Today, we have this to say to John of God:


Your work has extended to all five continents, and is present in 46 countries throughout the world. We are striving to provide services to people in need in accordance with the spirit with which you provided it in your first hospital, so that we too may also become hospitality. We are working in the public health systems and fill in the gaps in programs that are not being fully implemented and provided for by the State. In many places we provide the only care that the people are able to receive because the governments have not yet had the possibility to organize themselves. Even though we work in a variety of different Centers and services, influenced by you we work for all kinds of sick and needy people. You, of course, had to do all of this in one Center.

Moreover, we have been attentive to the new needs which our society has created. This may be presumptuous on our part, but we consider that if you were here today, you would be doing what we are now doing.

In our Centers, alongside the Brothers, we have a large number of committed Co-workers just as you had in your hospital. Like you we are delighted with the support we receive from benefactors and volunteers: people who volunteer their time and energy in caring for others. We also have many friends, who are devoted to you, members of Associations who support and keep pace with our work. Together with the sick and the needy, I would like to present them all to you, asking you to bless them and protect them and help them in their lives. Before you today, we reaffirm our commitment to serving the sick and the needy with warmth and quality. In order to do this we need ongoing formation, education and training. We need to use the facilities that technology can offer us, in order to serve and care for our contemporaries in a way which is technical and modern, while remaining firmly grounded in Gospel values. our last General Chapter gave the whole Order a document entitled "The New Evangelisation and Hospitality on the Eve of the Third Millennium." We wish to practice the same hospitality which you embodied in your person, but what we now call the "New Hospitality."

In this way we wish to continue evangelizing through our ministry of care and contribute towards the development and growth of society. To bring this about we need the same zeal, strength and qualities which you had.

Be. Pascual Piles, O.H.
Prior General
Granada, Spain
8 March 1996

© 1996 The Brothers of St. John of God