Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – In this year which marks the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, President of the Pastoral Council for Health Pastoral Care, mentioned that “each year in the world there are 40,000 children with leprosy, and about 12% of all new cases of leprosy are children un-der the age fifteen.” Thus, he launches an appeal to government organizations to “pay special attention – in the implementation of health programmes and plans in the various countries of the world – to children who are sick with leprosy and run the risk of seeing their futures mortgaged by the negative consequences of their illness.”
“The annual celebration of the ‘World Leprosy Day’ is a great appointment of solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are afflicted by Hansen’s disease,” said Cardinal Lozano Barragan in referring to the Day, which is celebrated this year on Sunday, January 25. The Message sent out to the Presidents of Bishops' Conferences across the world and Bishops in charge of Health Pastoral Care, the Cardinal mentions that leprosy is “a disease that is often ignored by the mass media but which still today strikes each year over 250,000 people, most of whom live in conditions of poverty. According to the most recent calculations of the World Health Organization, which refer to the year 2007, in that year there were 254,525 new leprosy cases, with 212,802 people already been treated for it.”
This Day is also an opportunity to offer “correct, broad and capillary information about leprosy,” stimulating the individual and collective duty to engage in active fraternal solidarity and fight against the fact that “fears still persist that are generated by ignorance about Hansen’s disease,” that lead to “feelings of exclusion and often burdensome stigma towards who are afflicted by leprosy.” oVer the course of the centuries, the Church has always dedicated special care to people afflicted by leprosy. Down the centuries it has been present through the institutions of Congregations of men and women religious, and through voluntary health-care organizations made up of the lay faithful. The Cardinal then mentioned the example of Fr. Damian de Veuster as a symbol of all those consecrated to Christ with religious vows who still today dedicate their lives to those afflicted by leprosy in every part of the world. “These, together with Blessed Damian, are writing the most beautiful pages of the mis-sionary history of the Church. Inseparably linked to evangelization in their care for the sick, they proclaim that the redemption of Jesus Christ, and his salvific grace, reach the whole of man in his human condition in order to associate him to the glorious resurrection of Christ.”
Along with them are many volunteers and men of good will. “The world of the Catholic laity has its champion in Raoul Follereau, the originator and promoter of this ‘World Day.’” There are also the non-governmental associations and organizations are present that go beyond religious, ideological and cultural affiliations. The Message concludes by confirming the nearness of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care “to those who suffer from Hansen’s disease, to men and women religious missionaries active in the field, and to the social and health-care workers who help them.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 21/1/2009)
