Bethlehem, Saturday 18th December 2010
It was Christmas Eve 1952 when Father Ernst Schnydrig, on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem, saw the heart-breaking scene of a father burying his child who had died for lack of medical treatment. The Spirit immediately guided him to found a medical centre that could help all children born in the land of Jesus, without distinction of race or religious belief.
The centre has come a long way since those first two rooms almost sixty years ago. In 1978 the paediatric hospital called “Caritas Baby Hospital” was inaugurated, but too late for its founder to attend, as he had passed away a few days earlier.
Today marks the inauguration of an extension and renovation of the building, another important milestone in the growth of the hospital, which now has an outpatients clinic and two new rooms for the “School for mothers” where the mothers of hospitalized children can stay and where they receive training on how to look after and care for their children in the best possible way.
The children’s hospital stands on land belonging to the Custody of the Holy Land which it gave for this purpose, near the checkpoint leading to Jerusalem, and has an efficient and highly professional organization. It has a total of 215 employees, counting doctors, qualified nurses (the centre also trains them) and management. It has 82 beds, two wards for medicine and one for neonatology. In 2009, there were 4500 hospital stays and 27800 outpatient cases for a total of 32,300 children who received care. All this is supported by the charity of international donations, without any subsidies.
The Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Padua are a point of reference for the work in the wards and for moral and spiritual support both for the personal and the small patients and their families. The ceremony of inauguration of the new premises started at 8.30 in the morning with the welcome of the CEO, Ernest Lagensand, followed by the blessing by H.B. Mons. Fuad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The friendly and efficient personnel of the hospital then organized small groups according to the different languages (Arabic, English, Italian, German and French) to visit the premises without being too much of a disturbance for the patients and the work of the health care personnel.
This was followed at 10.30 by Holy Mass in the different languages celebrated by H.B. the Patriarch Fuad Twal in the Church of St. Catherine. In his homily taken from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 10,25-37) of the Good Samaritan, His Beatitude recalled how the work of the Caritas Baby Hospital is faithful both to the teachings of Our Lord and how important charity is in such a complex and difficult social context as the Holy Land, characterizing being Christians. The concelebrants were Mons. Antonio Franco, Nonce for Israel and apostolic delegate for Jerusalem and Palestine and Cardinal Kurt Koch, Chairman of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Church Unity and of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
Giving even more warmth to the celebration was Sister Lucia Corradin who lives and works at the hospital and conducted the choir that accompanied the ceremony. The moment of the Offertory was particularly moving, when building tools, to mark the physical work of construction and baby bottles, to mark the care of children were taken to the altar. Sister Erica Nobs, Mother Superior of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Padua in Bethlehem, also took a photo of the founder, Father Ernst Schnydrig, to the altar.
The inauguration came to an end at the Casa Nova, where the governor of Bethlehem, Abed Al Fatah Hamayel, spoke, expressing his satisfaction and thanks.
Marco Gavasso
It was Christmas Eve 1952 when Father Ernst Schnydrig, on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem, saw the heart-breaking scene of a father burying his child who had died for lack of medical treatment. The Spirit immediately guided him to found a medical centre that could help all children born in the land of Jesus, without distinction of race or religious belief.
The centre has come a long way since those first two rooms almost sixty years ago. In 1978 the paediatric hospital called “Caritas Baby Hospital” was inaugurated, but too late for its founder to attend, as he had passed away a few days earlier.
Today marks the inauguration of an extension and renovation of the building, another important milestone in the growth of the hospital, which now has an outpatients clinic and two new rooms for the “School for mothers” where the mothers of hospitalized children can stay and where they receive training on how to look after and care for their children in the best possible way.
The children’s hospital stands on land belonging to the Custody of the Holy Land which it gave for this purpose, near the checkpoint leading to Jerusalem, and has an efficient and highly professional organization. It has a total of 215 employees, counting doctors, qualified nurses (the centre also trains them) and management. It has 82 beds, two wards for medicine and one for neonatology. In 2009, there were 4500 hospital stays and 27800 outpatient cases for a total of 32,300 children who received care. All this is supported by the charity of international donations, without any subsidies.
The Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Padua are a point of reference for the work in the wards and for moral and spiritual support both for the personal and the small patients and their families. The ceremony of inauguration of the new premises started at 8.30 in the morning with the welcome of the CEO, Ernest Lagensand, followed by the blessing by H.B. Mons. Fuad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The friendly and efficient personnel of the hospital then organized small groups according to the different languages (Arabic, English, Italian, German and French) to visit the premises without being too much of a disturbance for the patients and the work of the health care personnel.
This was followed at 10.30 by Holy Mass in the different languages celebrated by H.B. the Patriarch Fuad Twal in the Church of St. Catherine. In his homily taken from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 10,25-37) of the Good Samaritan, His Beatitude recalled how the work of the Caritas Baby Hospital is faithful both to the teachings of Our Lord and how important charity is in such a complex and difficult social context as the Holy Land, characterizing being Christians. The concelebrants were Mons. Antonio Franco, Nonce for Israel and apostolic delegate for Jerusalem and Palestine and Cardinal Kurt Koch, Chairman of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Church Unity and of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
Giving even more warmth to the celebration was Sister Lucia Corradin who lives and works at the hospital and conducted the choir that accompanied the ceremony. The moment of the Offertory was particularly moving, when building tools, to mark the physical work of construction and baby bottles, to mark the care of children were taken to the altar. Sister Erica Nobs, Mother Superior of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Padua in Bethlehem, also took a photo of the founder, Father Ernst Schnydrig, to the altar.
The inauguration came to an end at the Casa Nova, where the governor of Bethlehem, Abed Al Fatah Hamayel, spoke, expressing his satisfaction and thanks.
Marco Gavasso