On 20 September the association ‘The Family of the Light with Camilla’ linked itself spiritually to our Founder

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During the course of the moving ceremony led by our religious brother Fr. Marco Causarano on 20 September last at the House for Spiritual Retreats of the Barnabite Fathers of Eupilio (CO), the non-profit association for social advancement ‘The Family of the Light with Camilla’ united its history inseparably with that of St. Camillus de Lellis. There are very many parallels between the mission of charitable care for the sick that marks out the charism of our Founder and those that characterise the activity of this association, which in particular is for people who suffer from psycho-spiritual disturbances. The consecration of the association to the Holy Family of Nazareth also took place.

We posed a number of questions to the heads of this association in order to have a better idea of the character of this special association.

How was the encounter with St. Camillus de Lellis born?

‘During a pilgrimage to Rome of the association, which took place in the summer of 2015 and was led by a member of our association and your religious brother Fr. Marco Causarano, we visited the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. We were received fraternally by the rector, Fr. Gianfranco Lunardon, and we described our association to him. During the subsequent celebration of the Eucharist Fr. Marco gave a wide-ranging homily on St. Camillus de Lellis from which emerged the salient features of his work. We realised that his care for the whole person, body, soul and spirit, from many points of view coincided with the mission of our association. The wish to appoint St. Camillus de Lellis as our patron saint arose spontaneously as a natural consequence of this. In addition, the date of the marriage of the two founding members of the Family of Light with Camillis was 14 July, the day dedicated to St. Camillus, and their first child, a daughter, who died tragically, was called Camilla. It is to her, in fact, that this association is dedicated’.

What are the activities of the Family of Light with Camilla?

‘The activities which give practical expression to the charism of the association are many in number. The principle ones are as follows:

– Growth, formation and updating both for consecrated people and for the lay faithful through the organisation of spiritual retreats, pilgrimages and conferences led by priests and lay people from all over the world who are of acknowledged experience and faith. These take place in various Italian cities in houses that are authorised to hold spiritual retreats.

– Prayer during the adoration of the Eucharist; praise and intercession through the creation of small prayer groups called Cenacles of Light.

– Sharing through the promotion of periodic meetings of the members of the association in order to allow growth through dialogue and social interaction.

– Evangelisation through the organisation of prayer meetings, testimonies before ecclesiastical bodies and associations with similar motivations, and interviews with parts of the mass media that are interested in us.

– Listening to those in need both through direct channels of communication (listening meetings) and ones that are indirect (two special telephone numbers are presently available).

– The comforting of the troubled through activity involving discernment, advice and prayer, in close contact with the priest who is the spiritual director of the association and with other priests who are present’.

Where did you start from and where do you want to go?

‘Meetings between people are never a matter of chance because the Lord constantly calls us to be a Church through relationships that are made in His name. Over the years some lay and consecrated people from different cities in Italy created solid networks of friendship, prayer, cooperation and sharing, addressing in particular spiritual suffering. After extensive discernment in the autumn of 2014 some of these decided to involve themselves in the foundation of an association that would generate a new and broader mission of apostolate at the service of the Church. On 7 January 2015 a non-profit association for social promotion with a Catholic Christian inspiration was born, with a priest and four lay people as founding members. In a few months the number of members of this association grew to over 500 in the whole of Italy, 10% of whom were priests and consecrated men or women. In order to adapt to the new dynamics of the association, on 20 September 2015 the extraordinary assembly of members of the association changed the statutes, bringing them up to date and making them more operational. At that time the name and the logo of the association were also changed and the association became ‘The Family of Light with Camilla’. Two of the founding members have worked for the association full time. This is the contemporary situation whereas its pathway of growth and transformation in the future are totally in the hands of the Lord, but we cannot conceal, as is the case with all families, that we would like to have our own house of welcome and care’.

The question naturally arises: what lies behind your name?

‘The Family of Light with Camilla’ captures many meanings that are rooted in our spiritual mission, and in particular:

‘Family’ is a place of birth, growth, welcome, sharing, comfort and solidarity to the utmost. Many members during the first months of life of the association sent to the members of the Governing Council oral and written testimonies which highlighted that they ‘felt they were in a family’ during those initiatives involving prayers, formation and sharing that had been offered.

‘Light’ is a direct reference to he who said: ‘I am the light of the world; those who follow me will not walk in the shadows but will have the light of life’ (Jn 8:12). Therefore it is an attempt through him to bring light to that moral and psycho-spiritual lethal darkness that envelops our society.

‘Camilla’ was the nineteen-year-old daughter of two of the founding members who died before her time on June 2015. During her short life on earth she unceasingly sought the Light and fought for a long time against the shadows. The association was born because of the work of her family and dearest friends and as a direct consequence of her special experience.

The logo of the association was the outcome of a long process and many of the signs and symbols in it sprang from insights achieved during moments of prayer’.

Your association welcomes and helps people who are spiritually sick: what does performing such a mission mean?

‘From some points of view this is a frontier mission because today spiritual illness experiences the same stigma that marked certain grave physical and mental illnesses until a short time ago. To speak about spiritual illnesses means to approach people who for different reasons have been the subjects of extraordinary spiritual activities of a malevolent kind, which are technically defined as vexations, obsessions and possessions of a daemonic character. Faced with these truths of faith, the attitude of lay people and priests is often one of rejection or that one is dealing with what is far-fetched: rarely is there a balanced approach. This reductive or excessive attitude is often nurtured by a lack of correct information. It is a fact that often the spiritually sick are marginalised and transformed into the lepers of our time. Those who experience extraordinary daemonic activity often experience isolation, derision and fear from those who, instead, should be near to them and welcoming, that is to say relatives, acquaintances and, often, ministers of Christ. But Jesus in front of the leper who threw himself in front of him and asked him to purify him, stretched out his hand, touched him without fear of being infected, and said to him: ‘I do want to, be clean’ (Mt 8:2-3). In this phrase is well expressed an exemplary teaching that is developed through moments that follow one another: a request, listening, compassion, welcome and action.

Just as with leprosy wounds are evident on a person’s body, so in spiritual maladies they are manifested at a psycho-spiritual level. A person is worn down by obsessive thoughts, by visions, by noises, by inexplicable pains and in some cases an aversion to the sacred is present which prevents the Holy Mass or moments of prayer being experienced in a settled way. The real spiritually sick person is often convinced that he or she is mad, and this thought is shared by very many relatives, acquaintances and priests, but real mental illnesses have special forms of expression that are distant from spiritual illnesses, and even when certain symptoms coincide the differences do not escape a trained eye. Fortunately, discernment is not absent in priests who are exorcists nor even in some distinguished psychiatrists.

But once a correct diagnosis has been carried out it follows that the spiritually sick person is increasingly distanced from ordinary life and lives constantly an extraordinary life that is punctuated by exorcisms, prayers of liberation, resort to real or presumed charismatics….But this one-way ‘spiritual hyper-exposure’ is dangerous because it closes up the person who experiences it in a ghetto or island.

The greatest challenge is ‘normalising the abnormal’ and making ‘the extraordinary ordinary’. But how can this be done? One has to implement the sequence taught by Jesus: listening, compassion, welcome and action. One has to train lay people and priests who are capable of informed and empathetic listening, who are capable of ‘suffering with’ the troubled person. Then one has to provide those in need with places and moments of welcome and aggregation where they can pray but also joke, learn but also share, suffer but also be joyful. Lastly, one has to help those who suffer to set in motion a personal action of taking authority over evil and the malign so that this last never has the last word. This is the pathway offered by the ‘Family of Light with Camilla’ which from today also relies on the intercession of St. Camillus de Lellis.

For further information: www.famigliadellaluce.it