As World Leprosy Day was marked across the globe yesterday, the Pope affirmed his solidarity with those who still fall victim to this ancient disease.
Pope Benedict mentioned yesterday’s commemoration after he had prayed the midday Angelus with the crowd gathered at St. Peter’s Square, in the Vatican.
Pope Benedict entrusted those suffering from leprosy, and all health workers and volunteers who work for a world without leprosy to Father Damien de Veuster.
Fr. Damian was a Belgian priest who volunteered to minister to the leper colony in Molokai, at the Pacific Ocean isle of Hawaii.
He eventually contracted the disease and died a leper in 1889.
Pope Benedict proclaimed him a saint last October.
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, noted in a letter to mark the event that in 2009 there were more than 210 thousand new cases of leprosy worldwide.