“In a society that is getting older and older, care for the elderly and all the complex problems of taking care of people’s health become more and more important”. In speaking to the civil servants, Benedict XVI meant to encourage them “in the efforts you are making in these spheres”, then he stated that, “in the health-care field, the endless scientific and technological progress, as well as the commitment to contain costs, are to be promoted, wihout prejudice to the superior principle of the centrality of the sick person”. Special attention must be paid, added the Pope, “to the many cases of suffering and mental disease, so that the families who often have to face very difficul situations may be helped”. In his speech to the authorities, he did not fail to draw attention to the relation between the local bodies and the service sector: Benedict XVI said “he was glad of the progress that the different forms of cooperation have made over the last few years” between the public authorities and the volunteering associations of the church, “in the work carried out to relieve old and new poverty, which unfortunately torments a fairly large part of the population, in particular many immigrants”.
