Address to a delegation from the Italian Federation for Rare Diseases (UNIAMO)

Pope Francis
13 February 2023

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

I thank the President for her kind words, and I greet you all, who form part of the Italian Federation for Rare Diseases. I have had the opportunity to greet you other times after the Angelus, on the occasion of the World Day for Rare Diseases, which is held on 28 February. Instead, today we can get to know each other better and share your hopes and your sufferings. To share, as your motto says, which is summarized in the word “Uniamo”, let us unite. Let us unite our experiences, let us unite our strengths, let us unite our hopes. This key word of yours is fundamental and merits reflection.

The first value of your organization is that of sharing. At the beginning it is a necessity, then it becomes a choice. When a father and a mother discover that their child has a rare disease, they need to meet other parents who have lived and are living the same experience. It is a need. And since the disease is rare, it becomes essential to refer to an association that brings together people who deal with that disease every day: they know the symptoms, the therapies, the treatment centres and so on. At the beginning this is an obligatory route: a way out of the anguish of finding oneself alone and unarmed in front of an enemy. Gradually, though, the way of sharing becomes a choice, sustained by two motivations. The first is realizing that it is necessary, it helps, it offers solutions, at least temporarily, it enables us to orient ourselves a little in the fog of the situation. And the second motivation comes from the pleasure of human relationships, from the good of friendship with people who until yesterday we did not even know, and who now confide their experiences to us to help us bear a very burdensome situation together. This is the first great value that I see in you, in your association.

There is then another value, equally important but different, both on a social and also political level. It is the potential that an association such as yours has to make a decisive contribution to the common good. In this case, to improve the quality of the health service of a country, a region, an area. Indeed, good politics depends also on the contribution of associations, which, in specific matters, have the necessary knowledge and attention towards people who risk being neglected. Here is the decisive point: it is not a matter of claiming favours for one’s own category, this is not good politics; but rather it is a question of fighting so that no one is excluded from the health service, no one is discriminated against, no one is penalized. And this, starting from an experience like yours that is strongly at risk of marginalization. Let me give you an example: entities like yours can apply pressure to overcome national and commercial barriers to the sharing of results of scientific research, so that we can achieve objectives that today seem very distant.

Certainly, it is difficult to commit on behalf of everyone when you are already struggling to face your own problem. But precisely here lies the strength of the association, and even more so the federation: the capacity to give a voice to the many who, alone, would not be able to make themselves heard, and thus represent a need. In this regard, it would be important to involve and listen to patient representatives from the very first phases of decision-making processes. Indeed, associations not only ask, but also give. In your relations with institutions at various levels, you not only ask, but also give: knowledge, contacts, and above all people, people who can lend a hand for the common good, if they work with a spirit of service and civic sense.

Dear friends, thank you for this very welcome visit. I encourage you to go forward in your commitment. I ask Our Lady to accompany every person and every family who faces a rare disease. I wholeheartedly bless you and all your community. And I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you!

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Words of the Holy Father

During the audience, the Holy Father gathered some children around him, handing them rosary chaplets, and addressed the following words to them:

At times, we prepare things to say, all the ideas… But reality speaks better than ideas. The real speech was made by them today, gathering round spontaneously, giving the best of themselves, a smile, a curiosity, reaching out their hand to take the rosary – there are no fools here, none! They know how to do it well. And this was the sermon today, for us. Therefore, I thought that to continue to speak, after this living sermon, would not make sense. I will give the text to the President, and in this way she can make it known to you. And after the blessing, I will greet you all. This is the text I wanted to say. But the true sermon was what they did, with their limitations, their illnesses, but they made us understand that there is always the possibility to grow and to go forward.

And to you, thank you, thank you for this. This is the prize for you: seeing how these children have done. Thank you.

Address to a group of disabled people on the occasion of International Day of People with Disabilities

Pope Francis
3 december 2022

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

I am pleased to meet you today, on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I thank Msgr. Giuseppe Baturi for his words, and also for the efforts of churches in Italy to maintain lively attention to persons with disabilities, with active and inclusive pastoral action. Promoting the recognition of the dignity of every person is a constant responsibility of the Church; it is the mission of continuing over time the closeness of Jesus Christ to every man and woman, especially the most fragile and vulnerable. The Lord is close.

To welcome people with disabilities and to respond to their needs is a duty of the civil and ecclesial community, because “even when disabled persons are mentally impaired or when their sensory or intellectual capacity is damaged, they are fully human beings and possess the sacred and inalienable rights that belong to every human creature” (Saint John Paul II, Message to participants in the International Symposium on “The Dignity and Rights of the Mentally Disabled Person, 8 January 2004).

This was how Jesus looked upon the people he met: with a gaze of tenderness and mercy, especially towards those who were excluded from the attention of the powerful and even the religious leaders of his time. Therefore, every time the Christian community transforms indifference into proximity – this is a true conversion: transforming indifference into proximity and closeness – every time the Church does this and transforms exclusion into belonging, she fulfils her proper prophetic mission. Indeed, it is not enough to defend people’s rights; it is also necessary to work to respond to their existential needs, in their different dimensions, bodily, psychical, social and spiritual. Every man and every woman, in fact, in whatever situation they find themselves, is the bearer not only of rights that must be recognized and guaranteed, but also even deeper demands, such as the need to belong, to relate to others and to cultivate the spiritual life to the point of experiencing its fullness, and to bless the Lord for this unique and wonderful gift.

To generate and support inclusive communities – this word is important, inclusive, always – means, then, eliminating any discrimination and genuinely satisfying the need for every person to feel they are recognized and feel part. Indeed, there is no inclusion if the experience of fraternity and reciprocal communion is missing. There is no inclusion if this remains a slogan, a formula to use in politically correct speeches, a banner to be appropriated. There is no inclusion if there is a lack of conversion in the practices of coexistence and relationships.

It is a duty to guarantee persons with disabilities access to buildings and meeting places, to make languages accessible and to overcome physical barriers and prejudices. However, this is not enough. It is necessary to promote a spirituality of communion, so that every person feels part of a body, with his or her unique personality. Only in this way can every person, with their limits and gifts, feel encouraged to do their part for the good of the entire ecclesial body and for the good of the society as a whole.

I hope that all Christian communities may be places where “belonging” and “inclusion” do not remain words to be uttered on certain occasions, but become an aim of ordinary pastoral action. In such a way, we will be able to be credible when we proclaim that the Lord loves everyone, that he is salvation for all and invites everyone to the banquet of life, without exclusion.

It strikes me greatly when the Lord narrates the story of that man who had prepared a feast for his son’s wedding and the guests did not come (cf. Mt 22:1-14). He calls the servants and says: “Go to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find”. The Lord asks for everyone: young, old, sick, healthy, small, great, sinners and without sin… everyone, everyone, everyone! This is the Lord: everyone, without exclusion. We must learn this. We are, at times, a little tempted to go along the road of exclusion. No: inclusion. The Lord has taught us this: everyone. “But this one is ugly, this one is like that…”. Everyone, everyone. Inclusion.

Dear brothers and sisters, at this time, in which we hear daily bulletins of war, your witness is a tangible sign of peace, a sign of hope for a more humane and fraternal world, for everyone. Continue on this path! I bless you from my heart and I pray for you. Thank you for what you do, thank you! And I ask you to pray for me. Thank you!