My dear daughters and sons:

I am writing to encourage you to continue praying for the health of the Holy Father, and to accompany him spiritually with our love while he is in the Gemelli Hospital.

Since being admitted to the hospital on February 14th, Pope Francis has several times expressed his gratitude for the signs of affection and the prayers of the entire Church. And also – in a special way – for the love, the letters and the drawings that other patients in the hospital, young people and adults, have been sending him: what a graphic expression of the reality that the Church is a family!

As the apostle Paul reminds us, “if one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Cor 12:26). The reality of the Communion of Saints leads us to make our own everything that affects the others. How often we have seen the Pope make the suffering of others his own. Now we want to return his affection and concern with our own prayers and closeness.

Your Father blesses you with all his affection,

Rome, February 19, 2025