On 5 September, the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress will begin in Budapest, Hungary. In the Amazon, the local people are aware of the importance of the Eucharist. They however live very isolated with it being very difficult for priests to visit them. ACN is determined to provide the help that is needed to allow local priests to the visit the people of the Amazon more frequently.

By ACN Staff

Earlier in 2021, the Prelature of Itacoatiara in Brazil’s Amazon region suffered devastating flooding. The prelature is inhabited by around 200,000 people in an area of around 59,000 km² (twice the size of Belgium). The flooding pushed much of the prelature into a state of emergency and forced many people to flee their homes. In the prelature’s seat alone, the city of Itacoatiara, 1400 families were impacted by the flooding, with many homes and businesses being damaged.

About half of the population of the prelature live in around 200 small settlements on the river. The prelature only has 16 priests, making ministry to these isolated settlements extremely difficult.

For Fr. Bruno Nirmal of the Parish of Christ the King ministry was made even more difficult as his parish did not own a riverboat to allow him to more easily reach outlining settlements. These visits can take up to 10 hours and were only possible when Fr. Nirmal had the available funds to hire a boat for the visits.

Bishop José Ionilton of Itacoatiara, understanding the unique difficulties that Fr. Nirmal was facing, made an appeal to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to help Fr. Nirmal minister to his parish.

Thanks to the support of our benefactors, ACN was able to provide the funds necessary for Fr. Nirmal’s parish to purchase a boat to allow him to visit the outlying settlements in the parish.

Fr. Nirmal and his parishioners are delighted that he is now able to visit outlying settlements more regularly. He explains what the boat has made possible:

“This boat helps us to get to the riverside communities much more quickly, thereby enabling us to make more visits. We have already been to three separate communities, visiting people in their homes, training local lay leaders, celebrating Holy Mass and administering Baptisms…The people’s faith is very strong; they thirst for the Mass, for the Eucharist, for God. When the priest arrives, they drop everything and dedicate the whole day to participating in the Mass, praying the Rosary and following the catechetical formation sessions, joining in with all their hearts.”

Fr. Nirmal wanted to pass on his and the parish’s thanks to ACN’s benefactors:

“On behalf of the whole parish, I want to express my thanks to the benefactors of ACN for their generosity. Only together can we build the Kingdom of God. I am quite sure that God’s reward will be very great. And I assure you of my prayers…I pray to Christ, the King of the Universe, that He may pour many blessings upon the benefactors of ACN and that they may continue helping the Church in Amazonia, which is in such great need.”

ACN supports the Church throughout the Amazon region. This is a mission territory with unique difficulties created by the size of the region and the terrain. ACN is determined to continue to provide the support necessary to help the Church carryout missionary work in this part of the world.