(Rivista Internazionale - December 1996: Blessed Gerard’s Care Centre - 1/1)

Spirituality

Blessed Gerard’s Care Centre

Mandeni, South Africa. The Order's Foundation "Blessed Gerards Care Centre", hosting children needing assistance and young apprentices.

On 3 September 1996, the anniversary of the death of the founder of the Order, the Blessed Gerard's Care Centre was inaugurated in Mandeni, South Africa. The ceremony was officiated by Msgr Mansuet Dela Biyase, local Ordinary, in the diocese of Eshowe, Zululand province.
Father Gerard Lagleder, Benedictine Missionary and Magistral Chaplain, has been working on this project in Mandeni for eight years. He has received financing for the Centre from some of his friends and relatives in Bavaria.

Particular thanks go to Count Albrecht Rechberg, Knight Grand Cross of Obedience, and to the President of the Malteser Hilfsdienst of Munich, Manfred Schultz, Knight of Magistral Grace, for having contributed to the realisation of the Centre. Knight of Magistral Grace Daniel Meehan, of the US Federal Association, has also provided funds for building a kindergarten in Savana, for the children of working mothers.

The Care Centre consists of a chapel, which can be enlarged by pushing back two mobile walls, a sitting room and two rooms with five beds, two with three beds and four with one bed. The rooms with one bed are for the terminally ill. There is also a kitchen, laundry, classroom and some rooms for the staff.
The Care Centre is based on the original idea of the Order's founder, providing assistance for the sick. Its main objective is to help AIDS sufferers, as about 40 percent of the population is affected by this virus. Patients are assisted by their family members, who are taught how to treat and care for them, so that after two or three weeks, the sick can leave the Centre to return to their homes.
At the end of the ceremony, the Grand Commander, Ven. Bailiff Fra' Ludwig Hoffmann von Rumerstein, personally handed over a small particle of the relic of the founder Blessed Gerard for the chapel. The urn has been placed in the ostensorium for relics and exposed for veneration.

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