Dear sisters and dear brothers, good morning!

I am particularly pleased to welcome you, midwives, gynaecological practitioners and healthcare workers of Calabria. Yours is a beautiful profession, a vocation and a hymn to life, even more important at this historical moment. Indeed, in Italy and also in other countries, it seems that enthusiasm for motherhood and fatherhood has been lost; it is regarded as a source of difficulties and problems, rather than throwing wide open a new horizon of creativity and happiness. And this – as we know – depends a great deal on the social and cultural context. Therefore you, as a professional Order, have set yourselves a planned objective: to invert the trend of the declining birth rate. Well done! I congratulate you. And so I would like to reflect with you on three complementary and interdependent areas of your life and mission: professionalism, human sensitivity and, for those who believe, prayer.

First: professionalism. The continual improvement of skills is not only a part of your code of ethics, but also of a path to lay holiness (cf. Homily at Mass with Canonizations, 15 May 2022). Competence is the instrument with which you can best exercise the charity entrusted to you, both in the ordinary accompaniment of mothers-to-be and in dealing with critical and painful situations. In all these cases, the presence of trained professionals gives serenity and, in the most serious situations, can save lives.

Second: human sensitivity. In a moment of existence as crucial as the birth of a son or a daughter, one can feel vulnerable, fragile, and therefore in need of closeness, tenderness, warmth. It does a great deal of good, in such circumstances, to have sensitive and delicate people beside you. I therefore recommend to you to nurture, besides professional ability, also a great sense of humanity, which confirms “in parents’ souls the desire and joy for the new life, blossomed from their love” (Saint John Paul II, Address to midwives, 26 January 1980) and contributes to “ensuring a healthy and happy birth for the child” (ibid.).

And so, we come to the third point: prayer. It is a hidden but effective medicine available to those who believe, because it heals the soul. At times it will be possible to share it with patients; in other circumstances, it can be offered to God with discretion and humility, in one’s own heart, respecting the belief and path of everyone. Always, however, with prayer, one contributes to strengthening that “admirable collaboration of the parents, of nature and of God, from which is born a new human being in the image and likeness of God”, as the Venerable Pius XII said (Address to the Catholic Union of Midwives, 29 October 1951). I therefore encourage you to feel, towards the mothers, fathers and children whom God places in your path, the responsibility to pray for them too, especially at Holy Mass, in the Eucharistic Adoration and in your simple everyday prayer.

Dear sisters and dear brothers, thank you for the great good you do every day! Continue to carry out your mission with enthusiasm and generosity. I bless you, your work and your families. And I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me too.

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 6 February 2025