Mental illness focus for World Day of the Sick in Australia

Published: 2006-01-05

PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Australian actor Garry McDonald and writer and broadcaster Anne Deveson will join Catholic leaders in marking World Day of the Sick Feb. 11 in Adelaide, Australia. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, will represent Pope Benedict XVI at the event. Three days of events, including Mass and anointing of the sick at Adelaide's St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, are planned for the commemoration. The pope, who is also expected to send a special message on mental health and human dignity, announced Dec. 9 in a written message that mental health would be a particular focus of World Day of the Sick.

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