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The Chaplain's Corner, September 
Rev. Fr. Michael DeAscanis
MEDICAL SAINT OF THE MONTH
Saint Camillus de Lellis
(July 14 is his feast day - in USA it is celebrated on July 18)
Camillus was born in 1550 in the Abruzzi region
of Italy. He was a mercenary soldier who fought
against Muslim armies in Spain and Venice, and
struggled with gambling. He was injured and
spent time recuperating in a hospital in
Rome. Shocked at the ill treatment the patients
received, he experienced a conversion at age 25
and then dedicated himself to serving the
sick. He received spiritual direction from St.
Philip Neri and was ordained a priest at age
34. Other men came to assist him in the work of
caring for the sick, and came to be known as the
Camillians. They emphasized that one cares for a
person, including mind, body, and soul, not just
a physical body. They dedicated themselves to
nursing care and to establishing Catholic hospitals.
Camillus saw the person of Christ in the
sick. When serving them he felt that he was
serving Christ Himself and so he would ask them
to pardon his sins. He considered the sick to be
his master, and viewed himself as their servant
and minister. Once when a cardinal asked to see
him, the saint replied that he was visiting
Christ and would come out when he was finished.
St. Camillus died in 1614 and was canonized in
1746. He is the patron saint of nurses, of the
sick, and of hospitals. A good, readable
historical novel based on his life is, A Soldier
Surrenders: The Conversion of Saint Camillus de Lellis.
CHAPLAIN’S PICK - BOOK OF THE MONTH
Motherless is a gripping novel that takes you on a
behind-the-scenes journey around the globe to the boardrooms and
laboratories where businessmen and scientists are hurriedly
constructing what they refer to as a life sciences revolution,
which will undermine society’s respect for the dignity of the
human person . . . and into the confessionals and chanceries
where the Church’s response is being both shaped and challenged.
Author Brian Gail has written a heart-pounding story for
Catholics who are straining to hear their Church’s voice in what
Pope John Paul II called “the final confrontation between the
Church and the anti-Church, the Gospel and the anti-Gospel.” He
explores the clash between two visions of the human person; one
as pure material that can be manipulated and controlled, and one
as a unity of body and spirit with a divine spark and an
immortal destiny.
The book depicts the Catholic culture of Philadelphia and
follows the lives of several men and women who are unwittingly
drawn up into the dark side of the biotechnology industry. They
struggle to reconcile their careers and their faith. Father John
Sweeney, pastor of a small Catholic parish on Philadelphia’s
storied Main Line, is drawn into the lives of several of his
parishioners who have become involved with the life sciences
revolution where they discover human embryos being created in
laboratories and frozen in cryogenic freezers for a global black
market. Then when the revolution’s ultimate destination is
revealed to one of the three, Fr. Sweeney is faced with his
greatest test as a pastor guiding souls to accountability to
truth even in the face of potentially deadly consequences.
Motherless is the second book in a three part eries, the
others being Fatherless and Childless.
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