On the occasion of the opening of the jubilee year for the fourth centenary of the death of St. Camillus de Lellis, here is the message of Nino Garozzo, the Mayor of Acireale, a city where the Camillian community has been present and active for over two centuries.

Message of the  Mayor of  Acireale Avv. Nino Garozzo

In the jubilee year of the fourth centenary of the death of St. Camillus de Lellis

We join with joy and gratitude – my own and that of the whole of the city – the Camillian Family on this solemn and much felt event. In our Acireale it will not only be a historical invocation of the life and extraordinary works of a saint, St. Camillus, whose vocation overwhelmed with a striking – as much as it was unforeseen – force a young man lost in pride, in ambition and in vices, but, rather, more a exaltation through the example of the contemporary of that sacrifice and that tireless service that is still offered today by the religious with their red crosses whom we have leant to know and to appreciate.

That seed of many centuries ago has also sprouted in our city and has borne good fruit: the much loved Camillian community.

A refuge and comfort for the poor, the sick and the marginalised, the Camillians, with their faces and symbols, which are dear and familiar to our diocesan community, have followed in the footsteps of their Master, reliving his works with activities marked by generosity and which are rather diversified in their needs, leading to the establishment of various care centres that are much appreciated and a point of reference for many volunteers.

Over two centuries and a half of presence in Acieale: an authentic mission strengthened by a faith that has changed histories and sensibilities. Faithful to their oath and to the vow ‘always, even at the risk to our own life’, they have known how to welcome not only the poor and the needy but also people who are marginalised because the bearers of much feared pathologies such as AIDS.

We well understand that this immense readiness to help at the service of the last makes many aspects of our daily lives small and insignificant but we cannot but recognise that for the civil community the help given to the most needy, and with the incisiveness with which it is offered, has an extraordinary relevance in making up, as well, for the inevitable failings of the public administrations.

The institutions must do more and must do better but following the teaching of this saint nothing can ever take the place of those who voluntarily and ‘for love of God, serve with that charity and lovingness that mothers have towards their sick only children’.

In admiration and sincere esteem for our Camillians, in the faces and the commitment of all of them we discover,  in this commemoration as well, the teaching of St. Camillus de Lellis who knew how to build on the ruins of his youth a wonderful missionary presence in the world and in our Acireale.

Nino Garozzo
Mayor of Acireale
Acireale, 14 June 2013