ASIA/PAKISTAN - Opening of the first formation house for young Camillian aspirants

Friday, 12 February 2021 development   evangelization   missionaries  

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Karachi (Agenzia Fides) - "Twenty years ago I never thought I would reach this day. After joining the Camillian religious Order of the Ministers of the Sick, I immediately began to dream of the Order's presence in Pakistan as well. And today, I witness it with my own eyes", writes to Agenzia Fides Fr. Mushtaq Anjum, Camillian missionary, MI, of Pakistani nationality. The event he refers to is the opening, on January 22 in the Archdiocese of Karachi, of the first house of the Order in the country. More than 50 people took part in the inauguration.
Fr. Mushtaq returned from his mission in Indonesia on August 4, 2020. "After a long and careful search, on October 2, 2020, here in Karachi, we found and rented what constitutes the first MI house where we began the formation of the first two young aspirants. The program - explains Fr. Anjum - provides for the pre-novitiate, subsequently, the candidate for the novitiate will go to the Philippines or Indonesia. We currently have two postulants in Indonesia". "We are promoting vocations and, in addition to contributing to the health and pastoral care of the diocese, we hope to have more and more vocations", adds the missionary who is the only Camillian present.
"After so many difficulties, supported by the confreres, by prayer and trust in God who, in a mysterious way, has always written straight in the twists and turns of my life and has allowed me to move forward, this day has arrived", writes Fr. Mushtaq. "God has organized my path in such a way as to bring me to this day. For me this is a memorable day. The enormous responsibility scares me a little, but I am strong in the love, support and grace of God that I can always count on.
The lay people, benefactors, friends, family members, seminarians who shared with the Camillian missionary the realization of the house in question are part of this project. Fr. Mushtaq thanked the Order, the confreres of the Philippine province and the delegation from Indonesia, in particular the superior delegate Fr. Luigi Galvani, MI, for the strength and courage in my difficult moments. He expressed his gratitude to Cardinal Joseph Coutts, who welcomed the Camillians and has been part of their life for the past 20 years in the Diocese of Faisalabad first then in the Archdiocese of Karachi. In Pakistan there are three groups of the Lay Camillian Family (LCF). The first was created in 2012 by Brother Luca Perletti, MI, then Secretary General of the Order. Other members of the LCF are engaged in two dioceses of Faisalabad and in the archdiocese of Karachi. Fr. Rino Metrini was the first Italian Camillian missionary to arrive from Thailand in January 2001 at the invitation of Fr. Amato Aldino, OP, to visit and supervise the construction of the Rosary Christian Hospital in a village of Chak 6, Okara, within the diocese of Faisalabad. (MA/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 12/2/2021)

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