On March 6th 2015 the Pontifical Council for the Laity granted to CICIAMS a decree confirming its recognition as an international association of the faithful and approving its statutes. The International Catholic Committee of Nurses and Medico-Social Assistants (CICIAMS) has its origins in a meeting of Catholic nursing associations in Basle (Switzerland) in 1928, and was born as an association in Lourdes (France) in 1933. CICAMS has as its members national associations of nurses and health care workers across several continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas). Its work with the Holy See means it cooperates with the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. It is represented at several international institutions, including UNESCO and the World Health Organisation.
Handing over the pontifical decree to International President Sr. Anne John, Cardinal Rylko encouraged the presidency in its task of attracting new generations of nurses and health care workers to the beautiful and urgent task of being like Christ the Good Samaritan, a vocational task, a task of Christian witness to the dignity of life and a reminder of the necessity of placing the sick person at the heart of medical care, as its subject.