Rome (Fides Service) - The annual meeting of the Italian Association for Pastoral for the Sick will take place 6-10 October in Collevalenza with the theme “Happy the person who cares for the weak: the joy of giving”. The Meeting will reflect on the four elements expressed in the theme: happiness, the person, caring, the weak.
The elements will be analysed through four directing lines marked by the same number of speakers. Famiglia Cristiana journalist Franca Zambonini will give the first talk with a cultural character stressing the universal desire for happiness in the fields of life in which she has experience. This will be followed by a psychological talk “Happiness and human maturity” by prof. Eugenio Fizzotti, president of the faculty of psychology at the Salesian University in Rome. On Day three the meeting will turn to a biblical prospective with Mons Bruno Maggoni and don Sergio Carrarini. Lastly the spiritual dimension with Carmelite Father Jesus Castellano Cervera “The spirituality of joy”.
Among those present Mons Sergio Pinto the Director of the National Office for Pastoral of Health of the Italian Bishops’ Conferences, national leaders of health pastoral and several Bishops concerned with this aspect of pastoral, including Bishop Decio Lucio Grandoni and Bishop Pietro Bottacioli of Gubbio.
Man has always searched for happiness – the promoters explain. People who live in contact with suffering and pain may consider this prospect out of reach, but it is precisely where man realises his limits that he beings to long for happiness, serenity, health. Combining suffering and happiness is the challenge for people who work and live with the sick”.
The Meeting’s official logo bears the image Mother Teresa, a few days before her beatification 19 October. The Sister of the poor is symbol of someone who found happiness caring for the weakest, which is the sense which this meeting (AP) (Fides Service 23/9/2003 EM lines 29 Words: 359)