The Diocese of Dunkeld gathered at 7pm on Wednesday 11 February for the World Day of the Sick Mass at Immaculate Conception Church, in an evening marked by prayer, reflection and a powerful call to defend human dignity.
The Mass was led by Mgr Aldo Angelosanto, alongside Fr Jim Walls and Mgr Neil Gallagher — himself a Monsignor of Lourdes — with music provided by a group from St Bride’s Church. Their contribution to the liturgy echoed the sounds familiar from many diocesan pilgrimages to Lourdes; filled with hope and fitting for a day dedicated to the sick, the vulnerable and those who care for them.
Although centred on illness and healing, the celebration was shaped by Pope Leo’s message for the 12th World Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking — a message that broadened the focus from physical suffering to the wider wounds of injustice in the modern world.
“I firmly renew the Church’s urgent call to confront and bring an end to this grave crime against humanity,” the Holy Father wrote, referring to human trafficking. He framed his appeal with the words of the Risen Christ: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19), describing them as more than a greeting but “a path toward a renewed humanity.”
True peace, he insisted, begins with “the recognition and protection of the God-given dignity of every person.” In a world “marked by escalating violence,” he warned against seeking peace “through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion,” and lamented that in times of conflict human lives are too often dismissed as “collateral damage.”
The Pope drew a direct link between this logic of domination and the exploitation at the heart of human trafficking. Geopolitical instability and poverty create “fertile ground for traffickers to exploit the most vulnerable,” especially migrants, refugees, women and children. He highlighted the disturbing rise of so-called “cyber slavery,” where victims are forced into online fraud or criminal schemes: “In such cases, the victim is coerced into assuming the role of perpetrator, exacerbating their spiritual wounds.”
Such abuses, he said, are symptoms of “a culture that has forgotten how to love as Christ loves.”
In response, Pope Leo called for prayer and awareness. Prayer, he described as the “small flame” that must be guarded amid the storm, strengthening believers to resist indifference. Awareness enables communities to recognise “the hidden mechanisms of exploitation in our neighborhoods and in digital spaces.”
He concluded with a vision of peace that resonates deeply with the Church’s ministry to the sick: peace that is “unarmed and disarming,” rooted in full respect for the dignity of all. The message was entrusted to the intercession of Saint Josephine Bakhita, herself a survivor of slavery and a witness of Christian hope.
At the World Day of the Sick in Lochee, that message found a natural home. The sick, elderly and frail are among the most vulnerable in society, and the Mass was a reminder that their dignity does not diminish with illness. In prayer, sacrament and song, the faithful of Dunkeld affirmed the Pope’s central truth: that every human life is sacred, never disposable, and always loved by God.
On a stormy evening the message “Peace be with you” carried renewed weight — not as a simple farewell, but as a call to build a society where the weak are protected, the suffering are cherished, and peace is truly disarming.