VATICAN (CNS): As part of the Vatican’s celebration of World Day of the Poor on November 13, a dozen doctors and nurses and 90 medical students set up shop in St. Peter’s Square.
“We know there are people who need medical care and are not getting it, so our aim is to offer exams and blood tests and make referrals to specialists,” said Dr. Giuseppe Marinaro, an emergency room physician from Padua, who was on duty in the square on November 10.
While the primary goal is to help the poor, especially those living on the streets around the Vatican, the presence in the square of three campers modified as clinics also is “a provocation,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, which coordinates the World Day of the Poor events. “The poor exist and there are more of them than most people think. This is a reminder.”
Archbishop Fisichella said, “The poor evangelise us. The poor allow us all—believers and nonbelievers—to understand an essential of the gospel, which is to serve others,” especially the most vulnerable.
The “field hospital” in the square opened on November and offered free medical services to anyone who asked from 8.00am to 7.00pm each day through to the World Day of the Poor.
The all-volunteer staff—including members of the Italian Red Cross, medical charities and Italian medical associations—offered patients normal physical exams, electrocardiogrammes, ultrasounds, blood tests, flu vaccines and Covid-19 tests.
The Vatican clinic included a pharmacy to help those needing more medication.
