AMERICA/BRAZIL - "Among those that society rejects, God becomes more visible": the experience of a missionary in the Amazon

Thursday, 23 November 2017

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Cucuí (Agenzia Fides) - "Mission strengthens our Christian lives, allows us to be present among the people, to discover in them the sign of God". This is what Fr. Luis Miguel Modino, Fidei donum Spanish missionary in Cucui, diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, state of Amazonas, Brazil says to Agenzia Fides, where he accompanies the life of indigenous people scattered along the rivers Negro and Xié. "When this mission takes place in the outskirts of the world" – explains Fr. Modino - it turns out that in the midst of what society rejects, God becomes more visible".
Father Modino was ordained a priest in the diocese of Madrid almost twenty years ago, in 2006 he was sent as a missionary in the diocese of Ruy Barbosa, in Bahia, Brazil, where he worked until 2016. He is currently a pastor in the diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, one of the largest in Brazil, located in the heart of the Amazon, with an extension of 293,000 square kilometers and over 90% of the indigenous population.
"Indigenous peoples in Brazil are suffering from opposing public policies, which result in poor quality services and a constant threat to the rights guaranteed by the country's constitution", explains to Fides Father Modino, who is also a journalist and a great connoisseur of the situation in the area. "I am currently accompanying the indigenous communities in the region on the border between Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, where I have discovered that fraternity is the tool that helps overcome difficulties and reduce problems", says the missionary.
"I really feel that I am more evangelized than an evangelizer, because those with less theoretical knowledge of God's things are masters in what we consider the Christian experience", says the priest, commenting on his missionary experience. "The community dimension, essential to the Christian, is the basis of the daily life of the indigenous and a good learning for those, coming from outside, live together and learn from them". (LG) (Agenzia Fides, 23/11/2017)


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