TOGETHER IN ASIA TO LEARN ABOUT THE PAST, TO CELEBRATE THE PRESENT AND TO PEER INTO THE FUTURE, TO RE-MOTIVATE THE CAMILLIAN MISSIONARY SPIRIT

Meeting of the Superior General, the members of the General Consulta and the major Superiors in Taiwan

Loudong, 18-22 June 2018

Fifth Day – 22 June 2019

The fifth day of the meeting of the major Superiors of the Order with the Superior General and the members of the General Consulta began today, 22 June 2018, in Loudong (Taiwan). Br. Ignacio Santaolalla was the chairman of the deliberations of the assembly today.

The whole of the morning was dedicated to visiting the social works of the Camillians in Taiwan (meetings with the people helped by these works, their managers, the co-workers and the voluntary workers).

1. A visit to the buildings and the guests of the home for receiving, and reducing the difficulties of, young people with handicaps and grave mental disabilities.
2. A meeting with the guests and the co-workers of the home for receiving elderly people who are sick and have low chances of being self-sufficient.
3. A ‘solemn’ blessing of the ‘first stone’ of the new institution for people with Alzheimer’s disease. In this solemn context, the Vice-President of the Republic of Taiwan was present at the ceremony and spoke moving and flattering words about the Camillians in Taiwan and about the witness that they bear to their charism in helping the poor and the sick. He publicly recognised the extraordinary contribution that our religious have made to Taiwanese society over the last sixty years during their presence on the island.
4. A visit to the schools for nurses which at the present time has over 3,000 registered students: young people who are receiving a training in nursing and education. This is a further contribution of the Camillians to the world of health and culture in Taiwan.
5. A visit with prayers to the recently created ‘St. Camillus Sanctuary’ of Loudong which was built to give space to the devotion of the faithful to our holy Founder and his message of mercy towards the sick.

The afternoon was dedicated to a paper given by Fr. Laurent Zoungrana on the various aspects of the sector of formation of the Order and to the deliberations of the assembly to provide an overall assessment of the annual meeting of 2018.

      A Holy Mass celebrated by the Charge d’Affaires (‘Nuncio’), Msgr. Slađan Cosic, and a folkloristic performance offered by the youth group the ‘Lanyang Youth Catholic Center’, coordinated by the Camillian religious Fr. Giancarlo Michelini, ended the meeting.

The next meeting, which will be held in 2019, will be celebrated in Rome on 10-19 March 2019 in a special form: the first part will be shared with the general councils of all the institutes of consecrated life inspired by the charism of St. Camillus: the great Camillian Charismatic Family (the men Camillians, the Daughters of St. Camillus, the women Ministers of the Sick, the Handmaidens of the Incarnation, the women Missionaries of the Sick ‘Christ the Hope’, Stella Maris…); the second part of the meeting will be dedicated by the major Superiors to reflecting in particular upon the preparations for the General Chapter of the Order of 2020.

Our thanks go to all those who have contributed to the smooth functioning and success of this meeting in Taiwan (18-22 June 2018). A special reference must be made to our confreres of the Camillian Delegation of Taiwan (to Fr. Giuseppe Didonè and his highly organised and welcoming staff) and, in the person of Fr. Jojo Eloja, the Provincial Superior, to all the Camillian religious of the Province of the Philippines.