Young People, Faith and Vocation: a Shared Yearning for Holiness!
‘Oh miserable and unhappy me what great blindness has mine been not to know the Lord before? Why have I not spent all my life in serving him? Forgive me Lord, forgive this great sinner…Saying and repeating many times the following words: no more world, no more world’.
Sanzio Cicatelli, Vita del p. Camillo de Lellis, p. 46.
To our young consecrated men and women, to young people in formation and to young people who are searching in us for a source of inspiration for the discernment of their vocations in life!
A desire to know God;[1] a need for humanising human relationships;[2] and an aspiration to follow Jesus, like him carrying a cross,[3] our cross and the crosses of the crucified brethren we encounter. These were the three incandescent pathways that were also ‘unleashed’ in the life of the young Camillus de Lellis starting on 2 February 1575 in a man who up to that moment had lived as though God did not exist, occupied in other thoughts and affairs which degraded his humanity and the humanity of other people.
That day, at the age of twenty-five, aware of the failure of his life, Camillus discovered God. He met Him when reflecting on the misery of his condition, thinking again about the spiritual exhortations communicated by the good friar Angelo and guided by a strong interior light: ‘why have I been so blind up till now not to know and to serve my Lord?’ A personal relationship with God was born. Camillus experienced the mercy of God, he asked Him for forgiveness, and he thanked Him for waiting so long for him. With his relationship with God changed, his relationship with man also changed: every frail and suffering man and woman was now a brother or a sister to be loved for God, a suffering and dying Christ to be cared for and comforted. After him, anybody ‘inspired by the Lord God’ who wanted to follow him in this complete service to the suffering would do this ‘for true love of God’, to ‘please the will of God’, ‘for the glory of God’ (cf. Formula of Life). The young Camillus found the ‘meaning’ of his existence and tenaciously invested the best of his energies in it. This interior fire was the same that has animated the choice of every consecrated man or woman and which continues to move the life of every young person who, in an approach marked by honesty, searches for the meaning of his or her life.
CONTINUE TO READ THE MESSAGE HERE
CELEBRATIONS FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF SAINT CAMILLUS DE LELLIS 2017
ALL THE EVENTS (CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED)
MEETING OF THE MAJOR SUPERIORS OF THE ORDER (Rome, 23 June-1 July)
On 23 June to 1 July 2017, at the ‘La Celle’ Centre of Rome, the superior General and the members of the General Consulta met the major Superiors of the Order.
See:
- Opening speech of the Superior General.
- Spiritual meditation of Fr. Patricio Sciadini.
- Summary of the days of the meeting.
A pilgrimage of the Order to where Camillus was born again to a new life (Fr. Rosario Messina).
ADMISSION TO THE SOLEMN PROFESSION OF RELIGIOUS VOWS
Temporary professed religious of the Province of Burkina Faso:
Temporary professed religious of the Province Poland – Delegation of Madagascar
Temporary professed religious of the Province of North Italy – Delegation of Kenya
Temporary professed religious of the Vice-Province of del Benin-Togo:
Temporary professed religious of the Province of Germany – Delegation of Tanzania
THE PROVINCE OF SPAIN
A course of meetings entitled ‘More Heart in those Hands’ was begun in the month of June of this year. This course has been organised by the St. Camillus Centre and by the Section for Pastoral Care for Young People of the Archdiocese of Madrid. Further information can be obtained from:http://www.camilos.es/noticias/vista-individual-de-la-noticia/article/arranca-el-campo-de-trabajo-mas-corazon-en-las-manos.html
THE PROVINCE OF BRAZIL
The pictures of the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the priestly ordination of Fr. Raul Matte in Macapá (Brazil).
Our religious Fr. Christian de Paul de Barchifontaine took part in the Congress of Bioethics entitled ‘La Bioetica, el Juez y los derechos humano’ held at the University of Panama on 10-12 April 2017. He also took part in the Latin American and Caribbean Congress of Bioethics held in Buenos Aires on 22-24 June 2017.
Read here the introduction to these two events.
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THE DELEGATION OF COLOMBIA–ECUADOR
On 24 June last our confrere Samir Lozano Valencia was consecrated a priest.
THE DELEGATION OF TAIWAN
On 8 July the St Camillus Hospital of Makung, on the Pescadores Islands (Taiwan), celebrated its sixty years of activity. The hospital was created by the Camillian missionaries (MI) when, after being expelled from China in the year 1952, they went to Makung, one of the 64 islands that make up the small archipelago of the Pescadores. The hospital was inaugurated on 12 May 1957.
The celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the hospital of Makung was presided over by Fr. Lin Bosco of the diocese of Tainan, with the special participation of the mayor, representatives of the local authorities and priests from Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.
Read here the article from FIDES ‘For Sixty Years the St. Camillus Hospital has been a Point of Reference for Hundreds of Patients’.
The first joint meeting of the Camillians of the Province of the Philippines with the Delegations of Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan took place during the first week of July.
THE WOMEN MINISTERS OF THE SICK – THAILAND
A celebration of the Eucharist took place to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the religious profession of a number of women religious of the women Ministers of the Sick in St. Joseph’s Parish in Ban-Pong, Thailand.
THE PROVINCE OF THAILAND – THE DELEGATION OF VIETNAM
Leocir Pessini, the Superior General of the Order, given the request of Fr. Rocco Pairat Sriprasert, the Provincial Superior of Thailand, and of Joseph Van Tran Phat, the Superior of the Delegation of Vietnam, as well as the permission given by the respective ordinary bishops, canonically erected the new communities of Thanh Dong – Canal 7 Charity Clinic, named after ‘St. Martin of Porres’ and located in Kinh 7B Hamlet, Thanh Dong A Village, Tan Hiep District, Kien Giang Province – VIETNAM, and of Thu Duc – Ho Chi Minh City, named after ‘St. Camillus de Lellis’ and located in 174/29 Tam Chau, Tam Binh Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City – VIETNAM.
CHILE
We invite you to visit the new internet site of the Camillian community of Chile. This site has been completely modernised and reorganised: http://www.camilianos.cl/
CADIS – CAMILLIANUM (Rome)
A course in advanced training in ‘pastoral care for humanitarian workers’.
This course seeks to train workers who in engage in humanitarian aid in the light of the words of Pope Francis on human suffering according to the Motu proprio Humanam progressionem (Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development) which asks for more support for immigrants, people in need, the sick and the excluded, the marginalised and victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters, prisoners, the unemployed and the victims of all kinds of slavery and torture, and other people whose dignity is at risk.
This course will consist of 360 hours and will be divided into two parts: from 13 November to 9 December 2017 and from 26 February to 24 March 2018.
ROME – CAMILLIANI/ CAMILLIANS
On the site of the Order – www.camilliani.org – you will find on-line the latest edition of CAMILLIANI/S: 1-2/2017, nn. 207/208– Year XXXI – JANUARY/JUNE 2017. CLICK HERE
BEING A CAMILLIAN AND SAMARITAN TODAY
After the editions in Italian, English, French and Spanish (edited by the Camillian Province of Spain), an edition of this work in Portuguese has been published edited by the Camillian Province of Brazil.
This book, entitled ‘Being a Camillian and Samaritan Today, with your Heart in your Hands, in the Existential and Geographical Fringes of the World of Health’, is the result of the (canonical) fraternal and pastoral visits of the Superior General and the members of the General Consulta to various geographical areas of the Order of Camillians during the course of the first three years (July 2014-July 2017) of the six-year period 2014-2020
The messages, thoughts and recommendations of the Superior General and the members of the General Consulta have been brought together in a single volume and arranged in chronological order according to the dates of the visits. These messages have already been published in the review Camilliani/Camillians and were addressed above all else to the circa 1,070 Camillian religious who live in almost 300 communities in 41 countries of the world.
In this way, the duty laid down in the General Statutes of the Order about pastoral visits and visitators was complied with: ‘The visitator listens to all the religious, individually. In this personal interview, he endeavours to ascertain whether, within the community, there exists the common life, the spirit of fraternal charity, and the commitment to our Order, for the purpose of promoting the religious and apostolic life’ (GS, n. 110); ‘After mature reflection, the visitator gives a report of the recommendations he considers opportune. With exactness, he informs the general consulta of the visitation, and transmits the relative documents to it. He should avoid exceeding the limits of his ordinary or delegated authority’ (GS, n. 111).
The preface is organised into four parts: the Camillian project for the revitalisation of our consecrated lives and the current ecclesial context; the meetings with our religious in the geographical and existential fringes of the Order; the structure and contents of this book and its objectives; and some statistical data on the journeys and pastoral visits that were engaged in.
AGENDA OF THE PRINCIPAL INITIATIVES FOR THE THREE-YEAR PERIOD 2017-2020
Agenda of the priorities for the Order for the three-year period 2017-2020.
ROME – THE RECTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE
The month of July is a very intense period of celebratory events for our rectory of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Campo Marzio. PHOTOGALLERY
- The celebration of the Torch of Charity (Saturday 8 July 2017), with the offering of the oil for the votive lamp of St. Camillus in the sanctuary of Bucchianico (CH).
- The liturgical solemnity of St. Camillus de Lellis (14 July 2017) and the triduum of prayers of preparation for the event. PHOTOGALLERY
- The liturgical feast day of St. Mary Magdalene (22 July 2017). Cf. INVITATION.
INDONESIA – THE ISLAND OF FLORES (MAUMERE)
Br. Ignacio Santaolalla, the financial administrator of the Order and the member of the General Consulta responsible for missions, made a fraternal visit to the Camillian religious who live on the Island of Flores (Indonesia) on the occasion of the inauguration of the new wing of the seminary. Together with him were Fr. Luigi Galvani, the Delegate of Indonesia, and Fr. Jojo Eloja, the new Provincial Superior of the Philippines.
DECEASED RELIGIOUS
On 30 June 2017 Father DOMENICO LOVERA (the Province of North Italy) departed this world. Father Domenico Lovera was born in Saluzzo on 27 January 1948. He entered the minor seminary of Imperia, began his novitiate on 29 September 1965 in Stella Maris (Borghetto Santo Spirito), made his solemn profession on 8 December 1969 in Forte dei Marmi, and was ordained a priest on 2 July 1972. He exercised his ministry as an animator of vocations and provider of formation at Villa Benso. A large part of his priestly life was spent in Piossasco as an animator of vocations, an animator and spiritual assistant of the Lay Camillian Family, and an animator and spiritual assistant of various prayer groups of Piossasco.
Father Vincenzo Di Blasi (1931–2017)
Father Vincenzo Di Blasi was born in Paola (CS) on 6 September 1931. His father’s name was Salvatore and his mother was Lauretta Bottino. After a period of suffering during which he met, and was fascinated by, the Camillian religious of the Community of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Istituto Principi di Piemonte (NA), he entered the Province of Sicily and Naples in Acireale (CT) on 20 February 1947. He began his novitiate at Oasi di Aci Sant’Antonio (CT) on 7 September 1949. On the feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 8 September 1950, he made his temporary profession, and on 8 September 1953 he made his perpetual profession, both at Aci Sant’Antonio (CT).
On 13 July 1958, at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Istituto Principi di Piemonte (NA), he was ordained a priest with the prayers and the laying on of hands of His Excellency Msgr. Vittorio Longo, the Auxiliary Bishop of Naples.
Continue to read the obituary here.
In memoriam: Father Vincenzo di Blasi: a little big man. By Fr. Rosario Messina
Sister Amelia Scaramella
The Daughters of St. Camillus have announced the death of Sister Amelia Scaramella. This took place on 21 June 2017 at 19.50 at the religious house of Lamego (Portugal).
