A Message from Pope Francis for World Day of the Sick 2025
Dear brothers and sisters who are ill or who care for the suffering, in this Jubilee you
play an especially important part. Your journey together is a sign for everyone: “a hymn
to human dignity, a song of hope” (Spes Non Confundit, 11).
Its strains are heard far beyond the rooms and beds of health facilities, and serve to elicit
in charity “the choral participation of society as a whole” in a harmony that is at times
difficult to achieve, but for that very reason is so comforting and powerful, capable of
bringing light and warmth wherever they are most needed.
The whole Church thanks you for this! I do as well, and I remember you always in my
prayers. I entrust you to Our Lady, Health of the Sick, in the words that so many of our
brothers and sisters have addressed to her in their hour of need:
We fly to your protection, O Holy Mother of God.
Do not despise our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin.
I bless you, along with your families and loved ones,
and I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me.
+ Pope Francis (Rome, Saint John Lateran, 14 January 2025)