Brazil: First Baniwa indigenous priest ordained

Source: Fides

Brazil's first Baniwa indigenous priest was ordained on Saturday 17 March in the diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Some people travelled for days to attend the celebrations for the priestly ordination of Fr Geraldo Trindade Montenegro.

The Baniwa people, one of the 23 indigenous tribes in the diocese.

The event was prepared with care by the entire community, and presided by Bishop Edson Damian. Some elements of indigenous spirituality were included in the liturgy.

Fr Geraldo, was born in the community of Araripirá Cachoeira, on the Ayarí river, a border region between Brazil and Colombia. After his formation at the inter-diocesan Seminary of Manaus, he worked as a deacon for just over a year in his parish of origin, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción del Río Içana, where he will now continue his mission as a parish priest.

Fr Geraldo said he decided to become a priest as "an answer to a need of our region, where there is a lack of priests. At the beginning I felt called by this, but with time I discovered that being a priest is much more. To be a priest is to become the presence of Jesus in the daily world."

Fr Geraldo asked the Bishop to work in his region, despite the initial fear of not being accepted in his land. In fact, "if they welcomed me" he added, "I think it will be easier for me to talk with my people and show them that a priest is another member of the community and not one who decides and commands." He said when the community was first evangelised the Church behaved more in that way.

Many Baniwa people in the region have difficulty understanding or speaking Portuguese, so the arrival of someone who expresses himself in their own language, is a great sign of hope.

More than 90 per cent of the people in the diocese of São Gabriel de Cachoeira, with an area of 293,000 square kilometres, on the border between Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, are indigenous. There are 23 different indigenous peoples who speak 18 languages.