Who we are

The Silent Workers of the Cross is an international association recognized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Living in the community or in a family, priests, brothers, and sisters, the Silent Workers of the Cross dedicate themselves to valorizing suffering and integrally promoting the suffering person.

They promote the creation and development of associations of diocesan rights, called the Center for Volunteers of Suffering. They operate in pastoral animation activities and their socio-rehabilitation centers. They are currently present in Europe – Africa – the Americas – and the Middle East.

CVS (Volunteer Center of Suffering) 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.

The following are now part of the International Confederation of Volunteer Centers of Suffering:

  .The Silent Workers of the Cross, as the founding reality and guarantor of the Confederation itself;

 .The Diocesan Volunteer Centers of Suffering 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.