Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Niteroi (Agenzia Fides) – On May 3, Father Edson Santos Assunção Ribeiro, Brazilian National Secretary of the Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood (Holy Childhood Association), died in a car crash. The accident occurred in the Province of Mato Grosso (650 km from Brasilia). The week before, the priest had been in Barra do Garças, to lead a formation meeting of the leaders of the Holy Childhood Association and was to return to Brasilia at the end of the meeting. On the way from Araguaiana to Barra do Garças, in Mato Grosso, the vehicle carrying Fr. Edson, accompanied by Fr. William and a layman named Fausto, as it went to cross a bridge, skidded and the driver lost control of the car. Fr. Edson died instantly, while Fr. William was wounded.
Father Edson Assunção Santos Ribeiro was born August 15, 1966 in Contagem (MG). He was ordained a priest December 12, 1992 for the clergy of Niterói. In Niteroi , he was parochial vicar of Barreto, later Coordinator of Catechesis, Secretary of the Diocesan Synod, and professor and principal of the Institute "Star of Evangelization." In 1999, he became the head of missions for the diocese, as he had been working for a few years to organize the Holy Childhood Association for the Archdiocese and the country (belonging at the same time to the team of the National Holy Childhood Association) and was participating in the Youth Mission of the Archdiocese of Niteroi, a post he held until February 2006. Following any insistent request from the Brazilian Bishops Conference and the PMS, on December 12, 2005 he moved to Brasilia to serve as National Secretary of the Holy Childhood Association. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 11/05/2010)
