Witnesses to the Beauty of God. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the apostolic exhortation Vita Consacrata
‘Witnesses to the Beauty of God’ is the letter that Cardinal João Braz de Aviz and Archbishop José Rodriguez Carballo – respectively the Prefect and the Secretary of the Congregation of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life – sent to ‘their consecrated brothers and sisters’ on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation of John Paul II ‘Vita consecrata’.
To our Brothers and Sisters in Consecrated Life,
We give thanks for you always, “for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, for in him you were enriched in every way”, and “called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor 1:4). In this dramatic moment we stand in solidarity with everyone “in hardships, and perseverance” (cf. Rev 1:9), not only because of the pandemic but above all because of its consequences that greatly affect us in the daily activities of our civil and ecclesial community. Consecrated men and women are called to personally awaken in everyone a sense of hope.
We do not wish the 25th anniversary (25 March 1996) of the publication of St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, the fruit of the reflection of the IX Assembly of the Synod of Bishops celebrated in October 1994, to go unnoticed. In that document, the Bishops frequently reaffirmed that “consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission […] a precious and necessary gift for the present and future of the People of God” (Vita Consecrata, 3).
On this occasion, we make our own the prayer and thanksgiving expressed through Pope Francis’ words “My salvation, Lord, comes from You; my hands are not empty, they are full of your grace. Knowing how to see grace is the first step” (Homily, 1 February 2020). To look back, to reread one’s own history is to see in it the faithful gift of God, not only with our own eyes but with “the eyes of the faithful” (Vita Consecrata, 1), in the awareness that the mystery of the Kingdom of God is already at work in our history and awaits its full realization in heaven (ivi).
CIVCSVA – the gift of faithfulness and the joy of perseverance
Our time is a time of trial: ‘it is more difficult to live as a consecrated person in the contemporary world’. Difficulty in faithfulness and decline of strength in perseverance are experiences that belonged to the history of consecrated life even at its beginnings. Faithfulness, notwithstanding the eclipse of this virtue in our time, is written into the deep identity of the vocation of consecrated people: what is at stake is the meaning of our lives before God and the Church. Consistency in faithfulness allows the taking on and the taking on anew of the Truth of one’s own being, that is to say remaining in the love of God Video of the launch of the document
Il dono della fedeltà e la gioia della perseveranza di José Rodríguez Carballo Arcivescovo segretario della CIVCSVA
Rimanete nel mio amore (Gv 15, 9): è la richiesta che Gesù fa ai suoi discepoli durante l’ultima Cena. Rimanete: «Qui sta la forza della vocazione del consacrato». Questo imperativo è anche una consegna, l’offerta della «verità fondamentale» che permette di «restare in comunione vitale con Cristo». (Francesco, La forza della vocazione. Conversazione con Fernando Prado, 44). Consegna affidata ai discepoli di ieri e di oggi, in particolare agli uomini e alle donne consacrate che affrontano la sfida di vivere in ambienti fortemente secolarizzati, correndo il rischio di perdere il fervore e la gioia della propria donazione a Cristo e alla Chiesa. Fervore e gioia che non vengono meno, oggi come ieri, in «tanti consacrati e ministri di Dio, [che] nella silenziosa dedizione di sé, perseverano incuranti del fatto che il bene spesso non fa rumore […]. Essi continuano a credere e a predicare con coraggio il Vangelo della grazia e della misericordia a uomini assetati di ragioni per vivere, per sperare e per amare. Non si spaventano davanti alle ferite della carne di Cristo, sempre inferte dal peccato e non di rado dai figli della Chiesa» (Francesco, Discorso ai vescovi di recente nomina partecipanti al corso promosso dalla Congregazione per i vescovi, 13 settembre 2018). .SCARICA QUI IL TESTO
LAUDATO SI’
The dicastery for promoting integral human development, in response to an invitation of Pope Francis, is about to launch its Laudato si’ action platform – a multi-year programme that will seek to involve the whole of the Catholic world in a process of ecological conversion in conformity with the spirit of Laudato si’ and integral ecology.
The executive council of the USG (the Union of Superior Generals), aware of the importance and urgency of this question, expressed its support for this initiative during its meeting of 22 February 2021 and encourages all the Congregations who are members of the USG to come together in a coordinated way in the face of this important challenge.
COVID-19
The gift of faithfulness and joy. The Superior Generals and major Superiors of forty-five religious Congregations involved in health care and the provision of assistance to the frailest (above all elderly people) in a document have renewed their commitment to combating the pandemic. This document has been signed, amongst others, by the women Camillians and the men Camillians, the Fatebenefratelli, the religious of the Opera don Guanella, the sisters and priests of the Cottolengo, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Cistercians
THE PROVINCE OF ROME
On the link you can see the pictures of the launch of the book Nicola D’Onofrio, molto più di un sorriso (‘Nicola D’Onofrio: Much More than a Smile’) that took place yesterday in Mesagne (Brindisi).
There are not only old churches on the pathway of stations of Lent of Rome. Today there is the Church of St. Camillus de Lellis in the Orti Sallustiani, a parish basilica in Via Sallustiana in the north-east of the historic centre of Rome. The church was chosen to take the place of the historic Church of Suzanne, at the Terme di Diocleziano, which is currently being restored. Stations of Lent, St. Camillus de Lellis (acistampa.com).
Felice Ruffini – Brief news on the Most Holy Mary of Health Archfraternity of St. Joseph the Spouse of Medicine and of St. Camillus de Lellis erected in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene of the RR.CC Ministers of the Sick. A few words to present this mixed reprint of ‘1869/2021’: an imaginative idea that sprung from the chance discovery of an ‘Arciconfraternita Salu’ of 1860 the work of a lay Brother, the sacristan of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome, while a search was being made for an old devotion of St. Joseph in the Order of Camillians during this ‘Jubilee Year Dedicated to St. Joseph’ proclaimed by Pope Francis. Felice Ruffini – Brief news on the Arciconfraternita Maria SS.ma della Salute
PROVINCIA INDIANA
Dal sito Mangaluru.com
Mangaluru, Mar 11: Snehasadan, St Camillus Care Home, collaborated with Bethany Educational Institutions to organize the distribution of essential food supplies, linen, and required items for schooling and education on March 10 in Snehasadan campus, Kinnikambla.
The distribution of essential supplies that focused on more than 750 families around parts of Kinnikambla, Gurpur and Kaikkamba is a remarkable gesture that showed solidarity with the local residents. The beneficiaries in this scheme are people who are among the least fortunate and most vulnerable to the pandemic and they have been identified on the basis of their financial predicament due to Covid-19. This project is part of the Covid-19 relief work of Sneha Charitable Trust (SCT) managed by the order of St Camillus, a catholic religious order and an international faith-based organization based in Bengaluru, which is exclusively involved in the healthcare field for the past 450 years. The project has been funded by the generous contribution from Buddhist TZU CHI Foundation founded in Taiwan.
THE PROVINCE OF BURKINA FASO
On 15 March 2021 Fr. Kiswendsida J. Dieudonné Bei, a Camillian religious of the Province of Burkina Faso who provides pastoral care at the Camillian community of the Parish of St. Camillus in Rome, defended his doctoral thesis in theology entitled ‘The Exercise of Authority in Consecrated Life: the Specific Case of Institutes in Burkina Faso’.
Juvenat Saint Camille Garcons
A video clip on the fiftieth anniversary of the Camillian minor seminary in Burkina Faso.
THE DELEGATION IN TAIWAN
On 12 March of this year, the first meeting took place of the new governing committee of the Camillian nursing school. The two new members are the director of our Camillian St. Mary’s Hospital and a woman religious of the Institute of the Daughters of Jesus who runs a secondary school in Taipei.
On the occasion of Lent, at the Camillian centre for elderly people and the disabled a living Via Crucis was celebrated with some guests who played the part of figures from the passion of Christ.
On 13 March of this year, bringing forward the liturgical celebration of 19 March, on the occasion of the year dedicated by Pope Francis to St. Joseph the liturgical solemnity in honour of St. Joseph was celebrated in the early morning in the ‘Camillian’ parish church of Nan Ao (Lotung) and in the afternoon in the ‘Camillian’ church of Tungshan, both of which are dedicated to this great figure of holiness.
Near to our sanctuary dedicated to St. Camillus there are the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis in marble which were sculptured in Vietnam. This Lent was an opportunity for the Christian faithful of Tungshan and for our guests at St. Camillus’ Garden to pray together.
THE PROVINCE OF THAILAND
On 16 March 2021, at the residence of the Italian ambassador to Thailand, Lorenzo Galanti, a ceremony was held at which the honour of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy was conferred on our Camillian confrere Fr. Renato Attrezzi, the financial administrator of the Camillian Hospital of Bangkok. Our keenly-felt congratulations go to Father Renato!
Prachinburi (Agenzia Fides) – ‘I am in Prachinburi, near to the Camillian Home, a centre for elderly people which until seventeen years ago was a centre for people suffering from leprosy. The Ministers of the Sick (MI), the Camillians, run the centre’, Don Ferdinando Pistore, a missionary Fidei donum at Chiang Mai, told Agenzia Fides. During his visit, Don Ferdinando met Father Renato Attrezzi and Brother Eligio MI, who both work at the Camillian Home and with whom he was able to meet the guests. Brother Eligio has been at the home for over fifty years and after looking after people with leprosy he has continued to help the elderly people in the home every day, some of whom are former leprosy patients. People who suffered from leprosy remember how he went to give them medical treatment every day.
ASIA/THAILANDIA – Camillians and Fidei donum together for the mission to the sick – Agenzia Fides
THE PROVINCE OF NORTH ITALY
By Fr. Eugenio Sapori MI
After the proclamation of the year of St. Joseph by Pope Francis interest in the importance of this saint increased in the Church but also, and in particular, in the Order of Camillians, as has already been emphasised by Fr. Ruffini in previous articles.
The month of March in traditional popular devotion in past centuries was dedicated to St. Joseph given that the solemnity of this saint – after various changes – was established as taking place on the nineteenth day of March. Here I would like to dwell on two places in the city of Milan where Camilians have commemorated St. Joseph with a special religious and artistic presence – the Church of St. Mary of Health and the St. Camillus Sanctuary.
Thursday, 25 March 2021– Turin (Agenzia Fides) – ‘Today’s world more than ever before has a great need for witnesses, people able to go against the tide, able to oppose the widespread evil that divides human beings, that rejects and does not welcome another person for what they are but sees them in terms of the county they come from, the colour of their skin or their social status’: thus writes Fr. Antonio Menegon, the president of the ONLUS Madian Orizzonti, of the Camillian religious (MU) of the Province of Piedmont, to Agenzia Fides, on the occasion of the approach of Easter.
Pierpaolo Valli – The country of tears. How to accompany mourning
‘I did not have a good idea of what to say to him. I felt very clumsy. I did not have a good idea about how to touch him, how to reach him. The country of tears is so mysterious (The Little Prince).
Preface by Parolari Enrico
The working through of mourning means to enter that ‘country of tears’ that the Little Prince talks about: a very mysterious country both for those who pass through it because of the loss of one they loved and for those who decide to place themselves at their side in order to try to go forward together. Those who try to help a person in mourning often have the feeling that they are clumsy, that they do not know what to say, and how to say it, and above all else that they do not know how to reach the pain of the other person. And yet the wound that makes a person cry is not only a misfortune that can befall us but also an opportunity for growth and maturation. The memory of a person who is no longer with us can become a sort of gold dust – as takes place in the art of kintsugi – that can not only repair the damage caused by the wound but also allow that wound to become precious, an opportunity to rediscover the beauty of something that is born, and above all the way by which we say that death is not the final word on life.
THE PROVINCE of BRAZIL
On 10 April, in the Parish of Nossa Senhora da Boa Esperança, our Camillian confrere Lucas Rodrigues Dalbom was ordained a deacon. Our best wishes go to him!
Josè Wilson Correia da Silva – Assistência Espiritual Hospitalar em Tempo de Pandemia: Apreciação de um Capelão
Charity does not search for what is convenient for it. At the crossroads of history humanity has always experienced periods of plague. From ancient Egypt, through the Europe of the fourteenth century, and on to the globalised world of stateless viruses, humanity has often experienced the fear of contagion, of disease and of death.
Three elements always emerge in these crises: the frailty of human nature, the vulnerability of societies and the magnanimity of charity. It is through charity that men are capable of fraternal transformative gestures; it is through charity that they enter leper colonies and welcome the wounded; it is the force of charity that moves those who abandon their own safety and comfort for the good of the other, for the good of those who are sick and suffering. Charity truly makes us human and opens up pathways of spirituality. And it is precisely the experience that he has acquired on these spiritual pathways that Father José Wilson tells us about in this brief essay.
He tells us about his cases and in presenting his assessments he leads us through an itinerary full of luminous moments and the profound reflections of someone who, like the founder of his religious Order, has not been afraid of danger and has thus revealed the unconditional love of God towards sick people. He emptied himself and became an instrument. With admiration I was able to follow personally a large part of the intellectual, logistic, physical and spiritual effort that is narrated in this work. During these times of pandemic that we have witnessed, the days when late at night I saw José Wilson still patrolling the corridors with his new ecclesiastical habits were not rare: a mask, a plastic visor and a hospital uniform. Without doubt, this was a stimulating encounter. In the same way, I hope that this reading will inspire the reader about the real possibility of care that goes beyond tangible and immediate needs, beyond protocols and medical products, beyond obvious answers, towards a more spiritualised and thus more human care for people’s health.
From the preface by Dr. Felipe Moraes T. Pereira, a clinical oncologist at the State Institute for Cancer of San Paolo USP Medical School and a theologian at the Claretian University Centre
PROVINCIA TEDESCA
Il 19 marzo 2021 (solennità di San Giuseppe), due confratelli della Comunità di Essen (Germania), P. Dietmar Weber & Fr. Hans Georg Berens, hanno celebrato le loro nozze d’oro di professione religiosa.
Anche se si voleva organizzare una grande celebrazione, l’attuale situazione del COVID-19 lo ha impedito. Tuttavia, i confratelli hanno pianificato di celebrarlo in modo semplice e significativo nella comunità camilliana di Essen. Si sono ritrovati insieme nel pomeriggio (15:00) per una sontuosa merenda, e la sera (19:15) hanno celebrato la Santa Messa nella nostra sala di preghiera.
Che il nostro Fondatore San Camillo continui ad ispirarli. Che il nostro Buon Dio li benedica per altri anni di servizio nella sua vigna!
CADIS
Download here the new issue of Crossover, the information bulletin of our CADIS Foundation.
In this issue we will talk about:
The threat of vaccine nationalism
Servant Leader: The Axiom which is St. Camillus
A n extraordinary year with an extraordinary effort
THE LAY CAMILLIAN FAMILY
The programe ‘Go to the Heart of Faith’: we meet Marie-Christine Brocherieux
Marie-Christine Brocherieux, good day.
Marie-Christine, you are married, the mother of three children, the grandmother of ten grandchildren, and you have always been active in the Church, as a catechist, as a leader in hospital chaplaincies, as a reader at the Mass for the sick on Radio Notre Dame. Born into an open and joyous Catholic family, you lost you older brother at the age of nineteen and this event is not extraneous to your activities. You belong to the Lay Camillian Family and you are its international president.
THE DAUGHTERS OF ST. CAMILLUS
Sister Lancy Ezhupara, a woman religious of the Daughters of St. Camillus, tells us about service and care for the sick and the suffering during the pandemic.
Women Camillian: our Easter in the wards of hospitals – Vatican News
THE PROVINCE OF THE PHILIPPINES
The Order of the Ministers of the Sick (the Camillians) of the Province of the Philippines, in collaboration with the Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, on 9 April 2021 inaugurated its new project with the St. Camillus Center for Humanization. Representatives of the Vatican, of the Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and of the Order of Camillians took part.
THE DELEGATION IN INDONESIA
Maumere (Agenzia Fides) – ‘Here in our city and diocese of Maumere we were touched by the terrible tropical typhoon Seroja (see Agenzia Fides 8/4/2021) but it afflicted in a disastrous way the diocese of Larantuka and some of its islands, in particular the islands of Adonara and Lembata which are about 150km from us’, Father Luigi Galvani, a Camillian missionary on the Island of Flores, writes to Agenzia Fides.
BUCCHIANICO
Palm Sunday. The Archbishop of the Diocese of Chieti-Vasto, Msgr. Bruno Forte, and the Commissioner of Chieti, Annino Gargano, accompanied by the Mayor of Bucchianico, by the police and by Camillian religious, after the celebration of the Holy Mass visited the birthplaces of St. Camillus.
The Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto, H.E. Mons. Bruno Forte, when celebrating Palm Sunday in the sanctuary, entrusted to St. Camillus this difficult time of the pandemic. The prayers were especially for the sick and all health-care workers, asking that through the intercession of the Saint of Charity they should be supported, illuminated and encouraged always to be workers of charity and relief. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
THE PROVINCE OF SPAIN
Visit of the Delegate General to the community of Seville
The Delegate General of the Province of Spain, José Carlos Bermejo, visited the community of Seville and shared with them moments of prayer, encounter and fraternity, despite the difficulties that we continue to experience because of the covid-19 pandemic.
During his visit he had an opportunity to meet the religious, to hear the experiences of the chaplains of the Virgen del Roció Hospital, to assess the various ministerial activities of the community such as the Centre for Listening and the service of home care, and to celebrate the liturgy with them on Thursday and Good Friday.
The Diocese of Burgos opens a centre to help people who are suffering
After three years of ‘gestation’ a new social resource that seeks to help those who are going through a situation of suffering or crisis in their lives has just been born. Led by the Diocese of Burgos, the ‘St. Camillus’ Centre for Listening’ was born as a place of welcome and support for people who are going through moments of crisis in their lives and where pathways of personal accompanying are offered. This project joins the thirty centres of this kind that have existed in Spain since the launch in 1997 by the Camillian religious of the Centre for the Humanisation of Health of Tres Cantos in Madrid.
La diócesis abre un centro para ayudar a personas que sufren | Noticias Diario de Burgos
THE PROVINCE OF SICILY AND NAPLES
Brother Vincenzo Codella is the oldest Camillian alive today in the world. On 10 August of this year he will reach the age of a hundred. Born in Calitri, in the Province of Avellino, with Messina as his adopted city, this religious arrived from across the straits almost half a century ago when he was welcomed by the much lamented Father Gino Cisternino, subsequently becoming a point of reference for the whole community.
Three days after his ‘martyrdom of charity’, the charism of Brother Leonardo lives on in the missionary works of the Camillians in Sicily.
Our confrere will be commemorated on 24 March of this year on the day when the Italian Church remembers the priests and religious who lost their lives to follow their vocations on the geographical and existential fringes of society.
A mobilisation of charity for the Camillian buildings seriously damaged by the tragic events of 5 December when the founder of the St. Camillus Tent was killed. Testimony to Interris.it di fratel Carlo Mangione
Camillian charity in the area of Catania. The St. Camillus Tent (interris.it)
ADMISSION TO PERPETUAL RELIGIOUS PROFESSIONS
The Vicar General of the Order, with the agreement of the members of the General Consulta, has admitted the following to perpetual religious professions:
Benjie Ang, a temporary professed religious of the Province of the Philippines.
Marlon Fernando Viana Sotto, a temporary professed religious of the Province of North Italy-the Delegation of Colombia-Ecuador.
Three young confreres who are temporary professed religious of the Province of India: Kannamkulathil Jaison MathewJoseph, Kidangan Thomas Xavier Tom, Vallooran Abin Varghese Devassia.
‘Our founders were moved by the Spirit and were not afraid to soil their hands with everyday life, with the problems of the people, courageously moving along the geographical and existential peripheries. They did not halt in the face of obstacles and the misunderstandings of others, because they kept in their heart the astonishment over the encounter with Christ. They did not tame the grace of the Gospel; they always had in their heart a healthy apprehension for the Lord, a heartrending desire to bring him to others, as Mary and Joseph did in the temple. We too are called today to make prophetic and courageous choices’.
Pope Francis
Fabio Bolzetta – Beyond the pandemic– true stories, antibodies of hope
‘A mosaic of faces, stories, emotions. From those who overcame the challenge of covid-19 and those who were overwhelmed by it. And on to testimonies gathered directly by the author of heroes of daily life, men and women who were encountered during an anxious time. In the background an ‘invisible enemy’ who ‘stopped our planet’ and who keeps the peoples of the whole world in check. Beyond any interpretation of a ‘conflict’ between man and nature, the author describes ‘the footsteps of a journey which, although it has a terrain irrigated by tears, has left behind it traces of hope… Under the microscope so many different existences. Each person is the protagonist of their story whereas these existences, put together, reconstruct our history: bringing to the fore ‘antibodies of hope’.
CONFRATELLI E CONSORELLE DEFUNTI
«Ecco, ora svaniscono. I volti e i luoghi, con quella parte di noi che, come poteva, li amava, per rinnovarsi, trasfigurati, in un’altra trama!» (T.S. Eliot)
HELIODORO DELGADO SÁIZ (1936 – 2021)
Fr. Heliodoro was born in Mazuelo de Muñó in the diocese of Burgos, on February 24, 1936. He entered the Order of Camillians at Navarrete (La Rioja) on October 18, 1947.
He began his novitiate at Vic (Barcelona) on September 7, 1952, and made his temporary religious profession on September 8, 1953, and his solemn profession on March 19, 1957.
He received the sub-diaconate in Lourdes de Tona (Barcelona), on December 20, 1958, and the diaconate at Vic (Barcelona), on March 14, 1959. He was ordained a priest on June 28, 1959, in the church of the Vincentian religious in Barcelona.
For two years he remained at Vic doing a course of pastoral formation in the seminary and as the assistant to the master of novices. During this period, he also offered his service as a teacher.
In September 1961, he was transferred to Madrid as chaplain of the San Camilo clinic.
AMOS ALDEGHI (1933 – 2021)
He was born on March 31, 1933, at San Giorgio in Rovagnate to Giuseppe, his father, and Albina Fumagalli, his mother. He entered the Camillian Seminary of Villa Visconta at Besana Brianza on October 9, 1944, when the last tragic year of World War II was underway. He entered the Novitiate on July 14, 1949 in the House of San Giuliano at Verona, where he made his temporary profession on July 15, 1950 and solemn profession on April 18, 1954. In the meantime, having completed his high school at “Stimmate” at Verona, he began a course in Theology at the Seminary of Mottinello in Rossano Veneto. He was ordained a Deacon on December 21, 1957 by Monsignor Girolamo Bortignon, who also ordained him a Priest at the Cathedral of Cittadella on June 22, 1958.
The priestly ministry of Father Amos began on July 31, 1958, in the seminary of Besana as an assistant and a teacher of the seminarians, at the same time, attending a course at “Santa Maria delle Grazie”, Pastoral Care Institute for the Religious, in Milan. It was at this time that Pope John XXIII, who was to bring fresh air into the Church, ascended to the papal throne.
The Camillian Confreres of Delegation in Taiwan (Province of Philippines), announce the death of fr. GIOVANNI RIZZI (birth: 28 December 1927; religious profession: 8 September 1945; priestly ordination: 22 June 1952). The death took place, today, 18 April 2021, at the camillian community in Lotung (Taiwan). We remember Fr. Giovanni in our prayers to the Lord! OBITUARY
THE DAUGHTERS OF ST. CAMILLUS
On 10 April 2021, the death took place in the community of the Daughters of St. Camillus of Cremona of Mother Laura Biondo, a former Superior General of the Institute. She was 76 years old (on 16 April of this year she would have reached the age of 77), and had spent 52 years in religious life.
We thank the Lord for the gift of her life given with joy to service to the Institute and to sick people. May she rest in peace!
THE WOMEN MINISTERS OF THE SICK
On 23 February of this year, in Nairobi, the death took place of Sr. Tereza Brancalione of the women Ministers of the Sick of St. Camillus. She spent most of her existence in mission, with 38 years spent in Nairobi. The Camillians, and especially those who met her in Tabaka and in Nairobi, through this text express their gratitude.
By Fr. Paolo Guarise
“O look, the Reverend Mother is arriving!” That was how the elderly Jesuit used to call her when she arrived in the room where medical treatment was provided. This took place in the year 2016 after she had been assigned to the ‘Pedro Arrupe’ community/infirmary of the Jesuits of Karen (Nairobi). This was until a few months later when the same religious who in a joking way had called this nurse ‘Reverend Mother’ now greeted her by calling her simply ‘mother’, that is to say mummy, because that was how the nurse behaved – like a mummy!
We are talking about Sr. Tereza Brancalione, a Camillian sister who passed away on 23 February 2021 in Nairobi (Kenya) following a short illness. From her name one might be led to think she was Italian – in fact she spoke Italian very well – except that in her Christian name there was that ‘z’ of ‘Tereza’ that enables one to understand that she was not Italian but Brazilian and that she had distant Italian ancestry (to be specific from Verona). CONTINUE HERE
PRAYER TO SAINT JOSEPH
APOSTOLIC LETTER PATRIS CORDE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
ON THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROCLAMATION OF SAINT JOSEPH AS PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH
We need only ask Saint Joseph for the grace of graces: our conversion.
Let us now make our prayer to him:
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
Given in Rome, at Saint John Lateran, on 8 December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 2020, the eighth of my Pontificate.
Camillians on Facebook
Camillians on Twitter
Camillians on Instagram