On Sunday morning, Mass will be celebrated in St. Peter’s Square, with Archbishop Fisichella reading the homily prepared by Pope Francis.

Approximately 20,000 pilgrims, including patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, healthcare personnel, and technicians, from more than 90 countries around the world, will arrive in Rome on Saturday, April 5 and Sunday, April 6, for the seventh of the great Jubilee events: the Jubilee dedicated to the sick and the healthcare world. Thousands of people will arrive in Rome from Italy, along with delegations from the United States, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as from countries such as France, Mexico, Germany, Croatia, the Philippines, Peru, Congo, Australia, Chile, Congo, Ethiopia, Canada, and Cameroon. Among the Italian associations present are the Fratres dell’Misericordia blood donor group of Italy, ANED (the National Hemodialysis Association), the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors, the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation, AVIS and FIDAS (the Italian Federation of Blood Donor Associations), and the National Federations of Health Professional Associations.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Door

The Jubilee event will begin on Saturday morning, April 5, with the opportunity for all participants to experience their pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Holy Door starting at 8:00 a.m. On Saturday afternoon, the Dialogues with the City will return, featuring cultural, spiritual, and artistic events in central Rome’s squares organized by associations, organizations, and movements. Starting at 4:00 PM in Piazza di Spagna, a meeting entitled “The Value of Gift and Solidarity” will take place, organized by the Ministry of Health, with interventions by Monsignor Rino Fisichella, Orazio Schillaci, Minister of Health, Roberto Gualtieri, Mayor of Roma Capitale, and Francesco Rocca, President of the Lazio Region. From 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, the conference “Hospice = Hope,” organized by the University Biomedical Campus of Rome, on the topic of palliative care, will take place at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. In Piazza Risorgimento, the American Heart Association will host an event from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. teaching CPR techniques in English, Spanish, French, Polish, and German.

Blood Donation Awareness

The Fratres Association, in collaboration with the CEI National Office for Health Pastoral Care, will promote a blood donation awareness event in Piazza San Giovanni, with an extraordinary blood drive from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. At the same time, in Piazza della Chiesa Nuova and Piazza San Salvatore in Lauro, several health federations will offer health education activities from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In Piazza dell’Oro, the Vicariate of Rome’s Pastoral Care Office for Health has organized information and awareness-raising activities on the topic of addictions from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Other events

In the Church of Santa Monica, Piazza Sant’Uffizio 8, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., a conference will be held to present Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro, a medical student who died of a rare disease, in conversation with her sister Emanuela and Fr. Andrea Vena, biographer and postulator of the canonization cause. There will also be moments of prayer for the sick, with Eucharistic adoration and catechesis led by religious congregations with charisms of assistance, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. In particular, in the Church of San Maria del Suffragio, there will be a moment of prayer “In the Footsteps of Blessed Luigi Novarese.” Finding Blessing When Life Is Traversed by Fragility’ and the initiative ‘In the Footsteps of Saint Camillus de Lellis. The Heart Unifies a Fragmented Life’ will take place at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene.

Finally, the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation will host a meeting in the Church of San Gregorio VII from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. entitled “Caring and Being Cared For: Where Does Our Hope Lie?”, with the participation of Monsignor Andrea Manto, Episcopal Vicar for Health Care in Rome, Sergio Daniotti, President of the Pharmaceutical Bank, and Giorgio Bordin, President of Medicina e Persona. Finally, the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Lateran University will host a conference sponsored by the National Office for Health Care Pastoral Care of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the High School of Economics and Management of Health Systems (ALTEMS) of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, on the contribution of patient associations to building a more humane, participatory, and sustainable National Health Service.

The Jubilee will conclude on Sunday, April 6, with Mass in St. Peter’s Square at 10:30 a.m., presided over by Pro-Prefect Fisichella, who will read the homily written by Pope Francis for the occasion.