“I remember seeing a little girl, around five years old, standing, petrified, by the body of a loved one in the street, unable to move. A feeling of terror, fear, and complete impotence looms over everything.”

Taking that final step was difficult; the hardest part was swapping a steady and promising job for the uncertainty of seminary life. In a region of Brazil where jobs are scarce and poverty is rampant.

“We are building the character of the students to be leaders in society, taking responsibility and developing a plan to remain in this country."

“These schools are very important because they maintain the Christian presence, they keep the families in the villages and provide employment for teachers, and non-academic staff.”

"At first the responsibility was laid at the feet of the Islamic community, but now there are elements that point to a political plot, with connections between certain political groups and the extremists who set off the bombs.”

The extremists sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on the walls of the nearby Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.The slogans, some in German, read: “O, you [expletive] slaves of the Cross, we will kill you all… You dirty people, you do not belong here.”