Catholic-run hospital in Mati Diocese marks 17th year

St. Camillus Hospital of Mati continues to provide medical and pastoral care for the sick of Davao Oriental.

CITY OF MATI—The only private hospital run by a Catholic congregation in this city is celebrating 17 years of providing hospital care for the people of the city and Davao Oriental, April 20.

St. Camillus Hospital of Mati Foundation, Incorporated is run by the Ministers of the Infirm (MI) or better known as Camillians headed by Fr. Angel Crisostomo, MI, the hospital director. He said the hospital will celebrate 2015 as the “Year of Hospital Personnel.”

On April 15, the hospital will hold a free consultation in the morning until 12:00 noon while a motorcade will be held in the main thoroughfares of Mati City on the 20th. A Holy Mass will be celebrated at 5:00 in the afternoon, followed by dinner and a program in the evening, wherein the launching of the Year of Hospital Personnel will be held.

Fr. Crisostomo said the hospital started in April 15, 1998 when the then Bishop of Mati and now bishop emeritus, Bishop Patricio Alo invited their congregation to put up a hospital for the care of the sick in the Diocese of Mati. He added what was supposed to be a small clinic would then become a hospital that has a 50-bed capacity and is categorized as Level 1 by the Department of Health. He added that the hospital remains to be committed in providing not only medical service but also pastoral care for the sick and the poor of Mati and nearby towns. He said that St. Camillus Hospital wants to live up the spirituality of St. Camillus de Lelis which says: “To see Jesus in the sick and to be Jesus for the sick, to be the compassionate Jesus for the sick while looking at the suffering Christ in the person of the sick.”

St. Camillus de Lelis is the patron saint of hospitals, doctors, and health care workers.