Resigning the Position of Superior General

In September 1907, Cardinal Ginnasi, the protector of the Order appointed by Pope Pail VI, convoked an assembly in Rome, in his presence, in order to study remedies for the increasing difficulties that obstructed the pathway of the Religion and troubled its spirits. Camillus understood that his authority will be cut back so that he could not take on other hospitals or other burdens.

‘Seeing himself as old and almost destroyed by the hard work’, he decided to resign from the position of Superior General, declining all responsibilities of governance. Camillus twice requested the Supreme Pontiff to be relieved of his office. The decision was new to his religious from whom he had carefully concealed it, even though some may have intuited it or envisaged it.

On the morning of 2 October 1607 Cardinal Ginnasi received his resignation in front of those taking part in the assembly. On 13 October Paul V appointed Fr. Oppertis, the Vicar and Commissar General of the Order, to replace Camillus temporarily until the election of a new Superior General. During the assembly the Constitution, which the Founder had repealed at the previous General Chapter on the central government of the Order, was reinstated.

During his twenty-four years of government, of which sixteen as Superior General, Camillus founded fifteen houses: in Rome, Naples, Milan, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Ferrara Messina, Palermo, Mantua, Viterbo, Bucchianico, Chieti, Borgonovo and Caltagirone. He established a service in eight hospitals: the Great Hospital of Imano, the ‘Pamatone’ in Genoa, the Hospital of St. Anne in Ferrara, that in Viterbo, the Hospital of the Incurables and St. James of the Spaniards in Naples, that in Mantua, and that in Chieti. In the first four there was a complete spiritual and corporeal service.