The Saint John of God Family in East Timor was delighted to receive Brother Jesús Etayo, the Superior General on 27 June, 2017, accompanied by Brother Pascal Ahodegnon, General Councillor, and Brother Moisés Martín, Director of the Order’s Missions and International Cooperation Office, as part of the General Canonical Visitation.

The Visitation was performed from 27 June to 1 July, 2017, inaugurated and concluded with Mass at which the Superior General presided, and attended by all the Brothers belonging to the East Timor Mission, and the Co-workers, patients, loved ones, aspirants to the vocation, and young scholarship-holders, and two Portuguese lay Co-workers.

In a spirit of great fraternity and closeness, the Superior General was able to visit the two houses in which the Mission is being performed in East Timor: Dili and Laclubar. At Laclubar he conducted a very detailed visit to the João de Deus – Centro de Apoio à Saude, where he met all the Brothers individually in private and held a general meeting with all the co-workers, and had brotherly meetings with the patients, Co-workers, Lay Hospitallers, and scholarship-holders. He paid a visit to the parish priest of Laclubar, and took the opportunity to visit one of the two sukus (quarters) of Laclubar in the mountain region.

By its very nature, the Canonical Visitation is an experience of spiritual life for each Brother and for each Community, and an experience of fraternal life. With the Superior General, the Brothers experienced the Charism of Hospitality which unites all of us. It was the whole Order that came to us and is standing by us to strengthen us in the faith and in the Charism we embody.

Motivated to persevere as we move forward, faithful to the Church and to the Charism, the Superior General encouraged the Brothers to be daring, to experience boldness in their lives and to deploy this boldness in the Mission which the Order is performing in East Timor, to constantly to be able to continue serving the people of East Timor and seeking to meet their needs.