Four Indians for Ebola Mission

By Sister Betty Ambuja Rscj

Worker in Sierra Leone.

The bold print of the article in the Times of India caught the eye. Who would these Indians be?

It is a proud moment for the Church in India, for they are three priests and one brother belonging to a religious order called Ministers of the Sick, or Camillians, after their Founder, St. Camillus de Lellis. On further investigation, it was discovered that St Camillus, whose own life was a miracle of grace, founded this remarkable congregation in the 16th century in Italy. Their mission is Healthcare for the Poor. All are given a training as male nurses. At the time of their Final Profession they make a 4th Vow – to nurse the sick and the dying, at the risk of their own lives.

Countries in West Africa have appealed desperately to the world, for medical personnel to help them contain the spread of the highly contagious disease of Ebola, which has already caused the death of thousands of their people. To co-opt volunteers for this service has been a hard task. The hospital in Makeni, Sierra Leone was closed down some months ago, because of the lack of volunteers and the tragic death of a nurse there. Now the Task Force of four Camillians from India and two, (one from Ireland and one from the Philippines), who have preceded them, will re-open the hospital at Makeni and run it for Ebola patients. They maintain “We are ready for anything”.

What could be more inspirational than this following of the Master in the way that He showed us, to the point of laying down one’s life; than this boundless act of trust in God against huge odds ?

The Holy Spirit Hospital Mateni Sierra Leone

The news coincides with the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life on this First Sunday of Advent  2014, during which the Church calls us to deepen our understanding of the Consecrated Life  and to make a renewed response to this radical, evangelical calling. No doubt this special attention is motivated by the crisis in the fewness of vocations to the Religious Life today.

Has the world lost interest in the brilliance of the charisms gifted to religious life and their drawing power, because of the lack-lustre quality of our religious lives ? We must consider all sides of the problem. Has youth lost its sensitivity to the gentle voice of the Spirit, to reading the signs of the times and making a generous, personal response ? And have parents lost the will to give back to God, at cost to themselves, what God  has given to them as gift, in their children ?

The hospital at Makeni in Sierra Leone will now be called Holy Spirit Hospital. The name could not have been better chosen. With the “ Power of the Most High” ( Lk. 1:35) overshadowing this place of healing and this humble, human  endeavour of a religious congregation to reach out to the suffering, we know that  “ All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”  ( Julian of Norwich)