As Camillians, we are called to witness to the ever-present love of Christ for the sick.  One of the vital ways of expressing this love is through our chaplaincy work in hospitals.  In the Philippine Province, the St. Camillus Chaplaincy Community in Mabuhay, Quezon City engages in this ministry.  The four religious in this community serve in three government hospitals.  Fr. Charly Ricafort works in the National Kidney and Transplant Institute; Fr. Junrey Ente serves at the East Avenue Medical Center; Frs. Wilfredo Penoliar, and Francis Zhang, offer their combined services to the patients at the Philippine Heart Center.

I learned from interviewing the ‘Mabuhay Quartet’ that they have similar and distinct tasks as Camillian chaplains.  In general they offer the same pastoral care services such as anointing of the sick, bedside visitation, confession, pastoral counseling, prayer healing, spiritual direction and daily masses.  Aside from attending to the needs of the sick, their watchers and relatives, they also offer spiritual formation to the health care personnel and providers.  They facilitate recollections, strengthen and promote team building, and enrich the personnel’s sense of compassion in serving the sick.

Each hospital milieu has elicited from the four chaplains distinct forms of involvement.  In NKTI, Fr. Charly, as member of the Ethics Committee, helps in the conscientization about kidney donation.  They curb the abuse of kidney sale in the hospital by personally persuading kidney donors to donate out of their own free will.  They also protect the donors from abusive people, who put their life in danger.  In addition, the Ethics Committee also  They also lobby for the addition of the national health budget in order to intensify the hospital’s social service component.

In EAMC, Fr. Junrey, spearheads a fund drive for the repair of the hospital chapel. The aim is to make the chapel more conducive to prayer.  Fr. Junrey also strives to attend to the other needs of the chaplaincy office.  He has also joined the cancer support group which is an outside activity of the hospital.  One of his most important concern and involvement is the formation of the health care providers and personnel.  He helps empower them by planning with them and making them own the programs they have agreed upon.

At the PHC, Fr. Freddie implements a Pastoral Care Program for seminarians geared towards the enhancement of one’s ministry among the sick.  It also serves as a venue for growth in self-knowledge and awareness.  In his many years as chaplain in PHC, he has also worked for the innovation of the chapel and the improvement of chaplaincy services.  Fr. Francis from China helps Fr. Freddie as assistant chaplain.  He enjoys his ministry especially in being with the sick.  The happiness and consolation he gets from the ministry makes up for his difficulty in communicating with the sick and other people in the hospital.  He never makes the language barrier an excuse for not carrying out his ministry.  Rather, he has made it a stepping stone to boost his determination to learn English for better service as a Camillian chaplain.

All of our four Mabuhay confreres are energized in their ministry by the inspiration and challenge they get from the situation of the poor sick and the people they are serving.  As most of them said, the actual situation of the poor sick move their hearts and motivate them to do something for their benefit.  Such inspiration and aspiration mirror Camillus’ wish to have a hundred arms in order to do much more for the sick.