Pope announces that World Day of the Sick will be held in Australia

The World Day of the Sick will bring hundreds of religious leaders and health experts to South Australia from around the globe.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who leads the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, arrived in Adelaide this week to begin preparations for the event.

Cardinal Barragan said the World Day of the Sick would be part of a wider three-day event that would look closely at health issues and human dignity.

A special Papal emissary will also come to Adelaide for the gathering to deliver a message from Pope Benedict.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson said the conference would bring health and the dignity deserved by the sick and the dying to the forefront of the global community’s conscience.

Today, the Pope addressed Mexican bishops on an ad limina visit:

The Pope told the bishops that the episcopal duty to teach consists in the transmission of the Gospel "with its moral and religious values, bearing in mind the various situations and aspirations arising from contemporary society, the situation of which the pastors must know well. ‘It is important that special efforts be made to explain properly the reasons for the Church’s position, stressing that it is not a case of imposing on non-believers a vision based on faith, but of interpreting and defending the values rooted in the very nature of the human person’."

  He continued: "At the same time, the pastors of the Church in Mexico must pay special attention … to the most unprotected groups and to the poor. … From the Gospel, the appropriate response is to promote the solidarity and peace that make justice truly possible. For this reason the Church seeks effective collaboration in order to eradicate all forms of marginalization, orienting Christians to practice justice and peace. In this context, encourage those with greater resources to share them."

  The Pope affirmed the need "not only to alleviate the most serious needs, but to go to the roots thereof, proposing measures to give social, political and economic structures a fairer and more solidary configuration. In this way, charity will be at the service of culture, politics, economy and the family, and will become the cement for authentic human and community development."

Brazilian bishop begins hunger strike:

Monday, September 26th, Bishop Luiz Flávio Cappio, OFM began a hunger strike  in Pernambuco, Brazil to protest the diversion of the São Francisco river. The Bishop believes this radical measure is needed to protect the people, culture, and environment along the river.

In the letter the Bishop sent to President Lula he stated, only termination of the river diversion plan or death will end his hunger strike. The Bishop ended his letter to the President  with "my life is in your hands." 

A copy of the letter and demands of the Bishop are on this website in Portuguese. Here.

From the article:

His protest is against one of Brazil’s most ambitious but controversial environmental projects.

It would see water from the 3,000-km (1,800-mile) Sao Francisco river diverted via a series of canals and aqueducts to four drought-prone states in north-eastern Brazil.

The project will cost more than $2bn.

Opponents say the scheme will benefit only the wealthiest landowners in the north-east and reduce the capacity of dams on the Sao Francisco river to generate hydro-electric energy.