The pontiff, in Equatorial Guinea, said Christian charity means welcoming the vulnerable with dignity.
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea — Visiting a psychiatric hospital on Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV said a truly humane society is measured not by how it hides weakness but by how it surrounds the vulnerable with love and stressed that God loves each person “just as we are” while desiring their healing and restoration.
“Whenever I visit a hospital, I have mixed feelings: on the one hand, I feel sorrow for the patients and their families. On the other, I admire and am comforted by all that is done there each day to serve human life,” the pope said in an address delivered in Spanish. “I feel the same way here, but today, I find — and I hope the same is true for you — that joy prevails. It is the joy of meeting in the name of the Lord and of caring for those who are in frail health.”
The late-afternoon event was marked by songs, dancing, and testimonies from both the hospital’s director and a patient, Pedro Celestino Nzerem Koose. A moving poem by a former patient was also recited.
The Jean-Pierre Olié Psychiatric Hospital, with its six pavilions, represents a major development in the treatment of mental illness in Equatorial Guinea, where psychiatric disorders were historically neglected. Founded in 2014, it is the country’s first modern center of its kind and has become a symbol of the national commitment to integrating patients into society, with large green spaces and rehabilitation areas built into the complex.
At the end of 2025, the hospital formalized a cooperation agreement with Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris. In December of that same year, the complex inaugurated a new pavilion and was subsequently named posthumously after the noted French psychiatrist Jean-Pierre Olié, who died in 2023 and whose contribution was instrumental to the project’s development.
The pontiff was welcomed by the hospital’s director, Bechir Ben Hadj Ali, and the facility’s deputy director, who presented him with a bouquet of flowers. Together they proceeded to the main courtyard, where patients and staff had gathered.
“Our mission is clear: to provide care grounded in science, founded on ethics, and guided by a profound respect for the human person. We work to combat stigma, strengthen professional training, support families, and integrate mental health into our country’s public policies,” the director said in the pope’s presence.
In his own remarks, patient Pedro Celestino also expressed gratitude, saying: “We especially thank the first lady of the nation, Mrs. Constancia Mangue Nsue Okomo, patron of our hospital and of the most vulnerable people in the country.”
Leo then cited the director’s earlier words.
“The director said: ‘A truly great society is not one that hides its weaknesses but one that surrounds them with love.’ Yes, that is true,” the pope said. “This is a principle of a civilization with Christian roots, for in the course of human history Christ came to redeem and restore to full dignity those who suffer from the stigma of disability.”
“However, the Savior does not wish to, nor can he, save us without our cooperation, both on a personal and a social level. Therefore, he asks us to love our brothers and sisters not just in words but also in deeds. A facility such as this, with God’s help and everyone’s commitment, can become a sign of the civilization of love,” he said.
Referring to Pedro Celestino’s testimony, Leo highlighted the patient’s final words: “Thank you for loving us just as we are.”
“Thank you for your witness!” the pope replied. “Yes, God loves us just as we are. In reality, only God truly loves us just as we are, but he does not intend for us to stay that way! No, God does not want us to remain sick forever; he wants to heal us!”
“This is seen in the Gospel time and again. Jesus came to love us just as we are, yet he does not want us to stay that way, but rather to care for us!” he continued. “A hospital, especially one with a Christian mission, is a place where a person is welcomed just as they are and respected in their frailty, so that they can be helped to get better according to a holistic vision.”
Leo added that the spiritual dimension of care is essential and said he was pleased that the director had emphasized that point.
He also thanked former patient Tarcisio for his poem, saying that in a place like the hospital, many hidden “poems” are composed every day “not with words, but with small gestures, with thoughtfulness and kindness in your relationships with one another.”
“It is a poem that only God can fully read and which consoles the merciful heart of Christ,” he said.
The pope closed by asking those present to convey his closeness to all the sick in the hospital, “especially those who are most seriously ill and most alone,” and entrusted patients, health care workers, and staff to the protection of Mary, Health of the Sick.
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Marco Mancini contributed to this article. This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
