Find ways of peace, stop the ecological catastrophe, face the challenge of migration. But also the care of sick children, in particular those hospitalized at the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome. It was a wide-ranging intervention that Pope Francis made online by connecting remotely yesterday with the meeting promoted in New York by the Clinton Global Initiative, a foundation created by former US president Bill Clinton in 2005
Precisely speaking about medical assistance to the little patients of the Bambino Gesù, the Pope underlined how “science and hospitality: these two things rarely meet at a certain level”. «As you know, Mr. President – said the Pontiff in Spanish, addressing former President Clinton –, this meeting of ours was born from a small but great project that interests me very much. It has to do with children and their health”, recalling that “in Italy, in Rome, near the Vatican, there is a very special hospital: the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital. In the world it is known as the hospital of Pope, but for me this is not the reason why he is “unique””. A hospital (owned by the Holy See and established with a chirograph by Pius “over two thousand Ukrainian children” who fled the war that devastated their country, together with their parents. Moreover, the Pontiff further underlines in his speech, «in the field of health, today more than ever – continued Francis –, the first and most concrete form of charity is science, the ability to heal, which however must be accessible to everyone. The Child Jesus is a concrete sign of the charity and mercy of the Church. There are incurable diseases, but there are no incurable children. Let’s be clear on this point: there are incurable diseases, but there are no incurable children. This is the seal of the Hospital”, he reminded forcefully.
The story of the Ukrainian children treated at the Bambino Gesù hospital gave the Pope the opportunity to once again make his voice heard against the war and in favor of an end to the conflict. «It is time to find the change of peace, the change of brotherhood. It’s time for the weapons to stop. Let us return to dialogue, to diplomacy. Let plans of conquest and military aggression cease. This is why I repeat: no to war. No to war”. The Pontiff remarked that «it is time to work together to stop the ecological catastrophe, before it is too late. For this reason – he said – I have chosen to write a new document, ten years after the encyclical Laudato si'”, with the publication of an apostolic exhortation on 4 October, the liturgical memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi.
The Pope also placed emphasis on the ecological catastrophe, another theme very dear to him and to which he dedicated many speeches and documents during his teaching: “It is time to work together” to stop it, he said in his speech. “Let’s stop while there’s time, please. Stop while there’s time »he asked forcefully.
And it is also the «time to face migratory emergencies together, remembering that we are not talking about numbers, but about people, men, women and children. When we talk about migration we think about the eyes of the children we meet in refugee camps. It’s time to think about the little ones, the kids, their education, their care.” And addressing the audience that is listening to him, the Pope reiterates that «no challenge is too great if we face it starting from the personal conversion of each of us, from the contribution that each of us can give to overcome it and from the awareness of what makes us part of the same destiny.”
