Hospitality according to the manner of Saint John of God transcends the ambit of the professed Brothers of the Order. We promote the vision of the Order as the “Hospitaller Family of Saint John of God” and welcome, as a gift of the Spirit in our times the possibility of sharing our Charism, spirituality and mission with our Co-Workers, recognizing their qualities and talents.

For me, Damian Stępień, these words taken from the second chapter of the General Statute of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God speak to the fundamentals of our work and are at the heart of the relationships among Brothers and Co-Workers. For many years now, those words have helped me to carry out my professional duties in close harmony with Christian values.

I come from a city in which for nearly 70 years, the Fatebenefratelli were denied the right to independently manage their hospitals. First as an altar boy, then as a student and later as a volunteer, I have been able to observe religious life and to accompany the Brothers in their ministry of the hospital.

In 2009, the hospital again officially became part of the Order, once more therefore allowing the Brothers to provide the residents of our city with assistance in the charismatic style of Saint John of God. 

In our efforts to restore the hospital’s original character, I was able to help by often serving as a bridge between the Brothers and the medical and administrative staff. In other words, it provided me with a unique opportunity to observe the degree to which the values transmitted by the Order are able to change individual people and their approaches to the patients.

During this period, the support provided by Fatebenefratelli Order’s other institutions throughout the world proved essential. Their concept of Hospitality, steeped as it is in Mercy, allowed me to better understand their charism and share my expertise to help the hospital once it returned to their management.

Because my work is administrative in nature, I am not able to help the patients directly. But on a daily basis I do perform the tasks given to me as part of what we call “Charismatic management”.