Guatemala – Passion for medicine in time of COVID-19 without forgetting to be a past pupil of Don Bosco: Dr Venancio de León

04 June 2020

(ANS - Guatemala City)  On more than one occasion, Pope Francis raised a prayer for all those who work for the sick, especially the medical staff and health workers who are doing everything possible to help patients affected by Coronavirus. “I received a message from a priest from Bergamo,” commented the Pope, “asking to pray for the doctors of Bergamo, Treviglio, Brescia, Cremona, who are at the limit of their work; they are giving their lives to help the sick, to save the lives of others.” The stories of doctors who give their lives to save the sick is a reality. This is the case of Doctor Venancio de León, a past pupil of Don Bosco.

In March, approximately 50,000 digital screens illuminated the facades of the most emblematic buildings of nearly twenty Chinese cities with the faces of healthcare professionals who assisted patients infected with COVID-19. “There is no doubt, medical professionals are the great heroes of this story,” wrote journalist Lea A of redEMC. In fact, Doctor Venancio is one of these heroes.

On 24 January 2019, Dr Venancio ended his mandate as President of the National Association of Past Pupils (both male and female) of Don Bosco, who also chaired the "Alberto Marvelli Foundation", which manages and administers the "Father Bartolomé Ambrosio Vocational Training Center, SDB." “In addition to his professional qualities as a doctor, past pupil and person, Doctor Venancio has a great Salesian formation and human quality,” wrote Raúl Vázquez. And these characteristics, he lives them like a true professional with a Salesian formation in the midst of this pandemic.

“Dr Venancio now works with COVID-19 patients, leaving his family to go to a hospital that is 5 hours from the capital and then he returns to do the same in the hospital that has national responsibility for the infected,” explains Raúl Vásquez, Director of the "Bartolomé Ambrosio SDB Center". “He is always smiling, he always talks about Don Bosco, Artemide Zatti, the Virgin Help of Christians. He is a doctor who lives an extraordinary spirituality and with truly admirable serenity.”

In Guatemala, COVID-19 cases have increased and amounted to 5,500 cases in the last few days. Faced with this situation, Dr Venancio “is a doctor who lives to serve others, he is not a wealthy doctor, his work is among the poorest, among the Salesians, among the seminarians, among the people of the working class, who sometimes can't pay for his service. He is a past pupil of Don Bosco who lives the Salesian education received,” says Mr. Vásquez.

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