On Monday 5, and Tuesday 6 December, the General Curia hosted the meeting organised by the Brussels Hospitality Europe office for the European Provincial Reference Persons belonging to the Order and the Sisters Hospitallers. The December meeting had been planned to cover one and a half days, because it was to be the only meeting of the reference persons in 2016, having had to cancel the previous meeting in July because of the need to bring forward the work on the refurbishment of the Curia Conference Hall.

Dr Galasso reported on the main activities promoted by the European office in recent months, including the pilot project on violent behaviour by psychiatric patients, and the application for EU financing for the Order’s Vocational Nursing Schools Congress (Granada, April 2017). 16 new projects were selected to begin in the Provinces in 2017, while Javier Martinez, the coordinator of the Juan Ciudad Foundation (Madrid) illustrated details of progress with the DESkTOP project (for people with disabilities).

The meeting was also attended by various speakers from the different areas represented by Hospitality Europe: Brother Rudolf Knopp (the future organisation of the Order in Europe), Anna Janicka (the Order’s hospitals in Poland), Patrizio Pasqualetti, Massimo Marianetti and Angelo Venuti (mother and child health, and Alzheimer’s research).

After a general discussion and the presentation of ideas for future projects and initiatives to be implemented on a European scale, Dr Galasso introduced the new European Homelessness Working Group, which would hold its first meeting on 16 December at La Nocetta.

While they were in Rome, the participants were also able to share experiences and news about their Provinces outside the working sessions, thereby strengthening the group spirit which is now almost 5 years old.