Pope Francis prays for the speedy recovery of health of Nobel laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

Pope Francis sent a brief letter to Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, a human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1980, through the Bishop of Mar del Plata, Monsignor Gabriel Mestre, who is hospitalized in a hospital due to a decompensation. seaside town clinic. The Holy Father assures him of his prayer and accompaniment for a speedy recovery, in addition to expressing his closeness to his wife and family.

“Dear brother: Monsignor Mestre told me about your health problem. Through these lines I assure you of my closeness and my prayer for your prompt recovery. Greetings to your wife. May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin take care of you ”, the Pontiff wrote.

Stable and under observation

Last Saturday, January 1, at night Monsignor Mestre visited Pérez Esquivel in the hospitalization. There he was talking and praying with him who received the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. According to a note from the Mar del Plata bishopric, the bishop has invited the faithful to pray for the recovery “of this Argentine committed to peace, the common good and human rights.”

The Argentine activist, who turned 90 on November 26, had traveled with his wife and other relatives to the quintessential Argentine summer town. At the time he decompensated, he received first care at the Chapadmalal Presidential Medical Unit and was later transferred to a private clinic in Mar del Plata. According to the NGO Servicio de Paz y Justicia (Serpaj) of which he is the founder, he is currently stable and under observation.

A defender of human rights

Francisco praised Esquivel as a “prominent defender of human rights” in a message sent last year on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Nobel. “Thank you for your testimony in the beautiful and painful moments of the country, for your words, your courage and your simplicity,” the Pontiff wrote, wishing his compatriot to continue with his commitment, always with humility.

In addition, Pérez Esquivel, interviewed on May 28 by the official newspaper of the Holy See, L’Osservatore Romano, explained that a lot of work was being done to “help the people that Pope Francis calls the ‘discarded’”.

Denouncing the Covid pandemic, but also the risk of a “hunger pandemic,” Esquivel added: “Pope Francis appeals to the conscience and hearts of the powerful and says that ‘no one is saved alone.’ To build a society where the law and equality are valid for all, it is necessary to spread the culture of solidarity ”.

Ambassador for Justice and Peace

Pérez Esquivel received prestigious international recognition for his denunciations against the abuses of the Argentine military dictatorship in the 1970s. Born on November 26, 1931 in Buenos Aires, he studied architecture at the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires and at the National University of La Plata, served as a teacher for 25 years and in 1971 began to get involved in movements that fight for peace and justice.

In 1973, he founded the Paz y Justicia newspaper, which soon became the pacifist movement and the “Peace and Justice Ecumenical Movement” with various Christian groups.

Starting in 1976, he dedicated himself to traveling the world and designing aid and development programs for Latin American indigenous communities, labor movements, and other groups of people in need.

During 1977 and 1978 he was imprisoned in Argentina by the military dictatorship of President Videla and during that period of prison he received the Juan XXIII Memorial Peace Prize awarded by Pax Cristi Internacional. After the Nobel Prize, he was appointed a member of the executive committee of the United Nations Permanent Assembly on Human Rights.

Source: Vatican News