Clowns, jugglers and acrobats of the Rony Roller Circus have "invaded" the spaces of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital today, to bring a little joy and a few smiles to the young patients and their families.
After the mass, celebrated by Card. Peter KA Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery, a first show was held inside the Hospital Playroom, a second, wider and more articulated with acrobatics, tricks and small sketches took place near the Castle of the Games. The circus artists then visited some departments to greet even those children unable to leave their rooms.
The initiative, organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in collaboration with the Bambino Gesù also in view of the World Day of the Sick which will be celebrated on February 11, was accompanied by Card. Turkson and Mariella Enoc, President of the Holy See Hospital. This event is part of a pastoral journey that the Dicastery has promoted since its inception (having absorbed the competences of the former Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People) in favor of circus performers and fairs, with a specific focus on protecting the dignity of workers and of those who work in the "traveling show" sector. Among the areas of intervention of the Dicastery there is also the pastoral care of healthcare workers. Hence the idea of the circus in hospital, born together with theBambino Gesù, which guarantees over 600 beds and almost 29,000 hospitalizations a year and which in 2019 celebrated the 150th anniversary of its foundation.
"Giving a young patient a memory of joy linked to a delicate moment in his life - stressed Turkson during the visit - means lightening his load of pain, alleviating that of the parents who accompany him and, why not, also raising a little doctors and nurses, giving them a touch of joy to nourish the extraordinary mission that they carry out every day in the service of others".
Mariella Enoc, in thanking the artists for the message of joy and courage brought to the young patients of the hospital, said: "The artists of the circus are the truest artists: often anonymous and always courageous they have the only mission of bringing happiness ".
