Sanità e Misericordia. 50 anni dell'Azienda ospedaliera "Cardinale Giovanni Panico" di Tricase (1967-2017)

The author highlights the signs and instruments of mercy in the health field, recalling the birth and activity of the fifty-year working in this religious hospital. He underlines that, according to the Church's teachings, this home care today does not only help (action for corporal mercy) but also trains people spiritually (action of spiritual mercy). It framed its action in social, economic, religious and health dynamics from the 1960s to the present. The religious hospital witnesses, since its foundation, the Church ? anticipating a state that was not yet late or delayed to develop social sensibility ? has carried out works of charitable mercy towards the needy. To consider man in his bodily and spiritual integrity and accompany him in his Christian life i from birth to end-life (within the hospital and the Hospice Department), makes concrete the meaning of Mercy as a practice that brings to the sick the tenderness and consolation of God. The author concludes by examining how the recent evolution of the relationship between physicians and patients is the stimulating challenge of Mercy.