VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- A Jubilee day for the sick will be held on February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

    Organizers in Rome are expecting 20,000 participants for the occasion, with many of them coming to the Vatican in wheelchairs or even on stretchers. The observance is being coordinated by the Pontifical Council for Health Care.

    The Jubilee for the sick should emphasize "the fundamental importance of illness and personal suffering," says Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan, the president of the Pontifical Council. He explains: "The sufferings of the world, united with those of Christ, are a positive and primary source of the pardon and indulgence which come with this Holy Year."

    If the weather permits, Pope John Paul II will celebrate Mass in St. Peter's Square on February 11, and 200 people will receive the Sacrament of the Sick during the ceremony. The service will point to a special moment during which Christians everywhere are asked to pray for the sick, Archbishop Lozano Barragan said. In the afternoon there will be a candlelight procession ending with a display of lights over St. Peter's basilica.

    On the following day-- Saturday, February 12-- the pilgrims who have gathered in Rome for the Jubilee may attend the Way of the Cross at the Roman Coliseum. They may also visit the different basilicas of the Eternal City, entering through the Holy Doors to obtain the special indulgence granted for the Holy Year. In the evening, they will gather at the Vatican, in the Paul VI auditorium, for a festive evening of song, prayer, and testimony on the theme "Joy and Hope." The evening's program will be broadcast to crowds at a series of Marian pilgrimage sites: Lourdes in France; Czestochowa in Poland; Yamassoukro in Ivory Coast; Gaudalupe in Mexico; Sidney, Australia; and the Immaculate Conception shrine in Washington, DC.

    Prior to the Jubilee for the sick, the Vatican is offering two days of conferences on the meaning of personal suffering. The conferences-- also held in the Paul VI auditorium-- have brought together doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health-care workers to reflect on the moral implications of their pain born by the people for whom they care.