ROME CNS – Just outside the walls of the Vatican, the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” blared through speakers as health care workers tapped out chest compressions to the beat.
“Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive,” sang the 100 red-shirted volunteers near the entrance to the Vatican Museums, using the Bee Gees’ disco anthem – with its tempo of 103 beats per minute – to guide tourists, pilgrims and even religious sisters through CPR basics.
Participants in the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers cross through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican April 5, 2025. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)
The American Heart Association ran an open training event next to the Vatican to teach emergency resuscitation as part of programming for the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers April 5. Over two days, health care related events were scheduled to take place throughout Rome before concluding with a Mass in St. Peter’s Square April 6.
“Pilgrims that are passing by can learn, in just a few minutes, how to save a life,” Marida Straccia, global training organizer with the AHA, told Catholic News Service.
More than 20,000 pilgrims were expected to come to Rome for the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers, including patients, health care workers and religious leaders from more than 90 countries.
Yet Straccia emphasized that CPR is not just for health care professionals. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a layperson, a priest,” she said. “More than 80% of cardiac arrests happen outside the hospital. Somebody could fall in front of you while you’re walking in a store, in the Vatican, and knowing what to do, even just how to call for help, it makes a difference in somebody’s life.”
Harim Lee, visiting from Los Angeles with her 14-year-old daughter, said the training was an unexpected but welcome part of their Jubilee pilgrimage. “I had no idea I’d be learning CPR,” she said. “But it’s wonderful, because most people think someone else will do it – but it’s so important that everyone knows how.”
Alessia Cambela, a health care worker and volunteer with the AHA, said she was surprised to see religious sisters stopping by the bustling square to learn CPR.
“Religious nuns asked us to teach them how to perform CPR and I think it’s great,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you do in your life, but we can all learn how to save a life.”
One of them, Sister Maria José de Mesquita, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Anne, told CNS that it’s important for pilgrims headed to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica to stop and learn CPR “because we don’t know if at any time we will need to help someone.”
And with Pope Francis missing out on several Jubilee events during his recovery from respiratory infections, the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers takes on a special meaning, she said.
“The Pope, having had the experience of this illness, it certainly brings him closer to those living through experiences of pain and distress in their lives,” she said.
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