Because of the current emergency, Queen of Apostles Hospital, located in Albano, owned by the Daughters of St. Paul and accredited with Italy’s National Health Care System, has become a reference point in the Castelli Romani area for people suffering from the new coronavirus. The 70 beds set aside for the infected has made the hospital a Covid-19 hub of the Lazio region, after Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital. The first 20 patients to arrive were placed on the third floor of the QA structure, which has been equipped to cope as best it can with the fearsome virus.
In the next few days, the entire surgical wing of the hospital will be transformed into an intensive care unit, creating room for 14 more Covid-19 patients in need of particular assistance, while the dialysis ward will provide 2 places by turn for the infected.
In this time of grave danger, Queen of Apostles Hospital has therefore been called to correspond to its original vocation: the care of people infected with tuberculosis, that is to say, persons suffering from lung diseases. The original clinic sprang from the hearts of our Founder and Maestra Thecla precisely as a health care service to Daughters of St. Paul suffering from TB, who otherwise would have had to spend long periods of time in secular hospitals. Fr. Alberione loved to call the Queen of Apostles health-care facility a “house of sanctification.”
At this particular time, let us unite ourselves to all the courageous health care workers, praying that this powerful virus will be eradicated and that the dream of Fr. Alberione will be realized in our day too: “May a continuous wave or reparation rise from this nursing home for the sins committed by modern means…. May a wave of grace rise from it and spread to all those who work in the apostolate so that Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life will permeate society and the world….”
We ask the Queen of Apostles to protect everyone and be a tender Mother to all.
