To Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini

John Paul II establishes “Day of the Sick”

13 May 1992

On 13 May the Holy Father formally established the “World Day of the Sick”, to be observed each year on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. In his letter instituting the annual observance the Pope explains some of his motives; this is a translation of the Italian original.

To my Venerable Brother

Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini

President of the Pontifical Council

For Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers

1.Looking favourably upon the request you submitted as President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, and also expressing the hopes of many Episcopal Conferences and national and international Catholic organizations, I want to inform you that I have decided to establish the “World Day of the Sick”, which is to be celebrated each year on 11 February, the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes. Indeed, I consider it more opportune than ever to extend to the entire ecclesial community an initiative already observed in some countries and regions that has yielded truly valuable pastoral results.

2.The Church, which throughout the centuries, following Christ’s example, has always felt that the obligation to serve the sick and suffering is an integral part of her mission (Dolentium hominum, n. 1), is aware that she “today lives a fundamental aspect of her mission in lovingly and generously accepting every human being, especially those who are weak and sick” (Christifideles laici, n. 38). Furthermore, she does not tire of emphasizing the salvific nature of offering up suffering which, experienced in communion with Christ, belongs to the very essence of redemption (cf. Redemptoris missio, n. 78).

The annual celebration of the “World Day of the Sick”, therefore, has the manifest purpose of making the People of God and, as a consequence, the many Catholic health care institutions and civil society itself, more aware of the necessity of ensuring the best possible care for the infirm, of helping the sick person to make the most of suffering, on the human level, but most of all on the supernatural one, of especially helping the Dioceses, Christian communities and religious families to be involved in the health care apostolate, of enhancing the ever more valuable commitment of volunteers, of reminding people of the importance of the spiritual and moral training of health care workers and, last of all, of creating a better understanding of the importance of religious care for the sick among diocesan and religious priests, as well as among those who live and work at the side of the person in pain.

3.Since it was on 11 February in 1984 that I published the Apostolic Letter Salvifici doloris on the Christian meaning of human suffering and on the same date the following year that I instituted the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, I believe it is significant that the same day is set for the celebration of the “World Day of the Sick”. In fact, “together with Mary, Mother of Christ, who stood beneath the cross, we pause beside all the crosses of contemporary man” (Salvifici doloris, n. 31). And Lourdes, one of the Marian shrines most loved by the Christian people, is both a place and a symbol of hope and grace, characterized by accepting and offering up redemptive suffering.

I therefore ask you to make the institution of the “World Day of the Sick” known to those responsible for the health care apostolate within the Episcopal Conferences, as well as to the national and international organizations involved in the extensive field of health care so that, in accordance with local circumstances, it due observance may be provided for with the participation of the entire People of God: priests, religious and lay faithful.

To this end, it will be the concern of this dicastery to carry out appropriate initiatives of support and leadership so as to make the "World Day of the Sick" a special time of prayer and sharing, of offering one's suffering for the good of the Church and of reminding everyone to see in his sick brother or sister the face of Christ who, by suffering, dying and rising, achieved the salvation of mankind.

4.In the hope that everyone will fully cooperate for the best beginning and development of this "Day", I entrust it to the supernatural efficacy of the motherly mediation of Mary, "Salus infirmorum", and the intercession of St. John of God and St. Camillus de Lellis, patrons of places for care and of health care workers. May these saints help in the ever greater spread of the effectiveness of an apostolate of charity which today's world so greatly needs.

These wishes are confirmed by the Apostolic Blessing which I cordially impart to Your Eminence and all those who help you in the beneficial work of serving the sick.