On 19-20 November the Camillianum will inaugurate its twenty-fifth academic year with a conference in the presence of Msgr. Fisichella, the President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, who will give a lectio magistralis on ‘The Settings of Pastoral Care in Health as Settings for the New Evangelisation’. Msgr. Enrico dal Covolo, the Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, will also take part with a lectio on ‘The Idea of the University’.

During this conference there will also be a presentation of the important volume Lineamenti di teologia pastorale della salute (‘Lineaments of the Theology of Pastoral Care in Health’) published by Edizioni Camilliane). M. Petrini, G.M. Salvati, E. Sapori M.I and E. Sgreccia, lecturers at the Camillianum, will analyse the foundations, the structures, the subjects and the perspectives of their studies.

The Camillianum International Institute of the Theology of Pastoral Care in Health is a research centre, for the second and third cycles of theology, which for a quarter of a century has examined the subjects connected with the vulnerability of the human condition and Christian hope from a theological-pastoral perspective in which theology, philosophy and the human sciences engage in dialogue.

The decisive factors in the creation of the Camillianum were the publication of the apostolic letter Salvifici doloris in 1984 and the Motu proprio Dolentium hominum a year later, which marked the institution of the Pontifical Commission for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, which later became a Pontifical Council.

The volume that will be presented tomorrow is something more than a high-level academic volume. It wants to be, indeed, a response to the demands of contemporary life where what is required is not only respect for the human person but also a training that is aware of the new challenges of biomedicine, the multicultural context and international cooperation.

A response where, once again, the message of mercy and tenderness inherited from St. Camillus rediscovers its extraordinary contemporary relevance, at the service of people afflicted by illness and disability.

Download the programme of the event.