The Voice of the suffering and persecuted​

“Our mission is a mission of a Church with open doors. For this reason, all our churches are open to the public at certain times. Sometimes devotions are held, and someone is always there at the church to greet visitors and to answer any questions they may have. This is the way of evangelization we have chosen in light of the present situation.”

The missionary priests who served his community made a lasting impression on him. As soon as he could, he began serving at Mass, and the thought of becoming a priest himself was close to his heart.

“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.”

“My coming to the seminary led some of my relatives to shun us. I can remember one of them saying to my father that if anything happened to any of us, we should not call him.” 

He tries to convey to the faithful – and to the soldiers – that there is nothing sacred about anger, nothing good, and reminds them that Christ forgave those who killed him “for they know not what they do,” while Our Lady prayed in silence.