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary, the
Holy Father said to the group, “who, in the Sanctuary of Loretto has always
welcomed everyone, but above all so many people who live with difficulties of
every kind, helps you so that all can find in you companions by the way to
accompany, discern, and integrate every weakness, and to restore confidence and
hope, as a beacon of light at a port, or a torch borne in the midst of the
people to illuminate those who have lost the path and found themselves in the
midst of the tempest. Your service,” he continued, “in our own times, should always
become more like a field hospital.”
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