On 2 October next the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care), led by its president, H,.E. Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, will go on  a pilgrimage to Bucchianico, the birthplace of St. Camillus de Lellis. This event is a further sign of the gratitude and filial devotion of this Pontifical Council of the Vatican towards St. Camillus, as the original initiator of a nova schola caritatis at the service of the sick and, equally, the protector of health-care workers, hospitals and sick people. Indeed, this Pontifical Council, within the Church, is an instrument for action and encouragement by which the Holy Father expresses the nearness of the Church to the world of health and health care, interpreting still today the mandate of Jesus: ‘Go, teach and heal the sick’ (Mt 10:6-8).
The superiors and the members of this Pontifical Council will be present at the sanctuary at 11.00 for the celebration of the Holy Mass, at which the presence has been guaranteed of sick people accompanied by their relatives and the staff of the UNITALSI of the sections of the archdiocese of Chieti, as well as that of the Archbishop of this capital city of Chieti, H.E. Msgr. Bruno Forte, of local leading figures and of the Sisters Daughters of St. Camillus who work in the Church Santa Chiara in Bucchianico. Because of this exceptional event, during the Holy Mass the sacrament of anointing of the sick will also be administered to those sick people who ask for it.
In the afternoon, after a fraternal lunch eaten locally, there will be a visit to the ‘Camillian places’ attached to the sanctuary as well as to the tomb of the Venerable Servant of God, Nicola d’Onofrio, who is buried in its crypt and for whom on 5 July last the Holy Father Francis signed the Decree which recognised his heroic virtues.
The schola caritatis of St. Camillus, therefore, has not come to an end but is enriched and increased by the witness of those who still today follow in his footsteps and strive with professionalism and love, supported by faith, to help their suffering neighbours. The example of Nicolino, moreover, bears witness to how, through the trials of suffering, sick people are not only the beneficiaries of help but can also be ‘protagonists’ of love. Providing witness to faith even when the mystery of pain, of illness and of marginalisation is experienced personally.

The pilgrimage of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, within the framework of the celebrations for the fourth centenary of the death of St. Camillus de Lellis, thus belongs to the furrow of charity instituted by this saint of Bucchianico, in order to achieve a new impetus in the service that this individual Pontifical Council is called to perform within the Church, in promoting both the good that must be done to the suffering and the good that through one’s own suffering can be borne witness to, in the Church and the world, as an effective and eloquent sign of evangelisation.