Bishop O'Connell's Message for the World Day of the Sick • February Monitor

BISHOP DAVID M. O’CONNELL, C.M., HAS SHARED THIS MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD DAY OF THE SICK 2023

A call to compassion and care
In his 2023 message for the annual “World Day of the Sick,” our Holy Father Pope Francis reminds us that “iIllness is part of our human condition. Yet, if illness is experienced in isolation and abandonment, unaccompanied by care and compassion, it can become inhumane.” 

He explains, “On the thirty-first World Day of the Sick, as the whole Church journeys along the synodal path, I invite all of us to reflect on the fact that it is especially through the experience of vulnerability and illness that we can learn to walk together according to the style of God, which is closeness, compassion, and tenderness.”

Established in 1992 by Pope St. John Paul II, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, the “World Day of the Sick” is a day for the Church to acknowledge that “the sickness of a family member, a friend or a neighbor is a call to Christians to demonstrate true compassion, that gentle and persevering sharing in another’s pain.”

All of us know someone who has been seriously sick; some of us have been sick ourselves. Such experiences reveal the fragility of our human bodies, the impact that sickness has upon our outlook on life and the needs of the sick in our midst that only other caring people can meet.

Christians have always been encouraged by the compassion of the Lord Jesus toward the sick in the Gospels. The Church has carried on his ministry from its earliest days, offering healing, strengthening faith, inspiring hope, sharing love following his example. That ministry continues to be a work of mercy for all believers.

Read Bishop O'Connell's entire message HERE.

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THE MONITOR STAFF TOOK A FEW EXTRA DAYS to produce The Monitor Magazine’s February issue so that we could bring readers special coverage on one of the most exciting and hopeful events that happens each year in this local Church – the Diocesan Youth Conference.  The DYC – which brought together some 750 youth and their adult advisors from across our four counties – is the latest cover story, with lots of dynamic photos that help to tell the story of this extraordinary annual experience.

And that’s just getting started…. Click HERE for more highlights from the new magazine issue.