‘Today is a day of great joy for us! The happy coincidence of beginning the new government of the Order while the fourth centenary of the death of our Founder St. Camillus de Lellis is being celebrated leads us to go forward with courage, passion and hope’. The new Superior General of the Order of the Ministers of the Sick (Camillians), Father Leocir Pessini, begun in this way in front of the journalists who had been called to the generalate house of the Order for a press conference in the morning of 14 July.

The new General Superior, who comes from Brazil but has Italian ancestry (as is shown by his dual, Italian-Brazilian, nationality), introduced to the representatives of the press the Vicar General, Father Laurent Zoungrana, from Burkina Faso, and the other three General Consultors who will flank him in his work: the Italian, Father Gianfranco Lunardon; the Filipino, Father Aris Miranda, and the Spaniard, Brother José Ignacio Santaolalla Sàez.

‘Our Order is to be found in forty countries in the world’, continued Father Pessini, ‘and thus it is normal that representatives are elected from all the continents of the world. Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America: the international character of the Camillians is expressed in these faces, who are ready to address the demanding challenges of the world of health and health care over the next six years’.

When answering a question about the recent facts of a criminal character that had involved the former Superior General, Father Pessini strongly emphasised that this was ‘a crisis of the central government and not of the Order as a whole, which, however, has certainly suffered and wishes to start afresh’.

When looking to the future, reference was made to the need to ‘implement the Camillian project’, both within the Order (the revitalisation of the Order and its health-care works, the promotion of vocations, missions) and outside the Order (service to those most in need – the elderly, the sick, people with handicaps – in the world of health and health care).

The new Superior General has arrived in Rome in fine fettle after his experience in the Province of Brazil where the Camillians have been present for ninety-two years and where they manage a network of fifty-six hospitals, with 23,000 staff and 6,000 beds, as well as a university for health-care subjects which is attended by thousands of students. ‘In Brazil I was very happy’, observed Pessini, ‘but my religious brothers called me to perform this demanding task and I can only honour their choice’.

When answering the question of a journalist who asked him about the role of the Camillians in Asia (which will be visited by the Pope next month), Father Pessini replied by giving the floor to two missionary religious in Indonesia and Taiwan, Brother Luigi Galvani and Brother Felice Chech, who then described the active works of the Camillians in those areas: hospitals, nursing schools, centres for disabled people, old people’s homes, schools and seminaries. The Filipino, Father Aris Miranda, the coordinator of the Camillian Task force, which helps the victims of disasters throughout the world, then spoke.

Lastly, the Vicar General, Father Laurent Zoungrana, referred to the presence of the Camillians in the continent of Africa, where a growing number of young men were embracing the Camillian charism. It is no accident that the only bishop of the Order is an African: Monsignor Prosper Kontiebo, who leads the very young diocese of Tenkodogo in Burkina Faso which has 700,000 inhabitants, of whom just 13% are Catholics. Here the message of St. Camillus is borne witness to amongst the poor and the disinherited, among whom are many mentally-ill people for whom special care centres have been created.

Look here at the photographic gallery of the press conference

Look here at the press information