Silent Workers of the Cross
The Silent Workers of the Cross is an international association recognized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Priests, brothers, and sisters, the Silent Workers of the Cross are dedicated to enhancing suffering and integrally promoting the suffering person in communal or family life.
They foster the creation and development of associations of diocesan rights called the Volunteers of Suffering Center (CVS). They operate in pastoral animation activities and their socio-rehabilitation centers. They are currently present in Europe – Africa – the Americas – and the Middle East.
Volunteers of Suffering Center (CVS)
CVS (Volunteers of Suffering Center) is an Association of sick and healthy people who recognize, in following Christ’s crucified and risen, the possibility of living the experience of suffering without succumbing to discouragement, disappointment, or desertion.
The Association was founded by Monsignor Luigi Novarese in 1947.
CVS was born as a concrete response to the drama of human suffering that often leads man to distance himself from his Creator. The suffering offered by the sick person recognizes participation in the Paschal Mystery of Christ, which makes him an apostle and, therefore, the first fruit and prophecy for the valorization of every form of suffering present in man’s life.
International Confederation
The following are now part of the International Confederation of Volunteers of Suffering Center:
. The Silent Workers of the Cross, as the founding reality and guarantor of the Confederation itself;
. The Volunteers of Suffering Center are recognized by their bishops who have applied for membership.
It is also permitted to welcome realities that arose alongside CVS or even outside it but recognize themselves in the basic principles that constitute the indispensable foundations of the work.
The Confederation is directed by a Presidential Council elected by the Assembly. The President is the “Assistant for the Apostolate” of the Silent Workers of the Cross.
The Founders
Blessed Luigi Novarese and Sister Elvira Myriam Psorulla dedicate their lives to the service of the sick, starting an innovative apostolate with and for the benefit of suffering people.
Spirituality
They are addressing the world’s anxious question of why illness and suffering occur through a spiritual journey, leveraging the values of the suffering person.
Blessed Luigi Novarese can be considered the first actual creator of an innovative apostolate, which sees the sick person not only as a person to be cared for and supported but also, above all, as a witness of hope for other people forced to pass through the dark tunnel of pain
