Brazil Mission

Welcome to this brief overview of the Saskatoon diocesan mission in northeastern Brazil. We hope you will find it informative and inspiring.

If you are interested in learning more about the Brazil mission or learning about ways to become involved in mission work yourself, you can contact the Brazil Mission Awareness Committee, c/o the Catholic Pastoral Centre, 242-1500.

The Mission Today

The Saskatoon diocese has had a mission in the archdiocese of Maceio in northeastern Brazil since 1964.

The current mission team consists of two Sisters of Mission Service and two Ursulines of Bruno; and on August 1, 2006, Fr. Les Paquin returned to Brazil where he had previously worked on our diocesan mission team for six years. Shortly thereafter, the archbishop of Maceio assigned Fr. Les to a new parish in the city of Ibateguara.

This parish includes the city and six rural communities, with a population of about 20,000, most of whom are Catholic.

Ibateguara is only about 20 minutes drive from Sao Jose da Lage where the Sisters of Mission Service on our team are serving and about 2.5 hours drive from Maceio where the Bruno Ursuline missionaries work.

Ibateguara’s name comes from an indigenous language and means “the cold city.” Because it is located on top of a range of hills, about 700 metres above sea level, it has a much cooler climate than at lower elevations. The community is very poor because most of the people depend on the sugar cane industry for jobs and that means slavery-like conditions.

For more information on Fr. Les’s experiences in his new parish, follow the links provided to the Prairie Messenger and his weekly column called A Partilha (Sharing).

The Sisters of Mission Service are Srs. Jeannine Rondot and Marie-Noelle Rondot.

Sr. Jeannine (left) visiting youngers

Sr. Marie-Noelle with an elderly friend

The Rondots live and work in the small city of Sao Jose da Lage, located some 100 kilometres inland from the Atlantic coast in the midst of an agricultural area devoted almost exclusively to raising sugar cane and cattle. They help with the normal pastoral activities of their parish in Lage but have developed a special ministry to the people living in one part of the city which has been most ignored by both civic and church administrations over the years.

The Bruno Ursulines are Sr. Claire Novecosky and Sr. Louise Hinz.

Sr. Claire holding cashew fruit

Sr. Louise showing local crafts to a visitor

They live and work on the island of St. Rita in the municipality of Marechal Deodoro, about 10 kilometers from Maceio, the capital city of the state of Alagoas, which is located on the Atlantic coast and is famous for its excellent beaches.

View of Maceio skyline with ocean in distance

Many of the people with whom the sisters work make their living from fishing, creating crafts to sell to tourists or working in the tourist industry itself. Others work for the municipality as teachers, in the health post or as street cleaners. Of course, as is typical in Brazil, there are many people who cannot find employment of any kind and who are forced to live in slums, in houses and on streets such at these.

The Ursulines have attracted a number of young Brazilian women to join their order, with the result that their ability to minister to the community is multiplied dramatically. Sr. Ana Lucia Duarte has taken final vows and Neudes Gomes is in her third year of temporary vows. There are about five other women in the process of completing their formation.

Sr. Louise (left) with Sr. Neudes and Sr. Ana Lucia (right)

Sr. Ana Lucia is a trained psychologist and volunteers at a centre in one of the communities where the Ursulines work which houses a Pastoral for Children. The Pastoral is a program, found across Brazil, which aims to improve the lives of poor youngsters through better infant nutrition. Mothers are taught the value of feeding their babies a highly nutritious “multi-mixture” which is made at the local centres from plants commonly found in any backyard.

Sr. Ana demonstrates a machine used to dry the leaves used as part of the multi-mixture

Other ingredients include sesame and sunflower seeds

Sr. Louise helps weigh a child at the Pastoral for Children

The babies are weighed regularly to keep track of their progress.

The centre where Sr. Ana Lucia works is considerably more advanced than some others. It has been able to obtain support from Canada through Rainbow of Hope for Children and matching grants from CIDA. As a result, it has a van and a modern building which serves as a community centre, daycare and classroom for both adults and children in the nearby slum.

Mothers are able to learn such skills as baking or doing crafts.

A donation of reconditioned musical instruments by Saskatoon’s Kevin Junk has led to the creation of a children’s band at the centre, which offers the youngsters an alternative to the drug scene on the streets outside.

The Pastoral da Crianca Centre

A group taking a cooking class at the Centre

Children’s band at the Centre

Meanwhile, Sr. Louise is highly involved in a home, established jointly by a collective of Maceio’s women religious orders, for rescuing girls from prostitution. Again with help from Rainbow of Hope for Children, the sisters have recently purchased a house where their young charges can find safety from the abuse that had them headed toward a life on the streets. They call the home Talitha, after Jesus’ words of healing.

Sr. Louise with some of the girls from the Talitha shelter

Sr. Louise also does a lot of work in a slum near the sisters’ home. The slum sprang up along the side of the busy highway leading to the beach, making it an exceptionally dangerous and noisy place to live. With the help of dedicated Brazilian volunteers, Sr. Louise has managed to create a certain pride of community amid the poverty and, in honour of her contributions, the people have dubbed their bairro Vila Angela (for St. Angela, the Ursulines’ foundress).

Sr. Claire does a lot of work with the groups of faithful who meet in their small community chapels to celebrate the Liturgy of the Word. Because of the shortage of priests, these communities rarely have Eucharist and Sr. Claire helps to train lay people to catechize, visit the sick and lead celebrations. She also has Bible study groups and gives liturgical formation.

Sr. Claire doing parish work and visiting

Sr. Claire also helps with the formation of the young Ursuline candidates and the vocation retreats the sisters offer to deepen people’s appreciation of the call to single, married or religious life.

Interior and exterior views of the Ursulines' retreat centre on the island of St. Rita near Maceio

Sr. Neudes is a teacher who, while hoping to enter university to advance her training, is working to evangelize in some of the most remote communities of the parish. Her work as the parish coordinator of the catechetical program involves a lot of formation and support of the catechists.

Meanwhile, the Sisters of Mission Service in Lage focus much of their attention on the poorest area in their city. Located high up on a hillside on the edge of Lage, the slum area does not have proper streets, water services or other basics. When it rains, the mud paths leading up to the bairro become extremely treacherous to navigate and it becomes difficult, for example, for women to walk down to the river to wash their families’ clothes. Here are some pictures taken in the slum area.

Srs. Jeannine and Marie-Noelle say they are engaged in a “ministry of presence,” simply journeying with the poor people in their daily struggles. Just by showing that they care, the sisters are giving a sense of self-worth to downtrodden folks who never before have been given any value. The sisters visit in their homes and have informal Bible study sessions where, for example, they are able to teach people who have never before known what Christmas means. Occasionally, they are able to help supply food or medication in desperate situations.

During her visit to Saskatoon in the summer of 2005, Sr. Marie-Noelle explained that she plans to use money given her by Canadian friends to help one child in each family in the bairro to get the clothes and supplies needed in order to attend school. This will, in turn, enable that family to qualify for government aid that it would not obtain as long as it did not have someone in the school system. Sister said picking one child per family might seem arbitrary but that child’s good fortune would also benefit others in his/her family.

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