Kolkata, Dec 8, 2018: The next World Day of the Sick will be celebrated in Kolkata on February 9-11, 2019.
It was introduced by Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1992 and is celebrated on the Feast of our Lady of Lourdes (Feb. 11).
The day is also the anniversary of his 1984 Apostolic Letter Salvificidoloris on the Christian meaning of human suffering. Kolkata was chosen to celebrate the XXVII World Day of the Sick (WDS) to honour mainly “in light of the experience of St Teresa of Calcutta,” to quote Peter Cardinal K. A. Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery organising the World Day.
This is only the second time a place in India has been chosen; the first was Vailankanni.
“The annual celebration of the ‘World Day of the Sick’, therefore, has the manifest purpose of making the People of God, and as a consequence, the many Catholic healthcare institutions and civil society itself, more aware of the necessity of ensuring the best possible care for the infirm, of helping the sick person to make the most of suffering, on the human level, but most of all, on the supernatural one, of especially helping the Dioceses, Christian communities and religious families to be involved in the health care apostolate, of enhancing the ever more valuable commitment of volunteers, of reminding people of the importance of the spiritual and moral training of healthcare workers, and last of all, of creating a better understanding of the importance of religious care for the sick among diocesan and religious priests, as well as among those who live and work at the side of the person in pain.”