Download the Newsletter here in PDF
AUGUST 2015
The year of religious life. A voice not in the chorus…To help us reflect!
Pope Francis proclaimed 2015 the ‘year of religious life’: a decision that was perhaps expected after the Year for Priests called by Pope Benedict and which should animate a year dedicated to achieving greater awareness of the gift that religious life is for the Church and of its charismatic importance in the Christian community and in the company of men: a time of fervent intercession calling on the Lord to renew this form of life that involves following Christ. But despite the messages of Pope Francis to those who live following Christ in celibacy and in common life, and despite the fact that some bishops have established a day for that ‘small remnant’ present in their local churches, by now this year is coming to its end and few people seem to realise this, not only in the world but amongst Catholics as well.
This fact provokes an infinite sadness because, after choosing this life during my youth – I hope as a response to a call of the Lord – and after living this life for fifty years, until my old age, I must now acknowledge the deep crisis that exists. A crisis that I myself, trying to read it with hope, have defined as a paschal crisis and where today I manage to see a horizon of hope only with difficulty. And what most troubles me is the indifference with which this ‘diminutio’, if not fading, is observed.
It is significant that not even the Synod that is about to be celebrated thought of making a reference in its Instrumentum laboris to celibacy for the kingdom of God and to the forma vitae that it has generated in the Church: how is it possible to speak about Christian marriage and the family without reflecting on the announcement of celibacy for the kingdom made by Jesus? The Fathers of the Church – and orthodoxy here is still their faithful interpreter – never isolated out marriage from Christian celibacy because the two illumine each other, as is borne witness to by the words themselves of Jesus in the gospels and by the preaching of St. Paul.
But what is happening in religious life given that even that life itself is not living this year that concerns it in a convinced way? The silence, the disappointment, the tiredness and the inertia of many who belong to this life, which seems to have lost its savour and the capacity for prophetic signs, is striking. Why have we moved from the abundance not only of vocations but also of initiatives and deaconates of forty years ago to the present ‘misery’? I have repeated on a number of occasions that the current crisis of religious life is not of a moral character – perhaps more than ever before over recent centuries the vast majority of religious are faithful to the vows that they have professed – but one of a human character.
Then, paradoxically, in this situation of poverty we are witnessing almost everywhere initiatives involving religious life where men and women who left communities in which they had taken vows have taken up special pathways in two or threes in a state of fusion and with unhealthy ties which were already stigmatised by St. Benedict in the first chapter of his Rules. ‘Do-it-yourself’ consecrated life closed up in ‘one’s own pens and not those of the Lord’ (RB 1:8) and removed from all authoritative external vigilance: wasted energies and lives marked by suffering, in relation to which there is often a lack of attention and prudence on the part of bishops who, in accepting these ‘adventures’, appear to be only concerned to fill up houses and churches that have been abandoned and deserted.
For that matter, vital problems that are apparently in opposition to one another are shared by traditional communities as well as by new ones. The first are diminishing because of the ages of their members and a lack of vocations and their members no longer want to hear questions about their future because for decades they have been satisfied with repeating formulas of renewal whose implementation is based upon illusion and not faith. On the other hand, the sudden vitality of many new forms is often contradicted by devastating scandals at a human level, even before they are such at a religious level.
Thus religious life dies and is helped to die. Everyone, however, should face up to their own responsibilities because in an epoch when people are fragile and discipleships contradict one another, when ties disappear and membership becomes affective and no longer a matter of belonging to a community, we need an appeal to ‘fortitude’, to consistency, to perseverance in our vows, to the objectivity of a life in common that is not subjected to exaggerated forms of personal self-affirmation. A religious life, that is to say, that is rooted in the local Church, under the vigilance of the bishop or the authority of the Congregation; a transparent life which, without seeking to be admired, should be present in the fabric of the Church and of society.
A paschal crisis, therefore, or disappearance; a good death in general silence? And yet a remnant will remain: if religious life is also reduced to a mere lineage, but that lineage is holy, it will be able to offer, once again, some new shoots.
Enzo Bianchi
Source: monasterodibose.it, 15/08/2015
TAIWAN
A new geriatric hospital in Lotung
During the year 2012, when the sixtieth anniversary of the arrival of the Camillians in Taiwan was celebrated, on the day of the feast of St. Camillus the blessing took place of the laying of the first stone of the new geriatric hospital. This project envisages a building with seven floors to which will be added three floors beneath ground level for parking. After three years of work, on 27 July 2015 the most important supporting beam of the construction, which should be completed by the end of the year, was blessed. The first elderly people should be received in July 2016.
By now traditional Taiwanese society is also changing: with the drastic fall in births society is ageing rapidly. The new geriatric hospital is in continuity with the changed social context and its immediate needs.
The ordination of our religious brother Henry II Angupa as a deacon.
Henry II Angupa is a religious from the Philippines who ended his theological studies last year and then chose to remain in Taiwan to carry out his ministerial service, in particular with the young people of the ‘Camillian’ parish for native people. At the present time he is particularly taken up with learning Chinese. On 4 July of this year he celebrated the perpetual profession of his religious vows. On 9 August of this year the Archbishop of Taipei, Msgr. John Hung, ordained him a deacon in the parish church of Lotung. To celebrate, his family relatives came from the Philippines. The liturgy was very appealing and witnessed a mixture of the Chinese and Filipino languages.
The second visit to Yunnan, in China, visiting people with leprosy
(A brief account by Fr. Giuseppe Didoné)
On 13-22 August of this year, together with my religious brother Fr. Matteo Kao, we went to China to visit a number of hospitals for lepers and in particular the centre in Huitze (in the North-East of China) where our first religious brothers, starting in 1946, built a church, a hospital and an orphanage. At the moment only the orphanage remains and has been transformed into the parish church. Inside it are kept photographs of Fr. Celestino Rizzi and Br. Davide Giordan who in that land are still remembered with great veneration and esteem. When some group arrives to visit the place, the current director always talks about the ‘Camillian’ origins of the hospital. The wish to rebuild the graves of Fr. Celestino Rizzi and Sr. Claudia Martinelli, given that they were destroyed, is still one that is felt. We also visited the four hospitals for lepers in whose construction Br. Giordan invested a great deal of passion and resources. Unfortunately, according to the policy of the local State government, hospitals for lepers must be located far from cities, at times even 300 kilometres away, and the time needed to reach these places and the difficulties that are involved are always notable.
THAILANDIA
The confreres of the Thai province share the joy for the ordination of two deacons Michael Maria Pham Minh Quan and Joseph Nguyen Ngoc Anh – on October 10, 2015 at the new church dedicated to St. Camillus in the Camillian Social Center in Sampran.
CHILE
On 31 October next the first priestly ordination of a Chilean Camillian religious will take place: in St. Barnard’s Cathedral our religious brother Pablo Cerón Urrutia will be consecrated a priest by Msgr. Juan Ignacio González, the Bishop of St. Bernard (cf. www.camilianos.cl).
Pietro Magliozzi, a Camillian religious who has been involved in Camillian pastoral activity in Chile for many years, shares with us his interesting thoughts about the recent encyclical letter Laudato si by Pope Francis. His piece is entitled ‘Dall’ecologia umana del papa Francesco, all’umanizzazione della salute’ (‘From the Human Ecology of Pope Francis to the Humanisation of Health’). Complete text.
HAITI
On 7 June of this year the Lay Camillian Family of Haiti celebrated the tenth anniversary of its foundation which took place in the year 2005 thanks to the involvement of our religious brother Fr. Gianfranco Lovera.
DENMARK
A historical curiosity in Denmark
The first two Camillian religious, Fr. Vido and Fr. Tembories, arrived in Denmark in the distant year of 1898 and settled in the city of Aalborg, in St. Mary’s Parish.
In 1926 they built a new church, the current St. Mary’s Parish. The modern pastoral work of the Camillians in Denmark finished in the year 1984 but it has been borne witness up to now by the pictures of St. Camillus and Our Lady of Health in the parish church and also by the hospice which offers palliative care to twelve patients and bears the name ‘Kamillianer Gaarden’.
On 18 July last the Filipino community of St. Mary’s Parish in Aalborg came together for the first time to celebrate the feast day of St. Camillus, with a celebration of the Eucharist presided over by Fr. Mario Didonè.
BUCCHIANICO
On Sunday 6 September of this year, in the Church of St. Urban in Bucchianico, during the celebration of the Eucharist the novices Walter Vinci, Dario Malizia and Nicola Mastrocola will make their temporary profession of religious vows.
Download here the ‘Invitation and the Programme
THE YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE
The world meeting of young consecrated men and women
After the International Congress for Men and Women who Provide Formation for Consecrated Life, which was organised by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and celebrated in Rome on 7-11 April 2015 with the title Living in Christ According to the Form of Life of the Gospel, and which witnessed the participation of seven religious providing formation of our Order from India, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Italia, Austria and Argentina, coordinated by Father Laurent Zoungrana, the Vicar General and Consultor for Formation, on 15-19 September 2015 there will take place in Rome the world meeting of young consecrated men and women. Its theme will be ‘He called to him those that he wanted and they went to him’ (Mk 3:13). Various Camillian religious brothers of ours will take part, representing the various geographical areas of the Camillian map. There will also be the fine witness to human life and consecration of the Camillian religious Fr. Bernard Kinvi (cf. the article by Fr. Leocir Pessini, ‘The Drama and the Witness of Young Camillian Missionary Heroes’, in Camilliani-Camillians, January-March 2015, pp. 9-17)
NEPAL
The Camillian Task Force (CTF) active in Nepal on a mission of support and rehabilitation
Three months ago a devastating earthquake scourged Nepal (this took place on 25 April 2015). Nepal is now recovering. Technically, the emergency stage has come to an end but great challenges remain to achieve the (physical and personal) recovery of people and these challenges await an adequate and sustainable response. The Camillian Task Force – Italy will send our Camillian religious brother Fr. Samuel (Sam) Cuarto, of the Camillian Province of the Philippines, together with a volunteer from India, Mr. Chand Pasha, to finalise the project for psycho-social support for the population and to engage in an assessment of the practical implementation of the same plan. Fr. Sam will leave Rome on 30 August next and should remain in Nepal until 15 October 2015. He will work in close coordination with Caritas Nepal. Fr. Sam worked with CTF-Italy from the beginning of the intervention programme in Sierra Leone during the general emergency generated by the Ebola virus, together with the Camillian religious Br. Luca Perletti. His principal responsibility will be the development of programmes for actions during the emergency stage of this natural disaster, as well as the strengthening of a capacity to take initiatives by the outlying organisations of the CTF in our various Provinces and Delegations in the world.
SIERRA LEONE
On Saturday 18 July of this year Pope Francis raised to the dignity of being a bishop the Saverian Father Natale Paganelli, the apostolic administrator of Mekeni in Sierra Leone, giving him the titular seat of Gadiaufala.
Amongst the many positions that he has held, we may point out that that from 1986 to 1992 he was the rector of the Minor Seminary of San Juan del Rio (Mexico), and then regional Vice-Superior and Superior of the Saverians in Mexico.
After moving to Sierra Leone he was a parish priest in Madina, in the diocese of Makeni, and then regional Superior of the Saverians of Sierra Leone. Since 2011 he has been the apostolic administrator of the diocese of Makeni.
Natale has for long had close ties with Camillian religious: first he welcomed us, hosted us and supported us in Mexico during the first stages of the opening of the community of Guadalajara, and then more recently he welcomed us and supported is in the project of the Camillian Task force in Sierra Leone against the Ebola virus to support the poor population which was exhausted by disease and death. To Fr. Natale go our most sincere best wishes that he may continue to be a pastor according to the heart of God and always ‘with the scent of sheep’.
You can continue to follow the updating of the activities of Camillians involved on the front of support and rehabilitation for the survivors of the Ebola virus through the ‘Brothers of Ebola’ project.
A conversation with Fr. Natale Paganelli, the new Bishop of Makeni, Sierra Leone
Report at the end of the third two-month period (May – June 2015) Support for 400 family units
Brothers of Ebola: the return to Italy of Br. Luca Perletti from Sierra Leone
THE WOMEN MINISTERS OF THE SICK OF ST CAMILLUS
The women Ministers of the Sick share their joy at the perpetual profession of religious vows of their three religious sisters Sr. Mathilda Sung (Indonesia), Sr. Maria Paola Yang (China), and Sr. Evelyn Calle (the Philippines).
The celebration will take place on Tuesday 16 September next at their generalate house of Rome-Giustiniana and will be presided over by Fr. Laurent Zoungrana, the Vicar General of our Order.
WAJIR – KENYA
On 30 July at the rehabilitation centre dedicated to the Italian volunteer Annalena Tonelli, who was murdered some years ago, a violent fire broke out. At the present time the management and animation of the centre are entrusted to women Ministers of the Sick. Fortunately the people who had been admitted to the centre were not injured, even though the cost of the damage to the centre remains rather high.
COLOMBIA ECUADOR
The ordination of a deacon
On 16 August this year our religious brother Jaiver Antonio Pérez Téquia was ordained a deacon by Msgr. Darío De Jesús Monsalve Mejía (the Archbishop of Santiago de Cali) at the Parish of San Lucas Evangelista (the University Hospital of Valle-Cali).
The feast day of St. Camillus in Bogota (a brief report by Fr. Angelo Brusco)
As regards the three celebrations of the feast day of St. Camillus in which I took part this year, I was most struck by the one that took place in Bogota where I spent the month of July to teach an intensive course in clinical pastoral education. The way in which the day of 18 July was spent attracted my attention, allowing me to have an important spiritual experience. The place where the solemnity was celebrated was the Centro de humanzación y pastoral de salud. In the morning almost four hundred people came together in the great auditorium: members of the Lay Camillian Family, pastoral workers of the diocese, friends and co-workers. After a short spoken liturgy, I was asked to give a talk to the audience on ‘St. Camillus: a Man of Faith and a Teacher of Charity’. A long moment of intense reflection then followed which was guided with the help of a questionnaire on the subject that had been chosen. After a break, the programmes of the centre for the next half year were presented. A solemn concelebration of the Eucharist which I presided over and in which all our Camillian religious brothers of Bogota took part preceded the generous lunch that was offered to all those taking part. In the afternoon the Lay Camillian Family met and it did this to plan its activities for the next half year as well. This was a day not only of celebrations but also of important spiritual formation.
CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) INFORMATION
During the month of July 2015 the Centro camiliano de humanización y de pastoral de la salud organised an intensive course of clinical pastoral education lasting 160 hours and led by Fr. Angelo Brusco. Four Camillian religious took part as well as six ladies who for some time have worked with the centre in the field of pastoral activities and in the listening centre. The pathway of formation was followed with commitment and advantage by those taking part who had a way of fusing together in a creative way the theory and the practice of help relationships.
THE DELEGATION OF NORTH AMERICA – U.S.A.
One of the strong points of the week of celebrations of the Camillian Delegation of the United States of America was the Holy Mass and the Procession during the Italian Day. This year Br. Mario Crivello accompanied the procession in honour of St. Camillus. More than 5,000 people took part in the celebration of the Eucharist.
Look here at the video of the celebrations in honour of St. Camillus in Milwaukee.
LIMA – PERU
On 1-5 September at the Convento de la Buenamorte (Lima-Peru) the nineteenth pan-American meeting for those who provide formation and the animators of vocations of our Order, of the women Ministers of the sick, and of the Secular Institute ‘Christ the Hope’, will take place. Fr. Leocir Pessini, the Superior General, and Fr. Laurent Zoungrana, the Vicar General of the Order and the General Consultor for formation and the animation of vocations, will also be present. ‘Llevamos este tesoro en vasijas de barro’ (2 Cor 4:7)
DUBLIN
Memories of Dublin after the recent fraternal visit of the Superior General (July 2015)! We offer you an article written by Myriam Massabo, who worked with the Camillians in Turin and now works with them in Dublin, on her experience as a supervisor of CPE in Dublin in the spirit of St. Camillus at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital of Dublin. This is taken from Camilliani Camillians 3/2013.
THE PHILIPPINES
Our religious brothers of the Philippines have celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the presence of Camillian religious in that country. They commemorated the original insight of Fr. Antonio Crotti who in the 1970s dreamed about spreading the little plant of St. Camillus to the Philippines as well. Starting on 8 march 1975 the first Camillian community in the Philippines was made up of Fr. Ernesto Nidini† (the first superior of the community), Fr. Alberto Roman†, and three young religious who had just been ordained priests: Fr. Ivo Anselmi, Fr. Pietro Ferri† and Fr. Anselmo Zambotti.
This happy jubilee event was a good opportunity for the religious of the Province of the Philippines to give thanks to the Lord. The choice of the theme for the jubilee reflected these feelings of gratitude: ‘Magnify Him with Thanksgiving’ (Ps 69:30).
Camillians, their family relatives, their friends, their co-workers and their benefactors celebrated this happy anniversary on 8 July of this year with a solemn celebration of the Eucharist that was presided over by the Provincial Superior, Fr. Rolando J. Fernandez, at the St. Camillus and St. Lorenzo Ruiz Church in Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
THE AGENDA OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL
Leocir Pessini, the Superior General of the Order, on 29-30 July took part in the general assembly of the Secular Institute of the Women Missionaries of the Sick ‘Christ the Hope’ in Verona-S. Fidenzio.
On 30 July, in San Paolo in Brazil, he took part in the ordination as a priest of our Camillian religious brother Fr. Geovani Antonio Dias.
From August 19 to 30, fr. Leocir visited the Camillian confreres in Perù with the General Consultor br. Ignacio Santaolalla. Then, he met all the major superiors of North and South America with the presence of fr. Pedro Tramontin (Delegation of North America ), fr. Silvio Marinelli from Guadalajara – Mexico – and br. José Carlos Bermejo from Spain.
From 28 to 29 August, fr. Leo participated in the Third International Congress of humanization and bioethics at the Camillian Pastoral Center in Lima .
At the beginning of September, after the Congress of Moral Theology in Brazil.
From August 31 to September 4, fr. Laurent Zoungrana , General Vicar of the Order, will attend the XIX meeting of camillian formators who live and work in the Pan-American area.
On 12-14 October, at the generalate house on Rome, Fr. Leocir will chair the third meeting of the Central Economic Commission.
He will then go to Quito (Ecuador) to take part in the International Congress on Palliative Care.
With the General Consultor Fr. Aris Miranda (who will already be in Thailand on 19-24 October of this year for the forum of leaders of the Camillian Task Force), Fr. Leocir will visit our religious brothers of the Camillian communities of Indonesia (from 4 November onwards) and in Australia.
On 25-27 November, Fr. Leocir will take part in the Union of Superior Generals in Rome.
LOOK AT THE ATTACHMENT IN THE FOLDER
THE DAUGHTERS OF ST CAMILLUS
After Colombia, Mexico and Chile, the journey of Mother Zélia continued in Brazil before she returned to Italy. LOOK AT THE PHOTOS HERE
DECISIONS OF THE GENERAL CONSULTA
Fr. Antonio Puca has been appointed the representative of the Provinces of Italy for the section of ministry.
The three camillian religious of the Vice-Province of Burkina Faso, Mali-vla-défaa Hermann Kpiele Somda, Wénébé Benjamin Zoungrana and Ferdinand Nana, have been admitted to the perpetual profession of their religious vows.
DECEASED RELIGIOUS
‘See, now they vanish, the faces and places, with the self which, as it could, loved them. To become renewed, transfigured, in another pattern’ (T.S. Eliot)
Our religious brothers of the Province of Germany announce the death of Fr. Christian Frings – aged 82 – which took place on 23 August in the community of Fribourg.
The confreres of the North-Italian Province announce the death of fr. Pietro Merlo – 85 years. He died on Saturday, August 29 in the Camillian community of Venezia-Lido .
‘Now they live in Christ whom they met in the Church, followed in our vocation, and served in the sick and the suffering. Trusting that the Lord, the Holy Virgin our Queen, St. Camillus, the Blessed Luigi Tezza and the Blessed Giuseppina Vannini, and our deceased religious brothers and sisters, will welcome them in their midst, we commend them in our prayers, remembering them with affection, esteem and gratitude’.
