Pope Francis receives Italian missionary physicians

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis addressed the participants in a major gathering of Doctors with Africa CUAMM – an acronym for the original Italian name of the organization which was the first NGO in the field of healthcare to be officially recognized in Italy: University College for Aspiring Missionary Doctors, founded in 1950 in the Diocese of Padua by Dr. Francesco Canova, a  missionary physician in Jordan, and  Bishop Girolamo Bortignon.

Under the leadership of don Luigi Mazzucato, who headed the organization for more than 50 years, CUAMM gained its current position as the leading Italian organization engaged in Sub-Saharan Africa, operating in 7 African countries (Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) where it delivers medical aid and expertise with its international and local teams.

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In remarks to the CUAMM membership on Saturday, Pope Francis said, “In the wake of these great witnesses of missionary and evangelically fruitful closeness, you carry on your work with courage, giving expression to a Church that is not a clinic exclusively for super A-list VIPs,  but rather a ‘field hospital’: a Church with a great heart, close to the many wounded and humiliated of history, to the poorest of the poor.”

The Holy Father concluded, saying, “I assure you of my closeness and my prayer: I bless all of you, your families, and your commitment to the present and the future of the African continent.”