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By John-Henry Westen

  PAVIA, April 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Speaking at a Catholic hospital in the Northern Italian city of Pavia today, Pope Benedict XVI said, “It is my heartfelt hope that vital scientific and technological progress will always be accompanied by a concern to promote, alongside the good of sick people, such fundamental values as respect for and defense of life at every stage, upon which the authentically human quality of coexistence depend.”

  Continuing his address at the “San Matteo” hospital, the Pope highlighted the fact that “in each person suffering from illness it is He Himself Who awaits our love.” 

“Of course, suffering is abhorrent to the human heart,” the Pope went on, “yet it remains true that when accepted with love and illuminated with faith, it becomes a precious opportunity that unites us mysteriously to Christ the Redeemer, the Man of suffering Who on the Cross took upon Himself the pain and death of man. With the sacrifice of His life He redeemed human suffering and made it the fundamental means of salvation.”

“Dear sick people,” he concluded, “entrust to the Lord the discomfort and pain you have to face, and in His plan you will become means of purification and redemption for the world entire.

  See the full address (in Italian):
  https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2007/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20070422_ospedale-pavia_it.html

  (with files from the Vatican Information Service)