I AM LOVED, THEREFORE I EXIST!
Saint Paul states (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-13) that, unlike faith and hope, love “never ends” (v. 8): it lasts for ever. This teaching must be for us an unshakable certainty; the love of God will never diminish in our lives or in human history. It is a love which remains forever youthful, active, dynamic and which has an attraction beyond all telling. It is a faithful love that does not betray, despite our fickleness. It is a fruitful love which generates and surpasses our laziness. We are witnesses to this love. The love of God, truly, comes towards us; it is like a swelling river that engulfs us without overwhelming us. Quite the contrary is true: “[If I] have not love, I am nothing”, says Saint Paul (v. 2). The more we allow ourselves to be taken up by this love, the more our life will be renewed. We should say with all our being: I am loved, therefore I exist!
The love of which the Apostle speaks is not something abstract or vague; rather, it is a love that is seen, touched, and experienced first hand. The greatest and most expressive form of this love is Jesus. His entire person and his life are nothing other than the concrete revelation of the Father’s love, reaching its highest expression on the Cross: “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). This is love! They are not just words; this is love. From Calvary, where the suffering of God’s Son reaches its culmination, the source of love flows, a love that wipes away all sin and transforms everything into new life. We always have indelibly within us, this certainty of faith: Christ “loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal2:20). Of this we are very certain: Christ loved me, and gave himself for me, for you, for all, for every one of us! Nothing and no one can ever separate us from the love of God (cf. Rom 8:35-39). Love, therefore, is the highest expression of life; it allows us to exist!
Before this essential truth of our faith, the Church can never allow herself to act as that priest and Levite who ignored the man half dead at the side of the road (cf. Lk 10:25-36). She cannot look away and turn her back on the many forms of poverty that cry out for mercy. This turning one’s back in order not to see hunger, sickness, exploited persons… this is a grave sin! It is also a modern sin, a sin of our times! We Christians cannot allow ourselves to do this. It is not worthy of the Church nor of any Christian to “pass by on the other side”, and to pretend to have a clean conscience simply because we have said our prayers or because we have been to Mass on Sunday. No. Calvary is always real; it has not disappeared at all, nor does it remain with us merely as a nice painting in our churches. That culmination of compassion, from which the love of God flows to our human misery, still speaks to us today and spurs us on to offer ever new signs of mercy. I will never tire of saying that the mercy of God is not some beautiful idea, but rather a concrete action. There is no mercy without being concrete. Mercy is not doing good “in passing”, but getting involved where there is something wrong, where there is illness, where there is hunger, wherever there is exploitation. And even human mercy is not authentic – that is, human and merciful – until it has attained tangible expression in the actions of our daily life. The warning of the Apostle John has perennial value: “Little children, let us not love in word and speech but in deed and truth” (1 Jn 3:18). The truth of mercy, is expressed in our daily gestures that make God’s action visible in our midst.
You are among the most precious things the Church has, you who every day, often silently and unassumingly, give shape and visibility to mercy. You are crafters of mercy: with your hands, with your eyes, with your hearing, with your closeness, by your touch… craftsmen! You express one of the most noble desires of the human heart, making a suffering person feel loved. In the different contexts of need of so many people, your presence is the hand of Christ held out to all, and reaching all. You are the hand of Christ held out: have you thought about this? The credibility of the Church is also conveyed in a convincing way through your service to abandoned children, to the sick, the poor who lack food or work, to the elderly, the homeless, prisoners, refugees and immigrants, to all struck by natural disasters… Indeed, wherever there is a cry for help, there your active and selfless witness is found. In bearing one another’s burdens, you make Christ’s law visible (cf. Gal 6:2; Jn 13:34). Dear brothers and sisters, you touch the flesh of Christ with your hands: do not forget this. You touch the flesh of Christ with your hands. Be always ready to offer solidarity, to be steadfast in your closeness to others, determined in awakening joy and genuine in giving comfort. The world stands in need of concrete signs of solidarity, especially as it is faced with the temptation to indifference. It requires persons who, by their lives, defy such individualism, which is the tendency to think only of oneself and to ignore the brother or sister in need. Be always happy and full of joy in the service you give, but never presume to think that you are superior to others. Instead, let your work of mercy be a humble and eloquent continuation of Jesus’ presence who continues to bend down to our level to take care of the ones who suffer. For love “builds up” (1 Cor 8:1), day after day helping our communities to be signs of fraternal communion.
And speak to the Lord about these things. Call on him. So much courage! The Lord hears us: call on him! Lord, look at this… Look at all this poverty, this indifference, this turning one’s back: “This does not affect me; this is not important to me”. Speak about this to the Lord: “Lord, why? Lord, why? Why am I so weak and yet you call me to give this service?” Help me, and give me strength, and make me humble” At the heart of mercy is this dialogue with the merciful heart of Jesus.
EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
CATECHESIS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR ALL WORKERS OF MERCY AND VOLUNTEERS
Saint Peter’s Square – Saturday, 3 September 2016
KENYA: THE CAMILLIANS CELEBRATE THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR FOUNDATION
It is natural that Tabaka should have been the place where the Camillians of Kenya celebrated the fortieth anniversary of their arrival in the country. Even though the Camillians are by now present in various other localities, Tabaka always comes to mind when reference is made to our mission in this African country of East Africa. It is no accident that an article of 2003 published in the review Misssione Salute (‘Mission Health’) defined Tabaka as ‘the firstborn’.
The date 15 August 1976 has been established as the official day of the foundation, even though various Ministers of the Sick of the then Province of Lombardy and Veneto had already set foot in Tabaka for varying periods of time to explore the terrain for the establishment of our work. This terrain was in fact a hospital that had already been built a few years previously by the German Misereor in the parish area of Tabaka, in the diocese of Kisii. This is not the place to go over its history, piece by piece, starting with the long negotiations between Monsignor Ercole Brocchieri (of the diocese of Cremona) and Fr. Forsenio Vezzani (of the Province of Lombardy and Veneto). The details of it can be read in the easy-to-read book by Fr. Giovanni Bonaldi, I Camilliani in Kenya da 25 anni (‘The Camillians in Kenya for Twenty-five Years’, Verona, 2001).
For the rest of this piece: by Fr. Paolo Guarise
PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY
COLOMBIA National Meeting of the Lay Camillian Family
The national meeting of the Lay Camillian Family of Colombia took place on 13-15 August at the Camillian Pastoral Centre for Humanisation and Pastoral Care in Health: 120 people took part from eleven cities of the country.
The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in the Americas
The celebration of the jubilee of mercy in the Americas was an experience of fraternity and solidarity for the various peoples of the two continents whose representatives had met in Bogota on 27-30 August of this year at the Camillian Centre for Formation. They were there to thank the Lord for his merciful presence amidst humanity, for the witness of personal conversion, for the pastoral care and the ministry of the Church, and for the service rendered to the poor and those in need. The subject that they discussed, celebrated and prayed about was: ‘The Visible Face of God is Mercy’.
Read here the article by Fr. Adriano Tarraran
TAIWAN
On 3 September 2016, two Vietnamese Camillian religious made their perpetual professions. The celebration was presided over by Fr. Paolo Cherdchai, the Provincial Superior of the Province of Thailand.
On 5-7 September Fr. Giuseppe Didonè was in Makung (China) to begin the preparations for the sixtieth anniversary of the Hui Min Hospital. He visited the Mandarin and the head of the office for public health. For the first time ten students of our nursing college visited Makung.
On 8 September two statues – of Our Lady of Health and of St. Camillus – were blessed and put in the entrance of the new geriatric ward in Lotung (Taiwan).
Photographic Gallery
APPOINTMENTS-CELEBRATIONS FOR OUR PRESENT AND FUTURE
PERPETUAL RELIGIOUS PROFESSIONS – THE ORDINATIONS OF DEACONS AND PRIESTS
Aécio Honorato Da Silva – The Province of Brazil
18 September 2016 – Perpetual religious profession in the ‘Nossa Senhora da Boa Esperança’ Parish, Pinhais/PR
Antonio Zinni – The Province of Rome
8 October 2016 – Priestly ordination at the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, Vasto, and first Holy Mass on 9 October 2016 at the Chiesa di San Pietro in Sant’Antonio (Vasto, CH).
Nicola Docimo – The Province of North Italy
8 October 2016 – Perpetual religious profession at the Chiesa di ‘Santa Maria del Paradiso’, Verona.
16 November 2016 – Ordination as a deacon at the Chiesa di ‘Santa Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio’, Rome.
Marco Specchia and Antonio Ricci – the Province of Rome
2 October 2016 – First religious profession at the Chiesa di Sant’Urbano in Bucchianico, Chieti.
On 6 September 2016 Salvatore Pontillo, Dario Malizia, Nicola Mastrocola and Walter Vinci renewed their religious vows at the chapel of the studentate of the Province of Rome, Montemario (Rome).
THE PROVINCE OF SICILY AND NAPLES
On 15-26 September 2016, Fr. Leocir Pessini visited the religious of the Camillian communities of the Province of Sicily and Naples.
You can consult here the programme of the ‘Our Lady of Health’ Camillian Parish Mission of Portici (Naples) which will take place on 22-24 September 2015.
THE VICE-PROVINCE OF BENIN–TOGO
On Saturday 6 August 2016, ten religious of the Vice-Province of Benin-Togo were ordained priests at the St. Michael Parish of Cotonou, Benin, by Msgr. Antoine Ganye, the Archbishop of Cotonou. They were: Constantin Aihinto, Bienvenu Codjo, Hervé Dhadho, Hugues Lauris Gozo, Grégoire Longa, Josué Loko, Ghislain Missiho, Eric Nkusi, Patient Komlan, and Germain Yabe Ali.
PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY
THE PROVINCE OF NORTH ITALY
The general assembly of the Province will be held on Thursday 6 October 2016 in Verona at the Camillian Centre for Formation.
The subjects discussed will relate to the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the departure of the first group of Camillian missionaries of the Province of Lombardy and Veneto for China.
Meeting with the managing director of the St. Camillus Work Foundation who will illustrate the project for the future of the Foundation after ceasing ownership of certain institutions.
Read here the complete programme
THE RELIC OF THE HEART OF ST CAMILLUS IN TRENTO
The Camillian Family of Trento proposed to the Consulta for Pastoral Care in Heath of the diocese, on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Sick and the Christian Associations that are dedicated to their service, that they should venerate the relic of the heart of St. Camillus, the patron saint of the sick and those who provide them with care.
The programme was implemented on 24-26 September of this year and involved the Camillian religious who live at the Church of the Sacred Heart, the Daughters of St. Camillus and their clinic, the diocese of Trento, with celebrations in the Duomo, and the activities engaged in by the Camillians to help psychiatric patients at the Maso S. Pietro of Pergine.
INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF CAMILLAN CHAPLAINS
The international conference of Camillian chaplains will be held on 4-6 November 2016 at the generalate house of the Brothers of Christian Schools (Lassalians). This meeting will have as its subject: ‘Hospital Chaplaincies: at the Heart of Camillian Ministry’.
THE CAMILLIANS IN GEORGIA AND WAITING FOR POPE FRANCIS
‘GO TO THE OUTSKIRTS!’
The Vatican Press Office has published the programme of the apostolic voyage of Pope Francis in Georgia and Azerbaijan (30 September-2 October 2016). On Saturday 1 October – the feast day of St Therese of Lisieux, the patron saint of missions – the Holy Father will celebrate a meeting with those who are helped by works of charity of the Church, and their health-care workers, in front of the Camillian care centre.
DIARY OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL AND THE GENERAL CONSULTA
On 15-18 August 2016, the Superior General and Br. José Ignacio Santaolalla, the general financial administrator, took part in Lima in the general assembly of the Vice-Province of Peru.
MESSAGE TO THE CAMILLIAN RELIGIOUS OF THE VICE-PROVINCE OF PERU after the visit of 14-18 August 2016 which completed the pastoral visit of August 2015 ITALIAN ENGLISH SPANISH
On 4-14 September 2016, Fr. Leocir Pessini, together with Fr. Aris Miranda, visited the Camillian religious of the Camillian community of Sydney (Australia).
FRATERNAL MESSAGE OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL TO THE CAMILLIAN DELEGATION OF AUSTRALIA on the occasion of his pastoral visit (5-14 September 2016). BEARING WITNESS TO THE MERCY OF GOD TOWARDS THE SICK IN OCEANIA ITALIAN ENGLISH
Photo of the community: Giulio Ghezzi, Diosdado Haber, Domingo Barawid, Marcelo Pamintuan Jr., and Remegio Jamorabon (from left to right)
On 15-26 September 2016, Fr. Leocir Pessini will visit the religious of the Camillian communities of the Province of Sicily and Naples.
On 29 September to 3 October 2016, Fr. Leocir Pessini will be in Georgia, together with Br. José Ignacio Santaolalla, on the occasion of the pastoral visit of Pope Francis, which will include the Holy Father visiting the Camillian community and their activities in Tbilisi.
On 9 -20 October 2016, Fr. Leocir Pessini will be in Burkina Faso for the annual meeting of the major Superiors of the Order and the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the Camillians in that country.
THE NEXT MEETING OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL WITH THE MAJOR SUPERIORS OF THE ORDER
The next meeting of the Superior General and the members of the General Consulta with the major Superiors of the Order will be celebrated in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on 9-16 October 2016 at the Centre National Cardinal Paul Zoungrana (CNCPZ) which is located in the centre of the capital near to the ‘Centre Médical S. Camille’ of Ouagadougou.
This meeting forms a part of the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the Camillians in Burkina Faso. The spirit of the jubilee will also be the context to celebrate together the Canonical Erection of the new Camillian Province of Burkina Faso (a celebration envisaged for 13 October 2016).
The celebration of the jubilee (‘thanksgiving’) is envisaged for 16 October 2016, with an invitation extended to all the Camillian religious who have made possible the presence of the Camillian charism in Burkina Faso over the last fifty years.
The Camillian religious have already begun the Jubilee Year of Mercy commemorating the arrival of the first Camillians fifty years ago with a series of spiritual, educational, vocational and liturgical initiative, brought together under the gospel fragment: ‘Lk 5:4): ‘Witnesses to Mercy. Go out into Deep Water (Duc in Altum)’. This will also be the spiritual stimulus that will accompany our meeting!
Cf. LETTER OF INVITATION– ITALIAN / ENGLISH
TWENTIETH PAN-AMERICAN MEETING OF PEOPLE PROVIDING FORMATION AND THE ANIMATORS OF VOCATIONS
On 1-5 September 2016 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), providers of formation and animators of vocations (seventeen participants: Camillian religious, Daughters of St. Camillus, women Ministers of the Sick, women Missionaries of the Sick Christ the Hope….) met for the twentieth meeting of this ‘sector’ and centred their deliberations around certain general subjects: vocational discernment, the accompanying of candidates, the humanisation of relationships…Fr. Laurent Zoungrana, the Vicar General of the Order and the member of the General Consulta responsible for formation, also took part in the event.
The request emerged for increasing unity and continuity as regards the pathway of formation in South America and for a novitiate shared by the whole of South America (in Brazil and/or Peru). Two religious were identified for this last question – in Brazil and in Peru – and they are studying the best ways to implement this project.
Cf. Final decisions of the meeting
PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY
ROME – THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS (FOR HEALTH PASTORAL CARE)
The thirty-first international conference of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care) will be held on 10-12 November 2016. The title of the international conference is: ‘Towards a Welcoming and Supportive Culture of Health at the Service of People with Rare and Neglected Diseases’.
See here the provisional programme of the international conference
Towards a welcoming and supportive culture of health at the service of people with rare and neglected diseases
Informing in order to know: knowing in order to act; acting in order to treat; treating in a way that respects the lives and the dignity of patient and the environment. A culture of health that is welcoming and supportive, with an outlook of hope on the future.
CAMILLIAN CENTRES FOR FORMATION – EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES FOR THE YEAR 2016/2017
Istituto Internazionale di Teologia Pastorale (Camillianum) ITALY
Centro camilliano di formazione pastorale ITALY
Centro de Humanizacion de la salud SPAIN
St. Camillus Campus USA
St. Camillus Pastoral Health Care Center THE PHILIPPINES
St. Mary’s Medicine, Nursing and Management College TAIWAN
St. Camillus Pastoral Center THAILAND
St. Camillus Pastoral Care Center INDIA
Instituto Camiliano de Pastoral da Saude BRAZIL
Centro universitario Sao Camilo BRAZIL
Centro camilliano de pastoral de salud COLOMBIA
Camilos di Bolivia BOLIVIA
FECUPAL Centro camilliano ECUADOR
Centro de Formacion en salud San Camilo (CEFOSA) PERU
Centro San Camilo MEXICO
Camillianum BURKINA FASO
Scuola infermieristica BURKINA FASO
St. Camillus Pastoral Center KENYA
THE CATALOGUE OF THE HOUSES, COMMUNITIES AND RELIGIOUS OF THE ORDER UPDATED TO 15 AUGUST 2016
The general secretariat, the communications office and the archives of the Order have compiled and already published the new edition of the Catalogo delle Case e dei religiosi – 2016 (‘Catalogue of Houses and Religious – 2016’). Between the end of September and the beginning of October 2016, each community of the Order will receive at least one printed copy sent to them by post.
Those religious who need a digital copy of the catalogue – in PDF – which is very useful for the purposes of rapid consultation, or other printed copies, can make a direct request to: comunicazione @ camilliani. org
ROME – THE ‘CAMILLIANUM’
Presentation of the Residential Course
The gradual ageing of the population and the improvement in treatment and care during acute stages of illness are bringing about profound changes as regards health needs. Health-care workers are constantly required to deal with the need to provide new and suitable responses to the needs of a population which has an increasing number of sick elderly people who have chronic-degenerative pathologies that are at an advanced or terminal stage, in clinical conditions of extreme frailty and grave suffering.
The sense of dignity of the patient, his or her capacity to feel dignus and worthy of esteem and consideration is undermined at the foundations by the vulnerability and dependence imposed by his or her illness. The end of life is a crucial passage and at the same time it is a challenge for health-care systems, a stimulus to address the deep reasons for medicine as well as its limitations.
The relationship that is developed with health-care workers at the end of a person’s life has an important influence on the self-perception of a patient, shaping his or her experience in a positive or negative way, and determining in a drastic way the quality of health care that he or she receives.
Camillianum – Rome, 1, 12 and 24 October 2016
CFR: Programme
DECISIONS OF THE GENERAL CONSULTA – ADMISSIONS TO PERPETUAL PROFESSION
The following three young religious have been admitted to the perpetual profession of religious vows:
Giuseppe Salvatore Pontillo (the Province of Sicily and Naples).
Samir Emith Lozano Valencia (the Province of North Italy – the Delegation of Colombia-Ecuador).
Franki Javier Penagos Caicedo (the Province of North Italy – the Delegation of Colombia-Ecuador).
To them go our fraternal best wishes: ‘Our founders were moved by the Spirit and were not afraid to soil their hands with everyday life, with the problems of the people, courageously moving along the geographical and existential peripheries. They did not halt in the face of obstacles and the misunderstandings of others, because they kept in their heart the astonishment over the encounter with Christ. They did not tame the grace of the Gospel; they always had in their heart a healthy apprehension for the Lord, a heartrending desire to bring him to others, as Mary and Joseph did in the temple. We too are called today to make prophetic and courageous choices’.
Pope Francis, FEAST DAY OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD THE TWENTIETH WORLD DAY OF CONSECRATED LIFE Tuesday, 2 February 2016
PUBLISHING SUGGESTIONS
BENEDETTO XVI ULTIME CONVERSAZIONI (‘BENEDICT XVI LAST CONVERSATIONS’)
CHAPTER 6 STUDENT, CHAPLAIN, LECTURER
On 3 January 1946, you began you studies at the Advanced School for Philosophy and Theology at Frisinga. You went by train with your brother Georg and another young man from Traunstein, Rupert Berger. What were you carrying in your luggage?
(He laughs). Naturally my underwear, and that little that was needed for everyday life. Perhaps another suit and a couple of books, but very few books because we did not have any.
(…omissis…)
Later in your life you always went to a retreat for spiritual exercises in a religious house, for example in the Benedictine religious house in Scheyern. Which exercises did you appreciate in particular?
The first exercises, in 1946, were especially moving. Then, naturally, I was deeply touched in my soul by those that preceded our ordination as deacons and priests – we came together once again to pray looking towards that important moment because we had been on our inner journeys and in deep thought we asked ourselves once again: am I worthy, am I capable? For me this was very, very moving.
After my ordination as a priest we had to take part every year in three days of obligatory exercises. Those of a certain Father Swoboda, a Viennese Camillian, remained fixed in my memory – he belonged to the Order founded by St. Camillus de Lellis and preached these exercises with freshness, force and decision, but also with great competence. And then we also had spiritual exercises with Hugo Rahner [editor’s note: the brother of the theologian Karl] (p. 77).
O IMPERATIVO ÉTICO DA MISERICORDIA
Organizado pela Sociedade Brasileira de teologia Moral, este livro nasceu a partir da proposta do Ano da Misericórdia, proclamando pelo Papa Francisco. Os diversos teólogos que participam deste trabalho se propuseram aprofundar a questão da misericórdia e a sua relação com a ética. A abordagem interdisciplinar traz perspectivas bastante variadas sobre o tema, mas que se unificam na convicção de que somente um agir misericordioso salvará o mundo.
Download the PDF: Exigências para uma bioética inclusiva by Fr. Leocir Pessini
THE HOLY YEAR OF MERCY
PRAYER OF THE JUBILEE IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
THE FRIDAYS OF MERCY OF POPE FRANCIS
Following the thread that at a conceptual level links these Fridays of Mercy, the actions of the Pope during the Holy Year express in a symbolic way the Works of Mercy.
The importance of life, from its first moment to its natural end. This was emphasised by the visit of the Pope, this Friday of Mercy, to two Roman institutions: the ward for newly born children of the St. John Hospital and then the Villa Speranza Hospice which has about thirty patients at the terminal stage of their illness and belongs to the A. Gemelli University Polyclinic of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
A surprise visit of Pope Francis to Ciampino to visit the headquarters of the Chicco onlus community, a community of volunteers that helps mentally disabled children and is made up of various so-named ‘hearth’ houses. This is an institution which began from almost nothing but which with time has acquired fame for its professionalism, humanity and respect for the disabled.
There was also a surprise visit of Pope Francis to an old people’s home in Rome. On the occasion of the Jubilee, on one of the Fridays of Mercy, Bergoglio surprised everyone when he crossed the threshold of an old people’s home on the outskirts of Rome, in Torre Spaccata. Francis sat down and spoke with the thirty or so elderly people who live in the home.
Within the framework of the ‘Fridays of Mercy’, Pope Francis had a surprise meeting with twenty women who had been freed from the slavery of the prostitution racket and are at the Roman centre of the Pope John XXIII community which was founded by Don Oreste Benzi. Six women are from Romania, six from Albania, seven from Nigeria, and the other three come respectively from Tunisia, Italy and the Ukraine. The average age of these women is about thirty. All of them have endured grave physical violence and live under protection.
On the Friday of the second week of Lent, the Holy Father, within the framework of the ‘jubilee signs’ of witness to works of mercy, visited the San Carlo community near Castelgandolfo which belongs to the Italian Centre of Solidarity, a centre founded by Don Mario Picchi. The purpose of this centre is to prevent and combat the social exclusion of people and it pays special attention paid to the problem of drug addiction.
