Christian Life Movement founder calls Pope ‘an example of constancy and fortitude’

Lima, Peru, Feb 24, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Luis Fernando, founder of the Christian Life Movement, a worldwide religious community based in Peru called on Catholics today to offer prayers for the Holy Father who underwent tracheotomy surgery earlier today.

“This is a new occasion to unite ourselves to the prayers of men and women all around the world for dear Holy Father John Paul II”, Fernando said in a statement issued today.

He added that the Pope’s “example of constancy and fortitude in his long sickness speak, in addition to his personal virtues, of the dignity of human being. Elderly as he is, with a severe sickness he is speaking to the world that neither age nor frailness in health constitute a diminish in human dignity.”

Fernando pointed out that through his illness, the Pope is “sending a message announcing to all that euthanasia or eugenic ideology are not the answer, and that they have never been. The Vicar of Christ in the whole itinerary of his illness, and through the way he has faced it is telling the world: human dignity is inherent to the reality of man.”

On the other side, Fernando noted that the Pope has said that, “God does not want sickness”, and that evil and death have entered the world through sin.

For this reason, he implored faithful to offer their prayers for the Holy Father--who now finds himself in the hospital for the second time in a month; the first visit, having lasted ten days—and unite them to the cross of Christ, in which, "every form of suffering can become meaningful.”