By the PIME General Directorate

The General Directorate of PIME, on the confrere-victims of the pandemic from the House of the Senior Missionaries in Rancio di Lecco. “We share the fate of all humanity’s suffering. Let us strengthen our fraternity and ask the Father to accomplish His will, even at this hour.”

In recent days, PIME has mourned the deaths of several confreres at the Home for Senior Missionaries in Rancio di Lecco, where Covid-19 inflicts its effects on those made more fragile by age or other illnesses. Faced with this situation, the General Directorate of the Institute shares this message to all PIME Missionaries worldwide and all those who are close to PIME and its commitment to witnessing the Gospel to the peoples of the world.

Despite the many attentions taken in these months at our Home for Senior Missionaries, we PIME Missionaries are now sharing the suffering and fate of so many people affected rapidly and unexpectedly by COVID-19. We would like to express our thanks to Rancio di Lecco’s community, and in particular to the confreres who are personally bearing the burden of this situation with great generosity and familial spirit. To our confreres exposing themselves to the contagion to help and, with them, our thanks to all the personnel who work for us in the House, the health personnel, and the essential services.

These are the days in which we are reminded, more than ever, of the figure of Pope Francis who, alone, in front of a deserted St. Peter’s Square, said to the world: “Thick darkness has fallen over our squares, streets and cities; it has taken over our lives filling everything with a deafening silence and a desolating emptiness, which paralyzes everything as it passes; you can feel it in the air, you can feel it in the gestures, the looks say it…from this colonnade that embraces Rome and the world may the blessing of God descend like a consoling embrace.” “Lord,” said the Pope, “bless the world, give health to bodies and comfort to hearts.”

For us, too, these are the moments when we are called to exercise patience and instill hope every day, taking care not to sow panic but co-responsibility. When we pray, when we celebrate Mass, we feel called to live this moment of grave trial in communion, strengthening the sense of fraternity within our family of apostles and with all humanity. Let us intensify our prayer, unite ourselves around Mary Queen of the Apostles, and continue to ask the Father to bless those who generously care for the sick, to grant eternal peace to those who have left us, to dry the tears of those in pain, and to teach our hearts to do the Father’s will even at this hour. Lord, through the intercession of our founder Angelo Ramazzotti, who did his best to care for the sick in times of epidemic, we continue to ask You to free us from this suffering.