Brazil Newsletter January 2008

Paroquia Santo Antônio,
CP# 13, Castanheira,
78345-000 Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Our town and county are named after the “Castan” tree, where the “Brazil Nuts” come from. (It is a very tall tree; note the electricity pole at it’s base.) This tree has a welcome sign for all visitors to CASTANHEIRA at the town entrance. SO WELCOME ONE AND ALL!

BRAZIL NEWSLETTER - January 2009

Greetings amigos (friends) from a wet and mucky Amazon.

The rains have arrived early, much to the delight of the local farmers and in answer to the prayers of the majority! As I write a number of bridges are down because of flooding, such is part of life here. At one of the communities where a bridge was down, the locals were waiting with motor bikes for the priest and nun on the other side of the bridge, to drive the last few kilometres to the church. Thankfully Fr. Richard, our newly ordained man was doing the rounds that day.

I named this bridge “Ponte Pai Nosso” - “The Our Father Bridge” as it is necessary to say a prayer before crossing it.

I suppose it is a bit late to wish you all a Happy Christmas, so I will have to be content with wishing you all a Peaceful, Healthy and Christ Filled New Year. There are no Christmas cards in this neck of the woods as I bought the shop out of its whole stock of about 12 cards my first year here.

This was a year of;

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new communities,

new churches,

new priests and sisters,

new buildings,

new visitors,

new bosses,

new decisions.

NEW COMMUNITIES

Our parish now contains 31 churches. This year three new communities were born. One community consisted of the workers on a big fazenda (farm). The owner has graciously decided to help them to build a little wooden church on the grounds of the fazenda and we will call each month to celebrate Mass and the Sacraments with the workers and their families, (I have yet to see the owner at Mass—I think he is what we would call “An Absentee Landlord”).

A Family arriving for Mass. (Thanks to “my first visitor—Chris” for this picture!)

Representatives of another community of about nine years in existence, arrived at our door one day and informed us they had a church built and were praying in it each Sunday for a few months and were wondering if we could call and celebrate the Eucharist in it now and again. I have great hopes for this community (see picture below).

The First Mass in the Church of Nossa Senhora Aparecida

The third community will be struggling for a good while. It is possibly the poorest area of the parish since the people were landless and have “Invaded or Occupied” some absentee landlords land and part of a reserve so the local government won’t help them with roads, water or electricity. They do however have a small wooden school house where we meet to celebrate Mass. The first time I was there, some local evangelical protestants came and helped with the singing, and right singers they were. (The Brazilians love singing, music and dance). I took the picture of the youngsters up on the back of my jeep at this celebration.

NEW CHURCHES

With no bishop and the parish priest in Ireland for the Kiltegan Fathers General Chapter meeting, I had the honour of consecrating the new church of Santa Rita (St. Rita, Linha 09 {Line / Road number 9}). If I had a favourite community, this is it. They demolished their old wooden church and built a brick church in its place. Fr. Derek (PP) and I helped them buy the materials and they built it with their own hands. It was your donations that we used and many thanks for that. The Eucharistic Minister in the community is forever offering prayers of thanks at the monthly Mass for the people of Ireland. Because of him this is one of 5 of our 31 churches in the parish which has the reservation of The Blessed Sacrament. His son of about 20 years of age is the community coordinator. It is the coordinator who recommends to us who should be baptised or make first holy communion etc as he is responsible for the running of the community. The chalice & ciborium came by way of a kind Sister of Mercy in Enniscorthy.

The blessing of the door of the new church of St. Rita before our entrance.

I passed by another community (Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament) on Christmas Day and I see the walls are up and we have helped them buy the roof. It is supposed to be ready by the January monthly Mass.

NEW PRIESTS & SISTERS
Christmas here, is the start of the Summer Holidays and the end of catechism year and schools etc, and so is the natural end of things here. We received a new parish sister, Sister Creusla in July. She is Brazilian but recently returned from Angola. Two of our the sisters are moving on to do further studies, Sr. Ivone & Sr. Cacilda, and a newly professed sister is arriving around the start of February. The sisters always travel with us when we go to visit the communities, they are a great help and asset to us and we all work very well together. They are toppers at preaching and sharing the driving on the long dirt roads. When there was only one priest here they ran the parish when he was away on holidays, doing funerals, baptisms etc. The Kiltegan Fathers also received a new batch of newly ordained Africans. One came to us (Fr. Richard Filiman from Nigeria) and another (Fr. Patrick Aleke also from Nigeria) went to work in Juruena with Fr. Paudie Mcloughney. Also Fr. Leo Dolan retired from São Paulo to come and help out in Juruena and Fr. Sean Deegan moved into the diocesan Seminary House in Cuiabá and is also lecturing in Scripture in the local Seminary College. This brings the Kiltegan team to 7 priests here in Juina Diocese. That won’t last too long, because once the two newly ordained men learn the language sufficiently and are acclimatised to the culture they will be sent to other missions.

THE PARISH TEAM

L-R: Fr. Richard, Sr. Ivone, Sr. Cacilda, Sr. Creusla, Sr. Renata, Fr. Derek , (I, as usual, am in the background taking the picture)

NEW BUILDINGS

Thanks to two families in Enniscorthy, we were able to pay the deposit on the building of our new community centre. The old wooden hall was ready to fall, so we had to demolish it before it collapsed. We also received help from The Kiltegan Fathers and The Irish Government.

The hall during construction. For all the world it is just like a hay shed at home. All it is, is pillars and a roof. Walls are not really necessary here because of the heat, all is needed is shelter from Rain and shade from the Sun.

But the big surprise was the huge work the locals put into fundraising. On the day of the Parish Festa we had an auction of over 180 donated cattle and raised enough to pay the builder for the roof on the day. I was glad to give him a big box of cash on that day and not have it in the house.

I was told that it was a tradition that the priest got up on the back of the first cattle to be sold at the auction. (Rodeos are a big attraction here.) I was going around worried for a whole week about getting up on a big bull or such like, until I saw the little calf and realised I was the butt of the joke. He sat on the ground when I got into the corral. But I auctioned him off in English for a good price.

We had three days of masses and dances, starting on the feast of St. Anthony which is also a local bank holiday here as he is also the patron of the town and county.

A young Saint Anthony presenting "St. Anthony's Bread" for the poor at the Opening Festa Mass.

One of the nights of dancing I had to physically turn off the power at 4 am as there was no sign of the dancers wanting to go home! For the BBQ on the Sunday, the last day, we killed and cooked 13 cattle for the locals and that will give you an idea of the crowds.

Some smiling faces among the crowd on the third day of the Festa.

Here are some of the local women roasting about 80 chickens in this homemade oven. The wood is burnt in it first and then the ashes are scraped out and the then the chickens go in and are cooked in the heat left behind. Delicious! They had used it to bake a whole lot of bread the day before.

Because we did so well, the locals were so animated that we hope now to finish the building by next June, in fact the foundations for kitchens, rooms, toilets etc were set the week before Christmas. That was not the only building this year other communities (Santa Terezinha, Sagrado Coração, Santa Rita da cidade, received help from your donations to start upgrading of their parish facilities. One community we paid for the cement for the floor and they did the work, as is the norm really. Another Community called São José have announced that they need to demolish their wooden church and replace it with a more durable building. Wooden buildings have about a 20 year life span here.

Community Lunch Time after Mass in São João Batista. These youngsters weren't too shy for the camera, but the job was to get them to stop eating for a moment so I could take their picture. Even margarine tubs have their uses as a plate!

NEW VISITORS

This was a year of visitors. Despite our isolation and travel distance and bad roads we had a good few visitors. Our first visitor was Paudie's brother John, who brought along his bag pipes and a friend of his.

John played his bagpipes at a little neighbours birthday party.

I had two classmates Chris and David who came to visit at different times. The locals are still talking about the Irish priest getting up on top of the jeep so that he could take pictures of the “all invasive” dust. I gave a few women and kids a lift into town that day, and I was amused at their conversation “imagine wasting your film on taking pictures of the dust!” My other classmate made a big hit with some of the locals with his horse riding skills.

Chris and a few local feathered friends.

Chris caught me on camera negotiating the price of a hammock from a road side seller. The hammock has pride of place in the back garden in Carnew.

The Cowboy Corporal!

For many of the people here the horse and cart is their family car. Every morning I see two teenagers racing in to the milk factory with the milk churns and pushing their poor horse to go faster and faster! I suppose whether you are on a motor bike, or car or a horse and cart, teenagers love speed! Some day I will be ready with the camera.

I met these young lands on their way into to town to "hang-out" for the Sunday afternoon. I suppose at home they would have motorbikes or cars!

We also hosted a visit from students and teachers from Bessbrook College in Northern Ireland on a visit here over the Halloween break. The local girls here, who are not a bit shy, were delighted with the visit of the Irish lads, but I think the Irish girls felt a little bit rejected.

The Bessbrook Gang, the Castanheira Gang and Fr. Sean Deegan (last on the right at the back) who accompanied them from São Paulo.

We even took a river “cruise” (for want of a better word) on Rio Juruena and a half an hour out, the engine conked out, so we did a bit of fishing while the captain fixed the engine. We had received and invitation from an Indigenous chief to go and visit. There was a method in their madness. When we arrived at the Indigenous village, the women came out in their droves to sell their homemade jewellery etc. The village was only accessible by river. The tribe we visited own all the land on the right hand side of Rio Juruena which is about half the size of Ireland. Of course they did own our side of it too at one time.

A steep entrance to the Indigenous Village.

Interestingly, each tribe, if they are catholic, must have their own priest. That priest cannot go to another tribe, EVER! They still believe in the good and bad spirits of the forest. When you visit, your spirit talks to their tribal spirits and learns their tribal secrets, and if you go to another tribe your spirit will reveal their tribal secrets to the spirit of the other tribe! Even forest life can have its complications!
There is still a lot of animosity between local tribes here. Inter-tribal wars or disputes are all to common it seems, despite their need to present a united front against the encroaching of our type of civilisation.
Many of the big land owners here don’t have a good record of dealing with the local indigenous people. In the past, it was not uncommon it seems, for sweets and sugar contaminated with diseases and poison to be left for the indigenous children to find! No locals means having no problems taking over the land.

NEW BOSSES
After over a year of not having a bishop, The Holy Father appointed Fr. Neri José Tondello as the second bishop of the this new diocese. At 43 he will be the second youngest bishop in the Brazil. He will be ordained in his home diocese in the south of Brazil on the 11th of January and take possession of the diocese in February. Both his parents are deceased, however, he has 17 brothers and sisters. He was a volunteer here like myself and he had responsibility for the formation (seminary) house of this diocese in the city of Cuiabá, capital of Mato Grosso state.

Bishop Elect, Fr. Neri (Right) with one of my parishioners.

The Kiltegan Fathers - or - St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, had their Chapter meeting this year and elected new society leaders. The Chapter meets every 6 years. Fr. Seamus O’Neill was re-elected Superior General but with a new leadership team. Our Regional Superior Fr. George Corr was not re-elected as he returned to Ireland on health grounds. (The word is George is much recovered his surgery and treatment and is returning to São Paulo in the end of January. We will have a few good card games then!) Fr. Eddie McGettrick was elected the new Regional Superior for South America and The Caribbean. His vice-regional was our parish priest here, Fr. Derek Byrne.

Fr. Eddie who came on a flying visit to us after his election as Regional Superior

But............

.....................before Derek could take up his position in São Paulo, The Holy Father appointed him on Christmas Eve, as the new Bishop of Guiratinga in the south east of Mato Grosso state, nearly 24 hours driving away. Msgr. Derek will be ordained bishop and installed in Guiratinga on the 22nd of March. I am sure I will take lots of pictures of that day. (Watch this space).

Monsignor Derek (in the hat, in case of confusion) after his nomination, outside the diocesan office in Juína. The staff made a big banner of congratulations for him. He worked there every Wednesday. I hope the next hat fits better!

NEW DECISIONS

As some of you may know I signed on for four years and received permission of our then bishop, Bishop Emanon Walsh. Next September was to be end of my four year stay. So after a lot of reflection and prayer I have decide to ask for an extension to my stay here. It has been a big struggle settling in here, especially with the language.

I have put so much personal energy into this, I feel it would be a shame to leave now that it seems I am starting to understand what the good people are saying to me. (Am not too sure if they understand me????) Bishop Denis Brennan has given his permission to remain, so here I stay for another little while.

I was not sure if I was going to go home this summer, since I was home last year, but since Sean and Pauline are expecting a new child in May and I have been booked for the Baptism, I will be home!

Weighing the children on our pastoral programme looking after the health of young children. Healthcare is very weak here. Our Prefect (Mayor) sacked most of the doctors this year as he ran out of money.

See you in the Irish summer—that’s if you have one. It is 20 degrees here at the moment and we are all feeling the cold!!!!

With prayers and best wishes,

Padre Denis Browne

ANO CATEQUÉTICO 2009

This year 2009 is the year of the catechist here in Brazil. As far as I am concerned they are the unsung heroes of the church here.

Building buildings is not the only thing we do here. We had a excellent programme in 2008 of training for our catechists and we hope to continue it into 2009. They meet with kids and adults every week and explain and teach the Christian Faith. Their time and energy is their gift to God and their Church. Religion is not taught in schools here, so it is the responsibility of the parish and each community to prepare the kids and adults. Despite the fact that Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world, I am often surprised of how many “adults” are baptised and received into the church every year. Here is a little tribute to them.

First communion day in the small community of Santa Luzia. Here are the two candidates and their Catechist. I don’t think you would get a young man at home to do this!


Above & Below: First Communion Day in The Matriz (Mother Church - Church of St. Anthony). The communion outfit consists of a T-Shirt. Even the priest gets one!

A Few Other Images

of life on The Missions

"Dining Out"

LUNCH IN PARISH SECRETARY'S HOUSE

Meat on the BBQ

Pot on the boil

One of the few things I don't like about Brazil. "FEIJOADA" - A mixture of meat (pigs feet etc), black beans, rice etc., all boiled into a black soup. YUCK!

CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE FOREST

We were invited to a local family living in a forested area for Christmas Dinner. We were a little late at 12 noon as they had started their Christmas Dinner at about 10am, but at least they saved us some.

Roast Chicken and Pork, I think!

Hen on the kitchen sink.
A local cleaning up my plate.

Some other views of life here!

Cattle drives are common here.
The Corpus Christi Procession. The art on the road was made during the night by the locals. They used coloured sawdaust. "Siga Me" means "Follow Me".

The local milk lorry waiting in the shade. Because of the heat most of the milk here is turned into cheese rather than sold as liquid milk.


FELIZ ANO NOVO!
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!