Pope sends blessing to new accommodation for families of sick children

By Robin Gomes

Pope Francis has sent his blessing to the laying of the foundation stone of a centre in the outskirts of the northern Italian city of Milan, the capital of the Lombardy region, which will offer free accommodation to families from other parts of the country who need to hospitalize their children in the city for medical treatment.

Archbishop Mario Delpini,and Mayor Giuseppe Sala of Milan, participated in a ceremony on Tuesday at the laying of the foundation stone of the new centre. The project is sponsored by the Lombardy regional unit of Unitalsi, an acronym for Italy’s volunteer association that organizes and accompanies sick persons, people with disabilities, the elderly, and anyone in need of help to Lourdes and other international sanctuaries.

Home of welcome and closeness 

Pope Francis has sent a blessed brick of the Holy Door of the Jubilee Year 2000 to Unitalsi Lombarda president, Vittore De Carli, along with a letter that was read out at the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone.

“My blessing goes to you dear friends of Unitalsi Lombarda and to the families of the children who will find welcome and closeness in the home whose construction you are starting today, and to all the volunteers and generous collaborators,” the Pope wrote in the letter.

Part of the Unitalsi Project for the Little Ones, the new home on the outskirts of Italy's financial capital is named after the well-known television presenter, journalist, actor and a great friend of Unitalsi, Fabrizio Frizzi, who passed away in 2018.

Commending Unitalsi Lombarda on its 100 years last year, the Pope said it continues to operate also at a local level, transforming the pilgrimage to the sanctuaries into “many small domestic pilgrimages” to put itself at the service of the guests of the upcoming home. 

The compassion of Christ 

In this regard, he recalled the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee Year, 2015-2016, where he wrote that Jesus, on seeing the multitude of exhausted and lost people without guidance who were following him, felt great compassion for them. And out of this compassionate love, He healed the sick who were brought to him, and with a few loaves and fishes He fed large crowds.

“What moved Jesus in all circumstances was nothing other than mercy,”  the Pope wrote. In this context, he said, the Fabrizio Frizzi centre is a testimony to the love of Jesus for the poorest; a response to the need for a welcoming home, so that parents can live out the care of their children who are hospitalized, in a context of precariousness and new poverty, a testimony to the love of Jesus for the poorest.

A delegation of Unitalsi Lombarda had presented the plan of the centre to Pope Francis in the Vatican, during the General Audience on 17 March.