The Way We Were - Brazil welcomes Columbans
03.09.2009
Two years ago eleven Columbans were sent to Brazil beginning a new mission in Latin America.
In undertaking missions in Brazil two years ago, the Columbans were responding to a call to help the Church’s “most Catholic country” on earth – 120 million, or more Catholics than Mexico and Italy combined. Brazil is also the most priest-short Church. The assigning of eleven Columbans, though a brave effort, will hardly dent the figure of priests per thousand Catholics. But it will not be without effect in the two dioceses that welcomed them. Parishes will be better staffed, people will be more easily taken care of, Mass and the sacraments will be more easily available. Much is hoped from the development of Basic Christian Communities, an increase in Christian Commitment to God and neighbour at all local levels, an even “more lively” Church. Many of their parishioners are racially Afro-Brazilians, descended from victims of the slave trade and little better off than their 15th century forebears. They will draw strength from the assurance that the church is not only the People of God, but also the “Peope of God’s Poor.”
- Taken from The Far East, November 1987.
Read more stories from the September, The Far East
