‘During these months we have perceived in a clear way that the maternal heart of the Church has protected the original purity of the ‘little plant’ of our charism and has led us with courage to relaunch the precious gift of merciful charity toward the sick. The heartfelt good wishes that Pope Francis addressed to us yesterday at the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square are fresh in our minds and our hearts… We therefore feel especially responsible in stewarding and making grow our charismatic heritage which has been deposited in our hearts and our hands.

This is how the new Superior General of the Camillians, Father Leocir Pessini, began his homily during the solemn Holy Mass to end the Camillian jubilee year in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome.

The Superior General observed how ‘St. Camillus never responded solely to an illness but, rather, he welcomed every person wounded by illness in his or her deepest and inalienable dignity… achieving an unconditional welcoming for all those poor and miserable people who did not belong to the elite logic of the great Renaissance’.

‘Today’, continued Father Pessini, ‘we are called to be missionary disciples in the world of health and health care, contributing to the growth of the culture of encounter in opposition to the culture of indifference, of efficiency at any price and of throwing things away; exiting from our selfishness’.

The Superior General ended ‘with an invitation to pray for all sick people, in particular for our religious brothers who are ill and who during the difficult season of old age or suffering continue to be faithful witnesses to our charism; a prayer to ask the Lord for the gift of holy vocations and the faithful perseverance of all of us and in particular our young religious brothers in formation so that through their contagious enthusiasm we can achieve an authentic renewal of our consecrated lives’.

Read here the complete text of the homily of Father Leocir Pessini

Look here at the press information