Towards the 50th anniversary of St. Carollo Hospital
(Caritas Sisters) KOREA
Suncheon, Korea, 2 November 2018 -- Twenty years after the blessing of the new St Carollo (St Charles) hospital building in Suncheon in 1998, the community of 36 Caritas Sisters of Jesus in Suncheon and the large family of 1000 medical staff of the St Carollo General Hospital opened the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the hospital on 2 November 2018. In the presence of their Guadalupe missionary chaplain and the SDB regional counclllor, Fr Stefano Yang (SDB provincial of Korea) blessed the newly-built Childrens Day Care Centre for the children of hospital staff families. The long-awaited event also saw Caritas Sister Superiors come from all three Korean provinces of Seoul, Suwon and Gwangju.
A thanksgiving Eucharist was celebrated in the hospital hall for the 49th anniversary of the St Carollo Hospital, founded by the St Charles Borromeo missionary sisters and later handed over to the Caritas sisters at the original site. After Mass at which Fr Klement presided, a ceremony was held for awards for the 10th, 20th and 30th anniversaries of various medical staff serving at the hospital. Indeed more than 100 doctors and another 900 lay mission partners form a large family, quite possibly making this 600 bed general hospital in Suncheon City (280,000 population) the largest hospital in the whole Salesian Family around the EAO region and maybe even worldwide.
Listening to the Director and CEO of the Hospital, Sr Gerard Choi, the family spirit and the preventive system of Don Bosco is very much alive among the staff and together with the hi-tech modern equipment and dedicated staff make it among the best in the whole Southern Cholla province. There are 24 medical departments and specialised sections for cancer treatment, heart and vascular surgery. As a reward for the high quality, the St Carollo Hospital was designated by the local government as an active regional emergency centre in 2016. In the vast area of about 900,000 of population in the South-West corner of the country it is probably the best medical centre there is.
Under the dedicated leadership of the Caritas Sisters and their staff, the hospital is also actively reaching out to the needs of local society - offering support to the victims of home or school violence and its prevention. Faithful to their charism, the Caritas Sisters at professional and Salesian levels improve medical service especially for the less privileged population, including also foreign migrant workers from nearby industrial centres on the southern coast of Cholla province. Thousand of people can touch Salesian loving-kindness through the dedicated service of the St Carollo hospital large family.
The 50 year history of St Carollo hospital website: www.stcarollo.or.kr
St.Carollo Hospital presentation video clip in YOUTUBE
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