PRESENTATION

My name is Henry Nintema, I come from Burkina Faso and we are now a Vice-Province and in this Vice-Province I am at the present time the Vice-Provincial. Our Vice-Province has 92 religious of whom 68 are perpetually professed and 24 temporary professed. In this Vice-Province of ours we engage in various activities that implement our Camillian charism. What do we do in Burkina Faso? We engage in education, we have two houses for formation, a small seminary and a major seminary, we have a parish in which we try to spread the Camillian spirit, to lead a parish as Camillus would have wanted, paying especial attention to the poor, to the sick in their homes, involving our parishioners which are very enthusiastic about doing this work. Then we have the hospitals. We work in the hospitals in Ouagadougou, which is the capital city; we have a hospital which has many people which is called the ‘St. Camillus Hospital of Ouagadougou’ and in Ouagadougou we also have a nursing home where we receive patients from the local area and all those who come to us. We have another hospital which is in a village 100km more or less from Ouagadougou and a lot of people go to this hospital, people from far away as well, from the capital and from other countries, the Ivory Coast above all where we have a large presence of people from Burkina Faso. In the Ivory Coast we have very many people who come to us to try to solve their health problems and they are very well received and this is something we like very much.

Another activity that we engage in is that we are chaplains at the civil hospital of Ouagadougou; we are also chaplains at the prison of Ouagadougou and these are two activities that are very much appreciated. What else do we do? We engage in research activity, we have a centre for biomolecular research in which we try to keep up with developments and make our contribution so as to find lasting solutions, solutions that really belong to contemporary scientific research. We also engage in teaching; we have the Camillianum in Ouagadougou and in this Camillianum which is attended by very many people, young people, medical students, religious, lay people, and nurses who try to obtain useful Camillian instruments to carry out their ministry. We also teach in universities; we have brothers who teach pastoral care in health and ethics in our universities and above all in the Catholic University that we have in Ouagadougou and this Catholic University is directed by our brother Father Jacques Simporé, and for us it is an opportunity to spread the Camillian spirit: this is what I can say about what we do in Burkina Faso.

EXPECTATIONS

The expectations as regards this General Chapter are enormous. First of all this Chapter, the LVII General Chapter, which is the first in which I have taken part, enables me to realise the greatness of our charism of enormous riches which we have spread throughout the continent, and my hope is that we can put together those forces of ours, all our forces; in putting together all our forces we will be able to implement the Camillian charism in a better way in the world, to the benefit above all of the sick, the marginalised, the poorest, and to be a able to do this we must find common approaches, and this is what we are trying to do in revising our Constitution, and I hope that we can really come to find those pathways, those shared guidelines, that will enable us to walk together so as to demonstrate to the world what St. Camillus wants us to do today.