Celebration of 25 years of Vatican’s health care council and World Day of Sick

(February 5, 2010) The sick person should be the ''focal point'' of the Catholic Church’s efforts in the healthcare sector, said the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Health Care Pastoral, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski. He made the remark on Friday at a press conference in the Vatican to present next week’s programme for the joint celebration of the 18^th World Day of the Sick as well as the 25^th anniversary of the Pontifical Council. "The Church in the Service of Love for the Suffering" is the theme of the joint celebration, Feb. 9-11. World Sick Day is marked by the Church each year on Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Among the events of the 3-day celebration is a Mass by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica on the concluding day and a two-day international symposium which will give over 540 participants from 35 countries a look at the attitude of various religions and cultures to the phenomenon of suffering and sickness. In addition to a 28-piece art exhibit on Pope John Paul II and his relation to suffering, the celebration will also hold a procession on Feb. 11 with the relic of St. Bernadette Soubirous, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858 in Lourdes, France.