The management of our own curative and/or rehabilitative health-care works, which was undertaken in the early years of the twentieth century, is an important and provocative reality of modern health care.

In the spirit of our Constitution, these works must be justified and defined by:

• the real needs of the civil community; their being part of health-care planning;
• the advanced character of their organisation and equipment;
• care for the poor and the marginalised;
• a commitment to becoming model schools of charity;
• and a readiness to cooperate with lay people.

In recent years we have witnessed the development, at times with colourful and sharp tones, of an abundant analysis of how a Camillian community with its own works should be characterised and what its defining messages should be.

The most complete and contemporary outcome of this was the drawing up of the Identity Card of our works by the Secretariat for Ministry (aggiungi file del testo in lettura) in which are emphasised the conditions that justify the existence of a Camillian work.

Camillian health-care works in their practice want to be the voices of those who suffer, putting into practice the demanding appeal of St. Camillus: “More heart in those hands, brother!”

 

 

The identity card

The ‘Identity Card’ was the outcome of a process that began with the Conference of Seiano (NA) in May 2003. On that occasion, the Order set in motion a process for the review of the identity and the missions of its own social/health-care institutions (Our Works).The result of that consultation and those that were to follow was the ‘Identity Card’ which was approved by the General Consulta at the end of 2003. It summarises the principles and the spirit that should permeate our Camillian works so as to be, through ‘the promotion of health, the treatment of disease and the relief of pain’ (Constitution n. 45), a sign of the Kingdom.

The ‘Identity Card’ thus indicates the ineluctable points that define each Camillian work, to be adopted not only by religious but also by men and women co-workers, linking them together in a therapeutic alliance.