SETTEMBRE 2020
HUMANA COMMUNITAS IN THE AGE OF PANDEMIC: UNTIMELY MEDITATIONS ON LIFE’S REBIRTH
Covid-19 has brought desolation to the world. We have lived it for so long, now, and it is not over yet. It might not be for a very long time. What to make of it? Surely, we are summoned to the courage of resistance. The search for a vaccine and for a thorough scientific explanation of what triggered the catastrophe speak to it. Are we summoned to deeper mindfulness also? If so, how will our pausing keep us from falling into the inertia of complacency, or worse, connivance in resignation? Is there a thoughtful “stepping back” that is other to inaction, a thinking that might mutate into thanking for life given, thus a passageway to life’s rebirth?
Covid-19 is the name of a global crisis (pan-demic) with different facets and manifestations, for sure, yet a common reality. We have come to realize, like never before, that this strange predicament, long-since predicted, yet never seriously addressed, has brought us all together. Like so many processes in our contemporary world, Covid-19 is the most recent manifestation of globalization. From a purely empirical perspective, globalization has effected many benefits to humankind: it has disseminated scientific knowledge, medical technologies, and health practices, all potentially available for everyone’s benefit. At the same time, with Covid-19, we have found ourselves differently linked, sharing in a common experience of contingency (cum-tangere): sparing no one, the pandemic has made us all equally vulnerable, all equally exposed (cfr. Pontifical Academy for Life, Global pandemic and universal brotherhood, March 30, 2020).
Such a realization has come at a high cost. What lessons have we learned? More, what conversion of thought and action are we prepared to undergo in our common responsibility for the human family (Francis, Humana Communitas, January 6, 2019)?
THE PROVINCE OF BURKINA FASO
The Camillian novitiate began in Burkina Faso on Sunday 7 September: 2 candidates are from the Central African Republic, 3 are from Burundi, and 3 are from Burkina Faso. Our best wishes for Camillian holiness to them!
Today, 8 September, the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, twelve young men in Burkina Faso have made their first religious professions and five professed have taken their perpetual vows! Our best wishes to them for holiness in their Camillian lives!
THE DELEGATION IN KENYA – the inauguration of the Parish of St. Camillus in Nyamarambe
By Fr. Paolo Guarise
On 5 September 2020 we took responsibility for a new parish: it is called the St. Camillus Nyamarambe Catholic Parish. Its name comes from the small town of Nyamarambe which is three kilometres from the hospital of Tabaka. If we had not been present in Tabaka over the last forty-four years, we would never have received such a gift. The parish of Nyamarambe, in fact, was given to us by the diocese of Kisii in recognition of our faithful and long-lasting work performed over all these years. The Bishop of Kissi, Msgr. Joseph Mairura Okemwa, given that he had to divide the parish of Tabaka into two parts because it had become too large, thought that there could not be a more worthy institute than that of the Camillians to which to entrust this new parish.
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THE PROVINCE INDIA
In September 2020 the priestly ordination took place of our confrere Tinto Augustine Valamparakal MI.
THE DELEGATION IN HAITI
In October of this year the Camillian religious of Haiti will engage in a solemn celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the presence of the Camillians in their nation!
THE PROVINCE OF GERMANY
On 16 August, the young Sven Patschkowski, began his year of novitiate at the chapel of the Loreto Hospital of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Freiburg. A year of hope for the Camillian confreres of the Province of Germany!
On 20 July 2020 the Camillians of the Province of Germany celebrated the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the foundation of their community in Freiburg.
Unfortunately, the limits on social gathering imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic prevented an adequate public celebration of the event.
However, the Camillians remember with joy and also with a little pride their important history in this part of Germany.
The key points of the hundred years of Camillian apostolate in Freiburg are the long years of cooperation with the German ‘Caritas’ association, as well as pastoral service provided in various university clinics and the Josefs Hospital of Freiburg.
THE DELEGATION IN CHILE
Here are the new activities of the Delegation:
1) A programme on Radio Maria Chile on pastoral care in emergencies at a time of change. It is possible to listen to the podcasts on www.radiomaria.cl
2) A new book by Fr. Pietro Magliozzi in Spanish and Italian on pastoral care in emergencies and traumas. It is possible to download these books on the internet site: www.camilianos.cl
3) An online course: PIC 5 (Christian interdisciplinary pedagotherapy 5): Profecía escatológica en emergencias y traumas colectivos, apoyo integral y comunitario a víctimas y socorredores. This will begin in November 2020 and the enrolments are already open on the platform www.sanarconjesus.org
4) A virtual course on pastoral care for mourning. In all there will be nine classes:
- 3 on pastoral care for mourning (based on the recent book by Fr. Mateo Bautista).
- 2 on the theory and practice of accompanying mourning.
- 4 on monographic subjects connected with mourning.
All of the material can be downloaded free from the Camillian web site in Chile:: www.camilianos.cl
THE DELEGATION IN TAIWAN
According to the new law of the State of Taiwan, all hospitals have to belong to the same foundation. Recently in the hospital of Chiaoshi there was a religious ceremony to celebrate the move of the hospital from being a private hospital to belonging to the Camillian foundation.
During the same period at St. Mary’s hospital there was the annual meeting of all the heads of the hospital to discuss the economic situation of the health-care management of the hospital in the year 2019.
The eighth day of the eighth month of the calendar year is pronounced Pa Pa, and thus Chinese people on the eighth of every August celebrate father’s day. In the hospice of St. Mary’s Hospital various activities are organised to offer moments of recreation to people who are suffering from cancer.
A meeting was held in the curia of the archbishopric of Taiwei with the presence of the Archbishop and the Vice-President of the Republic of Taiwan to launch a fund-raising campaign for the rebuilding of the Camillian hospital of Makung. About 55m Taiwanese dollars are needed.
On 8 July Fr. Giuseppe Didonè and Fr. Liou went to Makung (the Pescadores Islands) to celebrate the feast day of St. Camillus and the sixty-third anniversary of the founding of the hospital. An examination is being made of the project to build a new hospital, given that the present hospital is old and dangerous. A fund-raising campaign for about twenty million euros has been launched.
On 13 July the celebration took place of the new Camillian centre for day care for elderly people. This is a programme sponsored by the government, above all with the idea of helping the poorest social fringes.
On 14 July the solemnity of St. Camillus was celebrated at the St. Camillus Sanctuary with the presence for the last time of the Archbishop of Taipei who has already sent in his resignation. During the Holy Mass there were also two baptisms and two confirmations (one adult and a person at the centre for disabled people).
In the afternoon, at St. Mary’s Hospital awards were given to members of the staff who have worked for us for ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years.
On 18 July, at the great hall of the Catholic University, a Holy Mass was celebrated for the arrival of the new Archbishop of Taipei, Msgr. Thomas Chung. Fr. Giuseppe Didonè and Fr. Matteo Kao took part in the Holy Mass as representatives of the Camillians. The President of the Republic was also present and gave a brief speech of greeting. Immediately after the celebration, the new Archbishop made a visit to St. Mary’s Hospital and blessed a new department for in-patients.
THE PROVINCE OF SICILY AND NAPLES
On Sunday 13 September, at 11.00, the celebration will take place of the first religious profession of three new Camillian confreres: Alessandro Carmelo La Rosa, Domenico Salvatore Sciacca and Gianluca Spalice.
THE PROVINCE OF NORTH ITALY
On Sunday 6 September a solemn celebration of the Eucharist took place which was an official ceremony to welcome into the Parish of Our Lady of the Angels Fr. Nicola Docimo and Fr. Marco Moioli. The Vicar General of the archdiocese, Msgr. Valter Danna, and the Provincial Superior of the Camillians, Fr. Bruno Nespoli, presided over the ceremony.
BUCCHIANICO
On Sunday 6 September our confrere Antonio Ricci renewed his religious vows.
THE WOMEN MINISTERS OF THE SICK
On 15-22 September the celebrations will take place to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beatification of the Blessed Maria Domenica Brun Barbantini
Le suore Ministre degli Infermi di San Camillo annunciano con gioia e gratitudine la professione perpetua di suor Leontine Toè.
GERMANA SOMMARUGA
A conference took place in Verona to commemorate the Servant of God Germana Sommaruga twenty years after her death.
Download here the proceedings of the conference
THE PROVINCE OF ROME
On Saturday 12 September 2002, at 11.00, at the church of the Villa Sacra Famiglia, Fr. Salvatore Pignatelli – a missionary for a long period of time in Burkina Faso – will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his priestly ordination.
On Saturday 26 September 2020, at 19.00, at the parish Basilica of St. Camillus de Lellis in Rome, the novice Lorenzo Lettere will make his first temporary profession. On Friday 25 September at 20.00 a prayer vigil will take place in preparation for this profession.
From 27 September to 2 October 2020 the annual course of spiritual exercises will be held at the ‘N. D’Onofrio’ Centre for Spirituality in Bucchianico. The meditations will be offered by Don Claudio Cenacchi and they will be on the subject ‘The Letter of James: a Pathway for Adults in the Faith’.
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).
FATHER ANSELMO ZAMBOTTI
1949-2020
Anselmo Zambotti was born in Pejo (TN) on 9 August 1949 to his father Eliseo and his mother Viola Marini, who was soon made a widow with five children to take care of. Like his older brother Francesco, Anselmo entered the seminary in Mottinello di Rossano Veneto (VI) on 3 October 1959. On 24 September 1964 he moved to the seminary of Marchirolo (VA) to go to secondary school. He began his novitiate on 23 September 1966 in Mottinello and it was there, on 24 September 1967, that he took his temporary vows. He took his school-leaving diploma in classics and began his studies of theology at the ‘Zenoniano’ of Verona. On 7 July 1971 with other future priests he went to Dublin, a guest of the Consolata Missionaries, to study English and attend the second year of theology with the Jesuits. He took his vows of perpetual profession at Verona S. Giuliano on 26 June 1972. On 4 September 1972 he left for Taiwan where he continued with his studies in theology which were completed in January 1974 at the Zenoniano of Verona. He was ordained a deacon on 21 June 1974 in Verona S. Giuliano by Msgr. Maffeo Ducoli and he was ordained a priest on 15 June 1975 in Pejo by Msgr. Enrico Forer, the Auxiliary Bishop of Trento and Bolzano.
KOUAKOU JEAN-RICHMOND KADJELI
1992-2020
Kouakou Jean-Richmond KADJELI was the eighth child of a family with nine children, of whom four were boys – one of them has already gone to heaven!
His older brother, Fr. Michel, is a religious, a priest of the Redemptorists, and a chaplain to the Redemptorist sisters in Diabo.
Jean Richmond was born on 2 January 1992 in Bouaflé (the Ivory Coast) to his mother Konan Ban Venance, a voluntary catechesis teacher, and his father Aya Séraphine KOUAKOU. He was baptised on 29 March 1992 and received the sacrament of confirmation on 28 May 2007. Jean-Richmond received his baccalaureate ‘serie A2’ in 2013 and in 2015 his certificate as an advanced technician in human resources and communication.
A PRAYER FOR A TIME OF FRAILTY
By the National Office for Pastoral Care in Health of the IBC (Italian Bishops’ Conference)
O Almighty and Eternal God, solace in difficulty, support in weakness: from you all creatures receive energy, existence and life. We come to you to invoke your mercy because today we still know the frailty of the human condition because we are living the experience of a new viral epidemic.
We entrust to you the sick and their families: bring healing to their bodies, to their minds and to their spirits.
Help all the members of society to perform their tasks and to strengthen the spirit of solidarity amongst them.
Support and comfort medical doctors and health-care workers who are in the front line and all those who provide care in their service.
You who are the source of every good, bless with abundance the human family, distance from us every evil and give a solid faith to all Christians.
Free us from the epidemic that is striking us so that we can go back to having peace of mind in our usual occupations and praise you and thank you with a renewed heart.
In you we trust and to you we raise our supplication because you, O Father, are the author of life, and with your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit, You live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
Mary, health of the sick, pray for us!
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