"I am pleased to recall that 2020 has been internationally designated as the Year of Nurses and Midwife. Nurses are the most numerous and closest to the sick, and midwives are perhaps the noblest of the professions. Let us pray for all of them, that they may do their precious work in the best possible way".
With these words, the Holy Father wanted to recall - during the Angelus prayer on Sunday, January 19 - the opening of the International Year of Nurses and Midwives.
2020 was officially declared the International Year of Nurses and Midwives at the end of the 72nd World Health Assembly of the WHO in Geneva last May. For the first time in history, nations around the world will unite to celebrate the benefits that nursing and midwifery care brings to the health of the global population.
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which is competent in matters concerning the sick and the work of those working in the health care services, joins the Holy Father in praying for all nurses and midwives in the world "that they may do their precious work in the best possible way".