As part of the Vatican celebration of World Day of the Poor on Sunday, a dozen doctors and nurses and 90 medical students have set up shop in St Peter’s Square. Source: NCR Online.
“We know there are people who need medical care and are not getting it, so our aim is to offer exams and blood tests and make referrals to specialists,” said Dr Giuseppe Marinaro, an emergency room physician from Padua, who was on duty in the square yesterday.
While the primary goal is to help the poor, especially those living on the streets around the Vatican, the presence in the square of three campers modified as clinics also is “a provocation”, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, which coordinates the World Day of the Poor events. “The poor exist and there are more of them than most people think. This is a reminder.”
“The poor evangelise us,” Archbishop Fisichella said. “The poor allow us all – believers and nonbelievers – to understand an essential of the Gospel, which is to serve others.”
The “field hospital” in the square opened on Monday and is offering free medical services from 8am to 7pm each day through to Sunday, the day the Church marks the World Day of the Poor.
The all-volunteer staff – which included members of the Italian Red Cross, medical charities and Italian medical associations – were offering patients normal physical exams, electrocardiograms, ultrasounds, blood tests, flu vaccines and COVID-19 tests.
FULL STORY
Vatican opens clinic in St. Peter’s Square for World Day of the Poor (By Cindy Wooden, CNS via NCR Online)
