Cardinal Parolin visits Bambino Gesù, linking daily care for sick children to Christ’s birth in acts of mercy and family warmth.
Newsdesk (24/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a spiritually charged visit to the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin framed Christmas as a living, breathing presence born anew in every act of mercy toward sick children and their families. Speaking to staff, board members, volunteers, and patients in the hospital chapel, Parolin tied the season’s meaning to the daily labor of healing, stressing that “Jesus is born every time attention and care is given to sick children and their families.” This refrain underscored a larger ethic of medical excellence fused with compassionate humanity that the Holy See’s flagship pediatric institution embodies, he suggested, when describing Bambino Gesù as a “Christmas hospital.”
The encounter began with a warm reception from hospital leadership, including president Tiziano Onesti and senior figures across medical, scientific, and religious spheres, who gathered as Parolin arrived just blocks from the Vatican. The Cardinal’s tour included the Pulmonology and Cystic Fibrosis Unit, where he paused to offer greetings to patients and their families alongside unit head Dr. Renato Cutrera. The moment in the chapel crystallized the visit’s core message: that care transcends clinical expertise and becomes a conduit for spiritual solace and communal solidarity during the Advent season.
A hospital of excellence and humanity
Parolin’s reflections drew on a personal anecdote shared by a parent during the ward visit, who observed that “half of healing is due to medical care, and half is the family environment, closeness, and affection.” The Cardinal echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that Bambino Gesù aims for more than clinical excellence; it seeks a distinctly human dimension where patients feel seen, supported, and hopeful. He invoked Italian poet Giovanni Papini to illuminate the inward experience of faith, noting that a heart anointed by acts of service is a heart that recognizes the Saviour’s presence. For Parolin, the hospital’s daily rhythm—each patient greeted, every line of care delivered, every family moment of support—becomes a site where the divine moment of birth reoccurs.
The visit closed with a broader blessing for the hospital community, a reminder that leadership and faith can converge to sustain a healthcare environment where healing is understood as a shared, reverent enterprise. As Parolin reminded staff and families, “the same can be said at the Bambino Gesù Hospital: every time attention is given to children and families, every time you carry out your daily work, Jesus is born again.” The assemblage left with a reinforced sense of purpose: to uphold not only medical standards but also the warmth of human connection that makes the hospital more than a place of treatment—it’s a Christmas hospital in spirit, where care itself becomes a birth of hope.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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