Cardinal Filoni marks World Day of the Sick at Vailankanni

February 11, 2013 - The papal envoy to India, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, on Monday marked the liturgical feast of Our Lady of Lourdes as well as the Catholic Church’s 21 World Day of the Sick, underscoring the ‘high dignity of lay persons’ in the mission of the Church. Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Cardinal Filoni, the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Poeples, as his envoy to the 50th anniversary of the minor basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Health of Vailankanni, and the 25th anniversary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ of India (CCBI) of India’s Latin-rite bishops, both of which the prelate solemnized at a Mass on Sunday at the Marian shrine. Cardinal Filoni said that the very fact that Our Lady appeared 18 times to the 14-year old shepherd girl, St. Bernadette Soubirous, in Lourdes, France, in 1858, shows that God “makes use of” lay persons as His messengers, as His missioners.” “A lay person,” he noted, “is able to arrive, let us say “infiltrate”, where an ordained person, priest or bishop, may not. The role of the laity is essential in the Church.” The prelate recalled the message of Lourdes to personal conversion, sanctification, prayer, and charity.” Cardinal Filoni who also inaugurated the National Seminar on the Formation of Lay Leaders in the context of the Year of Faith, urged the bishops to enable the lay faithful to deepen their faith, in order to make them in a better position to spread the Gospel.
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