Pope urges health care workers to safeguard patients' dignity

Published: 2007-12-03

ROME (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged hospitals and health care workers to welcome patients with love and safeguard their dignity. "Let us open our hearts to everybody, especially if they are in difficulty, because helping those in need prepares us to welcome Jesus who comes to us" through those who are sick and suffering, he said Dec. 2. The pope made his remarks during his first visit to a Rome hospital run by the Knights of Malta. The grand master of the Knights of Malta, Fra Andrew W.N. Bertie, and the papal vicar of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, welcomed the pope, who presided over a Mass in the St. John the Baptist Hospital pavilion with staff, patients and family members. The pope also visited the hospital wards, including a special reanimation unit for those recovering from comas. In his homily, the pope said the mission of hospitals and care centers was "the loving and skilled welcome of patients, the protection of their dignity and the commitment to improve their quality of life."

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