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CONSECRATED LIFE: a Life that Bears the Imprint of the Gospel?

A water exists from which we are all born. To true life, life without a sunset. We are born never to die.

This is the water of baptism. But we learn, day by day, to live today with the taste of eternity. We gradually learn whether someone has the patience to be at our side and accompany us to the completion of our humanity, which is beautiful, like that of Christ.

In the footsteps of a dream

I imagine the days of a consecrated man in the following way. Reaching the evening, the night, knowing that you have given to other people what has been given to you out of pure grace: the life of Christ with his people. A life spent in looking for the face of the Father beyond His silences, receiving the supplications of people who no longer know how to pray or think that their prayers are worth nothing; listening to confessions and to life stories so that everyone can take possession of your time; collecting in streets and outskirts bodies that have been broken by violence and abandonment; seeking to restore freedom to women who are sold on pavements; and creating homes with so many people who do not have homes.

I believe that at the centre of consecrated life today there is a dream: that of a full life, of life that bears the imprint of the Gospel, of giving, of mission and of prayer, into the depths of the night; the dream of a life in the freedom of giving everything without worrying about receiving a reward; a life of joy feeling loved and stopping at that; a life in the shadow of the cross while you go to God in the pain of His children; a life narrated by the saints, those saints whom we have known and who have enchanted our hearts.

Every time that I have the occasion to preach the Word to young people, to evangelise, I return to the heart of the gift that I have received. This is because after so many years that enchantment of the Gospel is as alive as ever. After going from Easter to Easter, marked by stigmata that remind me of the poverty of my sin and the inheritance promised by Jesus – persecutions, today that ‘first love’ has the stronger taste of paternity. ‘Children are a gift from the Lord, they are a real blessing. The sons a man has when he is young are alike arrows in a soldier’s hand. Happy is the man who has many such arrows. He will never be defeated when he meets his enemies in the place of judgement’ (Psalm 127:3-5). Even for those who get up in the early morning and go late to their rest, as the Psalm says, a visit of an enemy will take place. And it is our children who will defend us at the hour of temptation. Because during some night of life, faithfulness built upon the presumption of one’s own consistency or moralisms, even at times one’s own faith in God, is not enough. It is precisely at that moment that the faces of our children, their expectations and their trust, come to your aid. As you can betray God, so you can also betray yourself. But you cannot betray your child! This is because ‘If anyone should cause one of these little ones to lose his faith in me, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone tied round his neck and be drowned in the deep sea’ (Mt 18:6).

And the scandal that young men most suffer when they draw near to consecrated life is the absence of a true life, insignificance, sadness, banality, rigidity and bureaucracy.

What are the expectations and the hopes of people – of young people – as regards consecrated life? They expect it to be alive! Because what is consecrated, whether wine, bread or a person, is expressed in an epiphanic way in the ‘use it is destined for’: dedicated to the Living, to Life and to the Resurrection.

But nobody can give themselves life on their own, not even for an hour, as Jesus points out in his Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 6:27). We receive life as a gift, and this is also true of us, we who placed it on the floor on the day of the solemn profession of our vows, and then lost it. We more than others need God to restore it to us every day because we no longer have anything that is our own!

Not even the claim to truth. And yet in the eyes of the people who know us we are amongst those who know the Way. And we know this: out of pure mercy. Because perhaps we were lost a thousand times but we never despaired of forgiveness. And we went back Home. For this reason, ever since the first centuries, in both the East and the West, those who hid in the desert and sowed the seeds of a wonderful history written by men and women who within the Church answered the ‘follow me’ of the Teacher, were called simply abbà, father. A father of wisdom, of mercy and of patience.

What do people, young people, expect of consecrated life? That it should be able to stand before them in an adult way, without avoiding questions. They expect to find you when after a long flight they turn back. And with the fragments of devastating experiences they ask to lay out their hearts without being judged. And in this way you discover that God has consecrated you to justify, that is to say to give to all men, in accord with justice, that justice which in the Gospel is completely the love that can fill the void that has been dug by sin and the wounds of life.

Learning to live as Resurrected Men is the great inheritance of our baptism. Because we are already resurrected men, but ‘activating’ all the power of the resurrection of Christ within us is the task that involves us for the whole of the journey of our lives.

This is a journey that we cannot make alone and which, whatever the case, cannot be improvised. First of all we must start afresh from the dimension of being a creature of the human person. That we were created because we are loved, that at the heart of our existence there is a good will, a wish, should thus be proclaimed anew with force! To tear people away from scepticism and distrust, from the resignation of existing by chance and from non-meaning. We were created specifically on the sixth day, amongst other things, and thus created in the heart of the wish for completion because attracted by the beauty of the seventh day. We are called, therefore, to reveal though our lives that emptiness is not a limitation but a possibility.

In Holy Scripture creation is followed by the account of the fall. The pathway of the healing of memory is another essential dimension of our consecrated lives. To call evil, idols, lies, the wounds of life, and mortifying feelings by their name. We are called to enter our sepulchres as the Father did to raise up the Son. With love! And the fruit of healed memory is reconciliation.

THE WOMEN MINISTERS OF THE SICK OF ST. CAMILLUS

Women Ministers of the Sick of St. Camillus

On Tuesday 22 September, in the diocese of Lucca, the solemn celebration took place of the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Maria Domenica Brun Barbantini, the founder and the permanent source of inspiration of the women Ministers of the Sick of St. Camillus.

In their Mother House of Lucca, which stewards with passion the memory of the Blessed Maria Domenica, eight women religious offered up thanks for their fifty or sixty years of religious consecration.

May the little lantern with which this Blessed is often portrayed still continue to shine as a sign and a provocation of the passion of the search for God and sick people!

THE DAUGHTERS OF ST CAMILLUS

Daughters of St. Camillus

On 29 September 2015, the feast day of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, in Grottaferrata, the Daughters of St. Camillus gathered around their religious sisters and celebrated:

1) The perpetual profession of religious vows of Sr. Lizel Templado Naduma, Sr. Yvette Tété Josette Gbetchoevi, Sr. Jancy Thresia Madathimyalil, and Sr. Magdalena Quiroz Oviedo.

2) The fiftieth anniversary of the religious profession of Sr. Ernesta Iavarone.

PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY

THE PROVINCE OF NORTH ITALY

Spiritual exercises

In the fine context of Mottinello (Rossano Veneto), on 13-18 September of this year about forty of our religious brothers took part in the traditional September course of spiritual exercises which were animated by Fr. Gianfranco Lunardon. It had as its theme: ‘Not Perfect but Happy. Towards a Sustainable Prophecy of Consecrated Life’.

A Celebration of Fraternity

A Celebration of Fraternity

    Wednesday 23 September,  in Capriate San Gervasio, BG, was the Day of Fraternity 2015 of the Province of North Italy. This is an annual appointment when our religious brothers celebrate the anniversaries of their religious professions and priestly ordinations.

The idea of coming together on a Day of Fraternity went well with the wish to share reflections about pastoral for the vocations of young people, a subject presented by Sr. Katia Roncalli, an Alcanterine woman religious who has been involved for many years in the field of evangelisation and pastoral care for young people.

Sr. Katia Roncalli

A fixed point for the relaunching of pastoral care is our faith and witness, the proclaiming of the Gospel as the first act from which to start when organising a vocational journey. Evangelisation is a constituent part of our vocation.

In Matthew 5:16 we find words where Jesus says to his disciples: your light must shine before people so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

The great question is this: is what we do every day a proclaiming of the Gospel? Do our works bear the imprint of the paternity of God?

We cannot be religious if we do not allow ourselves to be evangelised and we cannot take it for granted that after very many years of religious life we will not feel in our hearts the need to be evangelised again.

A second question: is the fire of memory of what Christ has saved us from, and of how he continues this work of salvation in our lives, alight? The gravest sin is the pride of those who think that they no longer need salvation.

A third question: without the gospel men will die! This statement which pierces our soul – do we see it as something that does not leave us in peace?

What is the ecclesial mentality of our Province? There is a great conversion to be engaged in: faith, ecclesial mentality and charism are subjects that should be once again brought into the light as the matrix of our way of engaging in pastoral care for young people and vocations. Has the Lord ceased to call people to consecrated life? Or is there something else…faith, a serious spiritual life, fraternal life and quality of life together, and the direct proclaiming of the gospel, are the bases from which the Congregations that today manage to have vocations started afresh. Going back to believing in order to go back to hoping to see Christ live again in our lives. Following the example of our founders, who were prophetic in opening up spaces that nobody saw, we return to the roots of a call that has its roots in the gift of prophecy, a great conversion. We must feel the need to open a new building-site of work. We must think anew about pastoral care for vocations within a wider project of evangelisation and pastoral care for the sick for all vocations.

Religious whose anniversaries have been celebrated

First Religious Profession: Fiftieth Anniversary

1. Bonaldi Giovanni; Fr. Corradi Erminio; Fr. Lovera Domenico; Fr. Montin Zeffirino; Fr. Zanotti Luigi; Fr. Pangrazzi Arnaldo; Fr. Ramponi Luciano (Colombia)
2. Scapin Camillo (Peru)

First religious Profession: Sixtieth Anniversary

1. Alberton Giuseppe; Br. Aldegheri Angelino; Fr. Metrini Dorino; Fr. Roccabruna Renzo; Fr. Michelini Giancarlo (Taiwan)
2. Rizzi Celestino (Taiwan)

First religious Profession: Seventieth Anniversary

1. Nicolodi Ettore; Fr. Rizzi Giovanni (Taiwan)

Priesthood: Twenty-fifth Anniversary

1. Cadorin Guglielmo; Fr. Montagna Pietro; Fr. Ratti Riccardo; Fr. Viganò Alessandro

Priesthood: Fiftieth Anniversary

1. Calderaro Ermenegildo (Thailand)
2. Ghilardi Cesare; Fr. Locci Efisio
3. Leso Cristiano (Peru); Fr. Te Nuzzo Armando (Thailand)

Priesthood: Sixtieth Anniversary

1. Florio Diano; Fr. Spagnolo Francesco; Fr. Zambiasi Mario

Priestly Ordination

Marco Moioli

Our religious brother Fr. Marco Moioli will be consecrated a priest on Saturday 7 November in the parish of his birth of Rozzano (Milan) by Msgr. Pierantonio Tremolada, the Auxiliary Bishop of the diocese of Milan. Invitation to the celebration

WOMEN MISSIONARIES OF THE SICK ‘CHRIST THE HOPE’

Germana Sommaruga

   The association ‘Friends Together with Germana’ has organised a meeting to remember the Servant of God Germana Sommaruga. It will be held on 3 October 2015 at 9.30 at the Camillian Centre for Formation of Verona and will have as its subject ‘Germana lived her life in history: what recommendations for today?’

     Marisa Sfondrini, a journalist and the author of the book ‘Germana e il Sogno di Dio’ (‘Germana and the Dream of God’), will be present.

* Women through the life and thought of Germana, by Rita Covi, a hospital health-care assistant

* From St. Camillus to Germana, a life at the side of the suffering, by Father Angelo Brusco, a Camillian and the director of the Camillian Centre for Formation.

ASSISI – the Association A.I.PA.S.

The Italian Association for Pastoral Care in Health

The Italian Association for Pastoral Care in Health (A.I.Pa.S.) has organised for 5-8 October of this year its annual meeting on formation and updating. The subject will be ‘Wisdom of the Heart. Lay People and the Consecrated: Together to Serve’.

.See here the programme of the meeting

ROME

The Church-Rectory of ‘St. Mary Magdalene’

Church of St. Mary Magdalene

On Saturday 26 September at 20.30, in our fine rectory of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, the monthly appointment of ‘Light in the Night’ will take place and will involve prayer and evening adoration. Animation and support will be assured by the presence of a number of young religious brothers, a numerous group of Daughters of St. Camillus, and some young people.

BENIN-TOGO

Camillian religious of the Vice-Province of Benin-Togo

On 14 September ten Camillian religious of the Vice-Province of Benin-Togo made their solemn religious professions. They were: Constantin Aihinto, Bienvenu Codjo, Hervé Dhadho, Hugues Gozo, Grégoire Longa, Josué Loko, Ghislain Missiho, Eric Nkusi, Patient Komlan, and Germain Yabe Ali. Such a notable number of young religious fills us with joy and invites us to thank God for His blessings and to improve the quality of our personal witness to consecrated life.

BURKINA FASO during the days of the coup

‘During the crisis, in practice only the Hopital Saint Camille worked in the field of obstetrics, receiving 888 expectant women, of whom 461 were sick and were treated, and dealing with an incredible number of births and caesarean operations. In 7 days 107 caesarean operations were carried out and there were 318 natural births. The Minister for Health after the crisis personally thanked Fr. Paul, the Vice-Provincial of the Camillians in Burkina Faso by telephone, and sent his Director Generals to personally express the gratitude of the government’.

@San Camillo de Lellis di Bucchianico

MADAGASCAR

The village of Ilena

‘The village of Ilena, formerly a leper colony, where we worked until 1990, has finally been connected to the electric grid of the city of Fianarantsoa’. Fr. Albert Rainiherinoro, a Camillian religious and the chaplain of the village, described the event to the Fides Agency. ‘The project of electrification had already been set in motion during the 1990s but it was never continued’, Father Albert went on. READ THE ARTICLE HERE

PHOTOGRAFIC GALLERY

PERU

Fraternal visit to the Camillian communities of the Vice-Province of Peru

At the end of the fraternal visit to the Camillian communities of the Vice-Province of Peru, the Superior General Fr. Leocir Pessini and the General Consultor Br. José Ignacio Santaolalla sent to our religious brothers a message of encouragement, of reflections and of renewed ideas about planning for the future.

Read here the message in ITALIAN, SPANISH and ENGLISH

HAITI

Br. Maxo JEAN-CHARLES, Br. James JEAN, and Br. Guilaire-Joubency BLAISE.

THE YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE

The world meeting for young consecrated men and women

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on 15-19 September celebrated the world meeting for young consecrated men and women. Some of our Camillian religious brothers from various areas of Camillian geography took part in this meeting.

The theme on which thousands of young consecrated men and women reflected together was: AWAKEN THE WORLD: Gospel, Prophecy, Hope.

‘He called to himself the men he wanted. They came to him’ (Mk 3:13)

Look here at the interviews given by a number of Camillians who came to Rome for the meeting.

 NEPAL

At the end of May of this year the medical team of CTF India left Kathmandu because the medical emergency had come to an end. However, the Camillian Task Force continued its mission in Nepal, thanks to the cooperation of Caritas-Nepal, so as to engage in a more in-depth assessment of the needs that exist and in particular to organise a new programme to help to return to normality those parts of the population that had been severely hit by the earthquake and to encourage the growth of their capacity for resilience. This second and delicate stage was carried watched over by Fr. Sam Cuarto (for the Camillians) and by Mr. Chand, a member of the Indian Lay Camillian Family.

Sam told us that ‘perhaps it will be necessary to wait another two months before this project can be implemented, and it is hoped that we can begin at the beginning of the year 2016 with a three-year plan. Nepal could be a new opportunity for a mission that will perhaps require a permanent presence in the area. We have a great deal to learn in this outlying area and our physical presence here, at least during the first year of its implementation, is highly recommended in order to implement this project and to help us to receive new stimuli in this field of ministry as well.

SIERRA LEONE

CTF in Sierra Leone

The last group of Camillian volunteers (2) from the Philippines arrived in Makeni on 20 September of this year: Fr. Johnjay Magpusao (a Camillian health-care technician) and Sr. Didith Otibar (of the women Ministers of the Sick, a social assistant). Our Camillian volunteers from Kenya also came together: Sister Benter Odundo (a nurse) and Br. Bonventure Muswi (a Camillian nurse) who had just left Sierra Leone after spending three months in the country.

The project is now at the last stage of its implementation and should come to an end in the month of December of this year. The envisaged objectives have been almost achieved when it comes to the number of families and individuals who are obtaining access to psycho-social support as well as a minimum of training to address possible outbreaks of the virus . About four hundred families have been involved in about twenty villages. The families that have been most afflicted are regaining their strength and gradually displaying trust in the health-care system which has been in a state of crisis. The great contribution of the Camillian Task Force is the teaching and the offer of skills in psycho-social support based upon the presence of local psycho-social facilitators and on the construction of a renewed relationship of trust of people in relation to the health-care system of Sierra Leone, with the development of the habit of a regular visit to a basic health-care unit and the provision of the necessary medical equipment and training to competent health-care personnel.

The various activities involved in the advance of the project are the outcome of broad cooperation between the local Church and the communities, the government agencies and Camillian religious, and Camillian Provinces and Delegations, which have given their support at the level of funds and religious personnel. It is worthwhile remembering here the close cooperation of the women Ministers of the Sick of St. Camillus as well. All of them have experienced difficult challenges in the field, but the thought of being one of the hundred arms of St. Camillus has made them intrepid in addressing these challenges.

INDIA

The Camillian Centre for Pastoral Care in Health of Bangalore

The Camillian Centre for Pastoral Care in Health of Bangalore, in India, completed in a successful way three days of formation for nurses. Twenty-five professional women nurses (women religious/sisters) took part in the seminar. This was a workshop where those taking part were helped to ‘heal’ so as to heal and were’ motivated’ so as to be able to motivate.

THE PROVINCE OF AUSTRIA

The Camillian Province of Austria has opened its doors to refugees

     The Camillian Province of Austria has opened its doors to refugees. These are the first pictures that bear witness to the work of welcoming that has been engaged in by the Province and the many volunteers. The message of Pope Francis has also arrived here. Here is one of the many examples of the Church moving outwards! Let us all continue together on this road!

THE PROVINCE OF SPAIN

The first Latin-American Congress in Mental Disabilities

On 25-27 November 2015 in Oaxaca (Mexico), the first Latin-American Congress in Mental Disabilities will be held. This has been organised and sponsored by the American Province of Spain.

The conference, the workshops and the round tables are for professionals, students, the relatives of people with mental disabilities and people interested in this subject.

The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care)

   The thirtieth international conference of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care) on the subject ‘The Culture of Salus and Welcome at the Service of Man and the Planet’ will be held on 19-21 November of this year.

Download here the complete programme in ITALIAN and ENGLISH

Download here the form for enrolment in ITALIAN and ENGLISH

THE AGENDA OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL

From October 14 to 18, fr. Leocir will be in Ottawa with Oblati di Maria Immacolata (O.M.I.) for a conference on bioethics and then to Ecuador in Quito (October 19 to 23) for an international conference on palliative care, in “Hospice San Camilo”, promoted with the involvement of several associations and organizations operating in the world of health. Speakers include several Camillian confreres: fr. Alberto Redaelli as coordinator and contributions of fr. Christian de Paul de Barchifontaine from Brazil and br. Jose Carlos Bermejo from Spain.

October 24, fr. Leocir will be in the south of Brazil for three days of celebrations to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the arrival of Camillians in southern Brazil, in Iomerê, Paróquia Sao Luis Gonzaga, a small town that now has about three thousand inhabitants. Then leave for the visit to the Camillian confreres in Indonesia and Australia with the General Consultor, fr. Aris Miranda.

November 25 to 27: fr. Leocir will attend the annual meeting in Rome with the Conference of the Major Religious Superiors.

Bioética em tempos de globalização Pessini, L. Bertachini, C. de P. de Barchifontaine, W. S. Hossne, , Edições Loyola, São Paolo, 2015, pp.219

The reflections in this volume were born during the series of meetings that were held during the visits to the Camillian community in the health sector in Africa (Benin, Togo, Burkina Fasso, Central African Rep, Quênia, Tanzania and Uganda) and Asia (tailândia, Vietna, continental China, Taiwan, Filipinas, India and Indonesia).

DECISIONS OF THE GENERAL CONSULTA

The following have been admitted to their perpetual profession of religious vows:

Franklin Fuentes Huatangari

Franklin Fuentes Huatangari, a religious of the Vice-Province of Peru.

Scholastic Seo Jung Ju

Scholastic Seo Jung Ju, a religious of the Province of the Philippines (our first Korean religious).

Paul Suphakorn Khantharaksa

Paul Suphakorn Khantharaksa, a religious of the Province of Thailand.

Our response to the refugee crisis in Europe

 Message from the General Consulta

OUR RESPONSE TO THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN EUROPE

Cfr. MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES 2016  [January 17, 2016]

“Migrants and Refugees Challenge Us. The Response of the Gospel of Mercy”