The message of Fr.  Hubert Goudjinou, General Consultor for Formation of the Order of the Ministers of the sick (Camillians), for the opening of the jubilee year of the fourth centenary of the death of St. Camillus de Lellis.

We have arrived at the fourth centenary of the death of St. Camillus de Lellis, that Giant of Charity who said ‘more heart in those hands’.

St. Camillus is dead but for us he is very much alive, alive through the activity of his followers, whether religious, consecrated or lay people, and these followers have taken the Camillian charism to the whole world, and when we consider the continent of Africa we are happy to have the Camillians in eight nations: in Burkina Faso, in Benin, in Kenya, in Togo, in Madagascar, in Tanzania, in Uganda and in Central Africa.

In these nations there are very many young men who are in love with the Camillian charism, there are a large number of vocations, and I believe that this event can truly help them to live what St. Camillus proclaimed: ‘more heart in those hands’, trying to be witnesses to the Gospel of charity, to tenderness towards our brothers and sisters who engage in their pilgrimage in the world of suffering.

I believe that there is a still a great deal to say; St. Camillus still has very many things to say to the world of health and health care.

For us this is a moment of thanksgiving and above all for us it is a moment to become aware again of the great treasure that the Lord granted to our Order through this great man, who continues to talk, to talk to us.