The Voice of the suffering and persecuted​

“Many of the people in South Sudan have never known anything else. There are generations that were born into war. And the last war was terrible, so much was destroyed. Schools, infrastructure, hospitals, churches, lives, many women and children, and there was also an attempt to eliminate people with a certain education, people who could become future leaders.”

According to locals who stayed in Vorzel, the seminary was plundered and devastated. Besides the damage caused by two rockets, Russian troops looted the building in mid-March. Witnesses say the soldiers spent two nights in the building.

“The deterioration of the situation in the country is due to the multiplication of armed gangs, the constant cases of kidnapping, the ubiquitous insecurity, inflation, especially the rise in the prices of essential goods, bloody incidents and a flood of upheavals and acts of cruelty.”

“In jail, we were tortured. The officers told my husband that if he did not confess, they would rape me in front of him, and so he confessed, even though we were both innocent."

"I remember a small child who did not have anything to eat for two days while they were on the road. Many of them have eyes that look as though they are made of glass, faces that have been turned into stone. They are having trouble understanding what is happening around them."

"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."