At 12:15pm today, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the volunteers, supporters and friends of Doctors with Africa - CUAMM (the University College of Aspiring Missionary Doctors) in Padua.
I am pleased, dear brothers and sisters, to welcome each of you, Doctors with Africa - CUAMM, who work for the protection of the health of African populations; and even more delighted to have heard the words that have drawn me even closer to these distant places, the witness of these doctors has taken my heart all the way there, to the place where you have been, simply to find Jesus.
And this was very good for me. Thank you. Your organization, a missionary expression of the Diocese of Padua, has over the years involved many people who, as volunteers, have worked to implement long-term projects aimed at development. I thank you for all that you are doing in favour of the fundamental human right to health for all people. In fact, health is not a consumer good, but a universal right for which access to health care cannot be a privilege.
Health, above all basic health, is in fact denied - denied! - in various parts of the world and in many regions of Africa. It is not a right for all, but rather still a privilege for the few, those who can afford it. Accessibility to health services, to treatment and to drugs is still a mirage. The poor cannot afford to pay and so they are excluded from hospital and health care, even the most basic and primary services. Thus the importance of your generous activities in support of a network of services, in order to respond to the needs of the people is of primary value.
You have chosen the poorest countries of Africa, sub-Saharan countries, and the most forgotten areas, the last mile of health systems. It is to the geographical peripheries that the Lord sends you in order to be good Samaritans, to go out and to encounter the poor Lazarus, through the door that leads from the first to the third world. This is your holy door! You work in the most vulnerable sections of the populations: with mothers, to ensure their safe and dignified childbirth; and with children, especially infants. In Africa, too many mothers die during childbirth and too many children do not survive the first months of life because of malnutrition and major endemic diseases. I encourage you to remain among this wounded and suffering humanity: they are Jesus. Your work of mercy is caring for the sick, according to the gospel motto: Heal the sick (Mt 10:8). May you be expressions of mother Church, who stoops down to those who are weak and cares for them.
Long periods of time are required to promote authentic and lasting development, according to the logic of sowing with confidence and waiting with patience for the fruit to be borne. All of this also demonstrates the history of your Organization, which for more than sixty-five years has been engaged in caring for the poor in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Angola, South Sudan and Sierra Leone. Africa needs patient and continual accompaniment that is tenacious and competent. Interventions require a series of impositions that require research and innovation while imposing the duty of transparency toward donors and public opinion.
You are doctors with Africa and not for Africa, and this is very important. You are called to involve the African people in the process of growth, walking together, sharing both struggles and joys, sufferings and enthusiasm. These people are the primary agents of their own development, those with primary responsibility! I know that you face daily struggles with gratitude and selflessness in order to help, with no regard for proselytizing or for occupying space. Indeed, you work with Churches and local governments, in a logic of participation and sharing of commitments and mutual responsibilities. I urge you to maintain your particular approach to local realities, helping them to grow and leaving them when they are capable of continuing alone, in a prospective of development and sustainability. This is a logic of sowing that tears down walls in order to bear fruit that will last.
In your precious service to the poor of Africa, you look to the examples left by your founder, Doctor Francesco Canova and the historical director, Father Luigi Mazzucato. Doctor Canova nurtured in FUCI the idea of going out into the world to care for the poor, creating a college for future missionary doctors and defining the figure of the lay missionary doctor. For his part, Father Mazzucato was the director of Cuamm for 53 years, and died last November 26 at the age of 88 years. He was the true inspiration for your basic choice, first of all in favour of the poor. In fact, he wrote the following in his spiritual journal: Born poor, I always sought to live with only the bare necessities. I have nothing of my own and I have nothing to leave. The little clothing I possess, you can give to the poor.
Following the example of these great witnesses to a missionary proximity and evangelical fruitfulness, you courageously continue your work, embodying a Church that is not a super clinic for VIPs but rather a field hospital. A Church with a big heart that is close to many who have been wounded and humiliated by history, in service to the poor. I assure you of my closeness and my prayer. I bless all of you, your families and your commitment for today and tomorrow on the African continent. And I ask you, please, to pray also for me, that the Lord will make me poorer every day. Thank you!
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to Doctors with Africa - CUAMM
I am pleased, dear brothers and sisters, to welcome each of you, Doctors with Africa - CUAMM, who work for the protection of the health of African populations; and even more delighted to have heard the words that have drawn me even closer to these distant places, the witness of these doctors has taken my heart all the way there, to the place where you have been, simply to find Jesus.
And this was very good for me. Thank you. Your organization, a missionary expression of the Diocese of Padua, has over the years involved many people who, as volunteers, have worked to implement long-term projects aimed at development. I thank you for all that you are doing in favour of the fundamental human right to health for all people. In fact, health is not a consumer good, but a universal right for which access to health care cannot be a privilege.
Health, above all basic health, is in fact denied - denied! - in various parts of the world and in many regions of Africa. It is not a right for all, but rather still a privilege for the few, those who can afford it. Accessibility to health services, to treatment and to drugs is still a mirage. The poor cannot afford to pay and so they are excluded from hospital and health care, even the most basic and primary services. Thus the importance of your generous activities in support of a network of services, in order to respond to the needs of the people is of primary value.
You have chosen the poorest countries of Africa, sub-Saharan countries, and the most forgotten areas, the last mile of health systems. It is to the geographical peripheries that the Lord sends you in order to be good Samaritans, to go out and to encounter the poor Lazarus, through the door that leads from the first to the third world. This is your holy door! You work in the most vulnerable sections of the populations: with mothers, to ensure their safe and dignified childbirth; and with children, especially infants. In Africa, too many mothers die during childbirth and too many children do not survive the first months of life because of malnutrition and major endemic diseases. I encourage you to remain among this wounded and suffering humanity: they are Jesus. Your work of mercy is caring for the sick, according to the gospel motto: Heal the sick (Mt 10:8). May you be expressions of mother Church, who stoops down to those who are weak and cares for them.
Long periods of time are required to promote authentic and lasting development, according to the logic of sowing with confidence and waiting with patience for the fruit to be borne. All of this also demonstrates the history of your Organization, which for more than sixty-five years has been engaged in caring for the poor in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Angola, South Sudan and Sierra Leone. Africa needs patient and continual accompaniment that is tenacious and competent. Interventions require a series of impositions that require research and innovation while imposing the duty of transparency toward donors and public opinion.
You are doctors with Africa and not for Africa, and this is very important. You are called to involve the African people in the process of growth, walking together, sharing both struggles and joys, sufferings and enthusiasm. These people are the primary agents of their own development, those with primary responsibility! I know that you face daily struggles with gratitude and selflessness in order to help, with no regard for proselytizing or for occupying space. Indeed, you work with Churches and local governments, in a logic of participation and sharing of commitments and mutual responsibilities. I urge you to maintain your particular approach to local realities, helping them to grow and leaving them when they are capable of continuing alone, in a prospective of development and sustainability. This is a logic of sowing that tears down walls in order to bear fruit that will last.
In your precious service to the poor of Africa, you look to the examples left by your founder, Doctor Francesco Canova and the historical director, Father Luigi Mazzucato. Doctor Canova nurtured in FUCI the idea of going out into the world to care for the poor, creating a college for future missionary doctors and defining the figure of the lay missionary doctor. For his part, Father Mazzucato was the director of Cuamm for 53 years, and died last November 26 at the age of 88 years. He was the true inspiration for your basic choice, first of all in favour of the poor. In fact, he wrote the following in his spiritual journal: Born poor, I always sought to live with only the bare necessities. I have nothing of my own and I have nothing to leave. The little clothing I possess, you can give to the poor.
Following the example of these great witnesses to a missionary proximity and evangelical fruitfulness, you courageously continue your work, embodying a Church that is not a super clinic for VIPs but rather a field hospital. A Church with a big heart that is close to many who have been wounded and humiliated by history, in service to the poor. I assure you of my closeness and my prayer. I bless all of you, your families and your commitment for today and tomorrow on the African continent. And I ask you, please, to pray also for me, that the Lord will make me poorer every day. Thank you!
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