Within the framework of the celebrations for the fourth centenary of the death of St. Camillus de Lellis, on 19-20 October next the Order of the Ministers of the Sick, together with the Montefortiam cultural association ‘Science-Health-Society’ and the Office for Pastoral Care in Health of the Vicariate of Rome, with the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care) and the National office for Education, Schools and Universities of the Italian bishops’ Conference, is organising in Rome a ‘Journeying with St. Camillus’ march of solidarity  against neglected diseases.
The so-termed ‘neglected diseases’, that is to say forgotten diseases, are all those maladies which have been weakened or have disappeared in the developed world but which still continue to cause thousands of victims amongst the poorest and most vulnerable populations of Asia, Africa and South America.
Remote rural areas, areas of armed conflict and urban shantytowns are especially afflicted. A sixth of the inhabitants of the earth and  two thousand million people are at risk.
The ‘Journeying with St. Camillus’ march of solidarity wants to give a voice to those people, forgotten by the mass media, who see their lives endangered today because of the indifference of the industrialised world. The departure is planned after the celebration at 9.30 of a Holy Mass by Fr. Augusto Chendi, M.I., the Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. From the Piazza della Maddalena the march will make its way to St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus and to receive the blessing of Pope Francis.
The route that has been chosen has a strong symbolic value, given that most of the route was the one taken by St. Camillus to go to the generalate house of his Order at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit where every day he provided service and care to the patients. In following in the footsteps of the patron saint of the sick, the march will try to break the wall of silence and indifference that surrounds neglected diseases.
The march will be prepared for on 19 October by the international symposium on ‘The Challenges of Neglected Diseases’ which will begin at 15.30 at the Hall of the General Chapter of the generalate house of the Camillians in Piazza della Maddalena. In this symposium will take part, in addition to the Minister of Health, Beatrice Lorenzin, also epidemiological doctors, those responsible for health-care policies and the heads of pharmaceutical companies, as well as experts in pastoral care in health.
This will be followed at 19.30 by the celebration of the Eucharist which will be presided over by H.E. Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers.
To download the programme of the march in PDF click here.