Cover: Mosaic at the welcome centre for disabled people in Lotung-Taiwan.
The Face of Mercy
SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM THE
BULL OF INDICTION OF THE EXTROARDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him. Jesus of Nazareth, by his words, his actions, and his entire person reveals the mercy of God.
We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to a hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness. When faced with the gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy. Mercy will always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive.
In fact, I will open the Holy Door on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. The Church feels a great need to keep this event alive. With the Council, the Church entered a new phase of her history. The walls which too long had made the Church a kind of fortress were torn down and the time had come to proclaim the Gospel in a new way. The Church sensed a responsibility to be a living sign of the Father’s love in the world.
We recall the poignant words of Saint John XXIII when, opening the Council, he indicated the path to follow: ‘Now the Bride of Christ wishes to use the medicine of mercy rather than taking up arms of severity…’
Saint Bede the Venerable, commenting on this Gospel passage, wrote that Jesus looked upon Matthew with merciful love and chose him: miserando atque eligendo. This expression impressed me so much that I chose it for my episcopal motto, because mercy is presented as a force that overcomes everything, filling the heart with love and bringing consolation through pardon.
Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to believers; nothing in her preaching and in her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy. The Church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love. The Church is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel, which in its own way must penetrate the heart and mind of every person. The Church’s first truth is the love of Christ. The Church makes herself a servant of this love and mediates it to all people.
It is my burning desire that, during this Jubilee, the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. It will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty. And let us enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. And let us not forget the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offences, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead. Christ’s flesh becomes visible in the flesh of the tortured, the crushed, the scourged, the malnourished, and the exiled … to be acknowledged, touched, and cared for by us.
Let us place the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the centre once more in such a way that it will enable people to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands. For every penitent, it will be a source of true interior peace. I will never tire of insisting that confessors be authentic signs of the Father’s mercy. We become good confessors when, above all, we allow ourselves to be penitents in search of his mercy. Confessors are called to embrace the repentant son who comes back home and to express the joy of having him back again.
There is an aspect of mercy that goes beyond the confines of the Church. It relates us to Judaism and Islam, both of which consider mercy to be one of God’s most important attributes. Israel was the first to receive this revelation which continues in history as the source of an inexhaustible richness meant to be shared with all mankind. I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter with these religions and with other noble religious traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; may it eliminate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination.
Franciscus
COLOMBIA – ECUADOR
The Superior General, Fr. Leocir Pessini, met the Camillian Delegation in Ecuador (Quito) on 27-30 March of this year. Below we share with you the Message that Fr. Pessini sent to our religious brothers.
ITALIAN/ENGLISH/SPANISH/PORTUGUESE
Luciano Ramponi, on behalf of the Camillian religious of the Delegation, shares in the joy of the imminent priestly ordination of our religious brother Diego Fernando Cerón Medina.
TAIWAN
Every year in Taiwan the meeting takes places of the social assistants who work in the secondary schools. This year, because it was organised by the local council of the county of Ilan, the Mandarin (editor’s note: the mayor) arranged for it to take place in our nursing college which is a model both in terms of organisation and as regards the education and teaching that are provided. In addition to 200 teachers, the Minister for Education of the central government of Taipei also took part in the meeting and he spoke words of praise and encouragement for our campus which provides education and training in health care.
Gianfranco Lunardon, the General Secretary of the Order, visited our religious brothers of Taiwan on 1-12 April of this year. On 6-11 April he animated the course of spiritual exercises entitled ‘Not Perfect but Happy. Towards a Sustainable Prophecy of Consecrated Life’ for the group of Italian-speaking religious.
He also took part in the celebration of Easter Thursday in Hanshi, of Good Friday in Lunpei (two small Christian communities of Aborigines), in the Easter Vigil of the Camillian parish of Lotung and on Easter Sunday in the celebration of the Eucharist and Holy Mass in the new Church of St. Camillus, visiting the sick and meeting the elderly.
Read here ‘The Camillians in Taiwan’ the report of Fr. Gianfranco.
KENYA
On Saturday 18 April, at the St. Camillus Seminary of Nairobi (Kenya), our religious brothers Justus Onsare, Oleck Samuel, William Augo and Kitizo Omari will make the solemn profession of their religious vows.
SPAIN
On 16 March the community of Tres Cantos (Madrid) was enriched by the arrival of three temporary professed religious brothers: Francisco Javier Benitez, Francisco Mariano Berola Eduardo e Miguel Angel Sacco, all from the Delegation of Argentina.
During this period of formation, in order to achieve an increasingly effective integration into the reality of this religious Province, they will be accompanied by Fr. Ludovic Konseiga, the head of formation for the community of Tres Cantos.
VERONA – THE PROVINCE OF ITALY
In 12 April of this year, the second Sunday of Easter, His Excellency Msgr. Giuseppe Zenti, the Bishop of Verona, in the Cathedral Church of Verona conferred the order of the deaconate on our religious brother Marco Moioli.
ROME – MEETING OF PEOPLE WHO PROVIDE FORMATION
On 8-11 April, in Rome, the Conference of Men and Women Providers of Formation for Consecrated Life was held. This was organised by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. This event, which forms a part of the Year of Consecrated Life, brought together about 1,200 men and women who provide formation from all parts of the world. They engaged in dialogue about the foundations of consecrated life and the needs of formation in the contemporary world.
Together with Fr. Laurent Zoungrana, the Vicar General and the Consultor for Formation, the following took part in this meeting: Fr. Alfréd György(Austria), Fr. Armand Assavedo (the Province of Sicily and Naples); Fr. Babychan Pazhanilath (India); Fr. Denis Kaboré (Burkina), Fr. Mateus Locatelli (Brazil), Fr. Neiber Cabrera (Argentina); Fr. Pierre Yanoogo (the Province of Rome). At the end of the meeting, at the generalate house, the General Secretariat for Formation held a meeting.
Read here the article by Fr. Armand Assavedo
CAMILLIANI/CAMILLIANS
Download here the new edition of Camilliani/Camillians (January-March 2015, 1/2015, 199-XXIX), the quarterly that provides information on the Camillians.
PERU
On 25 March, the day of the annunciation, our religious brothers of the Vice-Province of Peru celebrated the Eucharist to receive six young men from various parts of the country who have put in the ‘little red cross’ and are engaged in the pathway of discernment as Camillian ‘aspirants’.
Together with them, another three young men have begun their pathways as postulants and two have begun the pre-novitiate.
The admission to ordination as a deacon of the religious Daniel Silva Muñoz has also been approved and very probably this will be celebrated in the month of April.
THE ARCHDIOCESE OF TRANI
The ‘Giovanni Maria Rossi’ Institute, ever since its creation has established as its goal that of making the Camillian religious Father Giovanni Maria Rossi, an eclectic musician who dedicated his life to service to the Church and music for the liturgy, more known about. On Thursday 23 April, at 20.00, in Trani at the parish church of S. Maria del Pozzo, the first collection of his compositions for the liturgy published by the Institute will be presented. For the local Church of Trani he composed one of the most important works of the period the Second Vatican Council – the Mass ‘The Risen Crucified Christ’ dedicated to San Nicola Pellegrino – which remains paradigmatic.
THE ROMAN PROVINCE OF THE CAMILLIANS AND THE DAUGHTERS OF ST. CAMILLUS
Some religious brothers of the Province of Rome together with the women religious of the Daughters of St. Camillus are animating a week of parish mission with the ‘Gesù Divin Salvatore’ Parish on the outskirts of Rome, mixing celebratory moments and moments of evangelisation with visits to sick people in their families.
BROTHERS OF EBOLA – MAKENI (SIERRA LEONE)
Sam Cuarto, a Filipino Camillian religious of the community of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene and a religious who works with the Central Camillian Task Force, has come back from Makeni where he offered his service involving coordination for two months in Sierra Leone.
The Province of Italy, responding to a request made by Fr. Aris Miranda, the Consultor for Ministry and the central coordinator of the Camillian Task Force (CTF), renewed with generosity his readiness to extend the stay of Br. Luca Perletti in Sierra Leone in order to implement more effectively the project for psycho-social help in villages and families that have been victims of Ebola.
The project of cooperation for the organisation of the Holy Spirit Hospital now has a woman expert in the educational sciences, counselling and the humanisation of social policies who also works with the Camillian Province of Spain at the Centro de Humanización de la Salud of Tres Cantos (Madrid).
THE DAUGHTERS OF ST. CAMILLUS
Mother Zelia Andrighetti, the Superior General of the Daughters of St. Camillus, has left for Africa to meet her religious sisters of the Delegation of Ouagadogou (Burkina Faso).
Look at the photos of the blog
ACTS OF THE GENERAL CONSULTA
Our religious brothers Bacil Sebastias Singh and Kochukudiyil Ulahannan (Vineesh) of the Camilllian Vice-Province of India have been admitted to the perpetual profession of their religious vows.
The canonical erection of the seat of the Vice-Provincial of India as a residence under the community of Snehadaan has been approved.
The appointment of Br. Vincenzo Duca as the financial administrator of the Province of Sicily and Naples has been approved.
THE APPOINTMENT OF FR. ARIS MIRANDA
The role of the Catholic Church in responding to the Ebola emergency is increasing. The Holy See, through the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has established the ‘Ebola Committee’ whose principal work is to assess the proposals for projects that come from Catholic networks and organisations that work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. The committee is chaired directly by His Eminence Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson and has the following members: Msgr. Bob Vitillo, Br. Pascal Ahodegnon OHSJD, Sr. Barbara Brillant FMM and Fr. Aris Miranda MI.
THE AGENDA OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL AND THE CONSULTORS
Laurent Zoungrana and Br. José Ignacio Santaolalla left on Wednesday 15 April for Burkina Faso where they have been invited to take part on behalf of the General Consulta in the general assembly of the Vice-Province.
Leocir Pessini and Fr. Aris Miranda left on Thursday 16 April for India where they will visit the Vice-Province and meet our religious brothers and the Camillian communities.
On 13-18 May Fr. Leocir Pessini together with Fr. Gianfranco Lunardon will go to Poland for a fraternal visit to our religious brothers and the Camillian communities.
On 18-23 May of this year, in Warsaw (Poland), the meeting will take place of the Superior General and the Consultors with the Major Superiors of the Order. This will be the first annual meeting for dialogue, discussion and planning since the Extraordinary General Chapter of June 2014.
DECEASED RELIGIOUS
‘See, now they vanish, the faces and places, with the self which, as it could, loved them, To become renewed, transfigured, in another pattern’ (T.S. Eliot)
On Saturday 28 March of this year Fr. Bernard Grasser (of the Province of France) returned to the house of the Father. The funeral were celebrated on 31 March at the chapel of the Camillian community of Lyons. Fr. Bernard spent a number of years at the generalate house in Rome as a qualified translator of official documents and texts into French. We are indebted to him and feel esteem and gratitude.
On 20 March 2015 the death took place in the community of the ‘M.G. Vannini’ Hospital (Rome) of Sister Romana Lureti of the Daughters of St. Camillus. She was 77, and 52 of these years were spent as a woman religious, serving God and our sick brethren.
On 9 April 2015, after a long infirmity, Sister Martina of the women Ministers of the Sick of St. Camillus died at the community of Casa Betania in Lucca. Sister Martina finished her journey on earth after 90 years, after living 74 years in religious consecration to God in service to the poor and the needy.
Mother Serafina Dalla Porta, lovingly accompanied by her religious sisters, died on Saturday 11 April 2015 at 8.00 at the religious community of Cremona, the ‘Casa di Cura delle Figlie di San Camillo’. Mother Serafina was 89, and had spent 68 of her years in religious profession, at the service of God, her sick brothers and sisters and in direct service of the Institute as Superior General for twenty-seven years.
‘Now they live in Christ whom they met in the Church, followed in their vocations, and served in the sick and the suffering. Trusting that the Lord, the Holy Virgin our Queen, St. Camillus and our deceased religious brothers will welcome them in their midst, we commend them in our prayers, remembering them with affection, esteem and gratitude’.
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