“It is necessary to work to ensure that everyone has access to care, that the healthcare system is supported and promoted, and that it continues to be free of charge,” Pope Francis said in a June 4 address to members of Federsanità, the Italian healthcare confederation. “Cutting resources for healthcare is an outrage to humanity.”

During his address, Pope Francis emphasized proximity as “the antidote to self-referentiality,” “wholeness, which is opposed to fragmentation and partiality,” and “the common good, as a remedy to the pursuit of partisan interests.”