Pope Leo XIV met with sick and disabled residents of the city of Rimini, Italy on Aug. 22, urging them to “follow the Lord by taking an active part in the life of the Church.”
The meeting came at the end of a whirlwind day of travel for the pope, who visited the tiny landlocked country of San Marino before making an appearance at the 47th Meeting for Friendship Among the Peoples in Rimini.
In his meeting with those suffering from illness and disabilities, which took place at Rimini Cathedral, the pope said the ancient church signified to the sick and poor: “You are home.”
Jesus, the Holy Father said, worked to “heal [sick people] and restore to them a life worthy of their dignity.”
He urged the assembly to take part in Church life “in the parish, in associations, and in places of welcome and service.”
The pope subsequently said Mass at the Port of Rimini, where in his homily he told the faithful that “everything we are and have is a gift from God.”
He said every baptized Christian is oriented toward “embracing, gathering, welcoming, liberating, forgiving [and] emancipating anyone who is a prisoner of sin and its consequence.”
Referring to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the pope said: “God is simple, because he is pure charity, and calls us also to love with a heart similar to his, conforming our ways to his ways and our thoughts to his thoughts.”
