Pope Francis to the sick: "you are the Crucified Christ amongst us"

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis today encouraged all health care workers to “humanize” medicine.

The Pope’s informal remarks came as he visited a group of sick and disabled people in the Neapolitan Church of the Gesù Nuovo during his one-day visit to Pompei and Naples.

To the doctors and nurses present for the encounter the Pope said that it is necessary to get close to those who are sick and to have the sensitivity of the good Samaritan who is not afraid to be with he who suffers.

The Pope thanked the volonteers for their work with the sick and the disabled saying that being with them and caressing them is like touching the living flesh of Christ.

And to the sick people Pope Francis said “you are the crucified Christ amongst us”.

“It is one thing – he said – to look at a Crucifix, it is another to look at a sick man, woman or child who are crucified within their disease: you are Christ’s living flesh”.