Appeal of the month

Father Renato Chiera is rescuing children and giving them a chance at life.

This Italian priest has spent 42 years in Brazil, saving young people from the streets. In 1978, when Father Renato first arrived, he encountered not only incredible poverty, but an atmosphere of violence, even among children. Young people were being pulled into the world of drugs and drug dealing.

“The most important experience a human being can know is that of being a child of God. Where there is no positive experience of this love, a child simply cannot grow up in a harmonious manner and instead suffers profound forms of deprivation which he tries unsuccessfully to compensate through drugs and other distractions,” Father Renato told us.

Desperate to save as many young people as he could, he created the Saint Michael the Archangel’s Children’s Home. The young are helped in their studies, are reconnected with God, and are supported with assimilating back into society.

“We are not simply a refuge, we are a home, a family! Today these youngsters have ‘fathers’ and ‘mothers,’ to whom they are beloved sons and daughters,” said Father Renato.

Will you help continue the rescue mission our religious have started? Will you support the young and the orphaned immersed in violence, poverty, and drugs?

With every gift, you’ll be granting a chance at life. Thank you and God bless you.