(Vatican Radio) The official ceremony opening the Holy Door at the chapel of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Palidoro was celebrated on Thursday by the Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina, Gino Reali.

The hospital – part of the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù network – was started in the seaside town outside of Rome by Pope Paul VI in 1978.

Bishop Reali celebrated Mass to mark the opening of the Holy Door – one of the four official Holy Doors of the diocese – and baptized a young patient during the ceremony.

“The hospital chapel at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Palidoro will this year by a house of mercy for everyone, a place of hope and comfort for all the families who alongside their children spend even extended period of times here,” Bishop Reali said.

The Bishop said the hospital has “always spoken the language of mercy of which Pope Francis invites us to pronounce the words  and works,” and called it “a sign of tenderness.”

The patients of the hospital prepared three large canvasses to be blessed by Bishop Reali, each depicting a parable of Jesus expressing Mercy: The Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep, and the Good Samaritan.

Pope Paul VI founded the hospital to specialize in the care of children afflicted with polio.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/it/holy-father/paolo-vi.html