Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - The International Camillianum Institute for Pastoral Theology and Health Care is a center for research, theological formation, and training in the health world run by the Order of Ministers of the Sick (the Camillians). This year, the Camillianum celebrates its twentieth year in existence and upon the occasion, Agenzia Fides has presented several question to its Director, Father Luciano Sandrin, recently re-elected for the coming three-year term.
Father Sandrin, to what end was the Camillianum established 20 years ago? Who attends the institution and what are the main courses offered?
The Camillianum was established with the spirit of Saint Camillo de Lellis, a saint that through his own hope as a sick person, discovered the importance of “taking care” of those who suffer in body and soul, of “saving” a person through an effort to find remedy for their health. As an academic institution, incorporated into the Teresianum, the Camillianum is called to perform a task of study so as to give a theological basis to this “taking care of” and find the right means of transmitting it. The studies on problems related to life, health, and suffering are done from a theological-pastoral perspective in which theology, philosophy, medicine, bioethics, counseling, and human sciences all “enter into dialogue.” It is an approach that allows the mind to expand, and amplifies the ability to diagnose situations and offer spiritual remedies that are less common. The students are from all over the world. There are priests, religious, and laity, that wish to serve in the health world, with a particular focus on the spiritual dimension of those they will encounter.
The sick and their relatives, doctors, health care personnel...what do they find in their treatment with those who have attended the Camillianum? What is the added plus that enriches the work and lives of your students and graduates?
I think that in those who have attended the Camillianum, they can find a special manner of meeting people “where they are,” of accompanying the sick and all those who assist them, in their “joys and hopes, sadness and anxieties,” as Gaudium et spes says, in their uncertainties and questions, offering them the Word of God that gives comfort and celebrating the sacraments that heal, from the ‘diakonia’ of presence, listening, and relation. The added plus is an empathetic sensitivity that is capable of transmitting divine compassion, a presence that knows how to convey the Father’s mercy.
Do you come across sick persons who ask why God allows them to suffer and does not bring it to an end? How do you accompany them in this sense? Are you able to transmit hope through the strength of your faith, to those you care for?
“Why?”, “Why me?”, “What evil have I done?”, “Why is God punishing me?”: these are the typical questions that the patient and their families often ask the people who most remind them of the divine (chaplains, Sisters, pastoral care workers). There are various ways of responding “theologically,” however in the moment of suffering, these do not reach the heart of the matter. These persons are already filled with emotions that can impede a lucid thought process. In accompanying the person who is suffering, what is needed is a pastoral ministry of “theodicy,” carried out as a patient yet constant accompaniment of nearness and love, so that it becomes a delicate interpretation of the silent divine presence. Jesus has given profound healing to those who seek Him, sometimes through a petition of forgiveness of their sins, sometimes through a physical cure, other times through an encounter of reconciliation with another person, etc. The point is to save the person; the path should be “personalized.” One’s own personal testimony of faith, given in the right moment and in a modest manner, always leaves a mark. It can be a gesture of comfort, but it can also be a source of motivation.
Knowing how to face life, death, and suffering on a daily basis: how can we prepare ourselves in facing these realities, at a time in history where so often the illnesses are more spiritual than physical?
It is not easy to accompany the suffering and dying on a daily basis, “keeping vigil with them” in their moments of most anxiety. Even the Apostles “fell asleep” and all of them fled. In order to assist the sick patient and his relatives on a daily and long-term basis, one important thing is “take care of oneself,” knowing oneself (strong points and weak points), maintain one’s own capacity to think clearly and be “competent” on a relational level. I would like to take an excerpt from my most recently published book: “Abbi cura di te.” (“Take Care of Yourself”) There is a time for others and a time for oneself. The body reflects the worries of the soul and when the body is sick, the great forgotten “questions” return. In a relationship of assistance, in order for it to be spiritually effective as well, it is important that the sick person and those who accompany him are lead to a rediscovery of the soul, and that they are offered a word of encouragement regarding the meaning of life, suffering, and death. But what if we ourselves have lost sight of our soul and our life has becoming meaningless? We need to take care of ourselves, of our own body and soul. This will be later reflected in our love for others, in our relationships of assistance and healing.
What is at the heart of pastoral theology and health care, what is the source for the Camillianum’s activity?
It is a theology that reflects on the activity of the entire community of believers who, following Christ’s example, take to heart “the human being's integral healing” (words of Benedict XVI in a recent Sunday Angelus address). Announcing the Kingdom and healing the sick were Christ’s manifestation of a singular mission. It should be the same for the Church’s pastoral ministry. Reflecting theologically on the multi-faceted nature of this activity means understanding that health pastoral ministry has a special place within the health care structure, but it cannot be consigned to that place alone. Time and again it is called to integrate itself with the other pastoral sensibilities and have an influence on the daily pastoral life of the diocese and the parish communities. We can just think about all those sick and suffering in our family, our next-door neighbors. Oftentimes we only think of them when something dramatic and “newsworthy” occurs, when the yolk of pain weighs down over love. Health pastoral ministry has an important pastoral role within an integral pastoral ministry. Performing health pastoral ministry today, and reflecting theologically on this task means, above all, rediscovering the “healing” aspect (saving-curing) of all Church activity (preaching, celebrations, etc.).
Your work has an international dimension: how do you reconcile medicine and the mission?
If the model is Christ Himself, I do not think it so difficult. You cannot preach God’s love without working to promote life, especially in its beginnings, when it is most fragile, in favor of people’s life and health. Sometimes this work is seen in the health care structures themselves and other times it is manifest in a prevention effort against disease and health promotion. Sometimes it is carried out through health formation courses and others, through a specifically pastoral service. The inculturation of Christ’s command to “preach and heal” is the goal of the Camillian mission, in the various manners that it is carried out. The Camillian Religious is called to work in favor of people’s dignity, for their life interests, their relationships, and their suffering and dying.
In mid-May, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, the Camillianum hosted a convention on “Health and Salvation”: what is the relationship between these two great demands - moral and material - of man?
The mission that Christ entrusted to His community is that of preaching a salvation (“salus”) that is “participation in divine life,” which will reach its fullness only when we see God face to face, and so for now, “it is not yet fully manifest,” but also of making it present “now” in our ministry of healing and comforting, in washing others’ feet, in improving people’s lives, defending-above all-their dignity in every moment of their lives, through a charity that is expressed in justice, but that knows how to “creatively” and communally continue onwards. The dedication to health care is this efficacious sign of “now” for what is “not yet” in salvation, whose full expression will only be revealed in God’s Eschaton. The objective is to discover health as a “path” towards salvation in health and in suffering, a “road” to hope. Pope Benedict’s most recent encyclical refers to suffering as the school of hope and of all of us as “ministers of hope.” The Camillianum is on this wavelength.
You were recently re-elected Director for another three-year term: what are your expectations for the coming years in your position and for the life of the Camillianum?
I hope that the Camillianum will be increasingly more appreciated as a gift to the Church and as a school of pastoral theology that not only teaches someone how to be a good hospital chaplain, but also how to manage a diocesan office that coordinates the many groups and associations that work in this area, how to give courses on health pastoral ministry, on the theology of pain and accompanying the dying, in Seminaries and Schools of Theology. I hope that it can help spread awareness among the Christian community, of the larger questions of life, illness, disability, pain, and death, knowing how to respond to the radical (and serious) questions that are posed in this area. I hope students can learn, above all, how to be with the people (like Mary at the foot of the Cross, stabat mater) even when we cannot “solve” their problems. I dream of a Christian community (in all its members) that understands the importance of pastoral work in these life experiences and that it may grow in nearness, not only in words but in pastoral practices as well, to those who are experiencing these things in their own lives. Above all, I hope that it may understand that the sick person (with disabilities, suffering in various ways) is a “participant in the work of evangelization and salvation” - words of John Paul II in Christifidelis laici that some may not yet have read or had too quickly forgotten. (PC) (Agenzia Fides 14/7/2008)
