The vicar said he doesn’t know how long it will take to “return to normal” in the neighborhood, so Masses are being celebrated in St. Louis Gonzaga Parish in midtown Canoas.
‘Worse than a hurricane’
Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the Harmonia neighborhood of Canoas and its 13 communities were also under water.
“Everything was lost, nothing was saved,” the pastor, Friar Juan Miguel Gutiérrez Mendéz, told ACI Digital.
“All the houses” in the neighborhood “are under water” and this “is a very sad, very distressing, and very desperate reality,” he added.
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A native of the Dominican Republic, the Capuchin friar said that the situation in Harmonia is “like a horror movie.”
“In my life, I have never experienced a situation like this; it’s the first time. In the Dominican Republic, which is a land where there are hurricanes every year, I had never experienced a situation like this,” the friar noted. “It’s a very difficult time we are going through.”
According to Gutiérrez, the flooding in Harmonia began on the night of Friday, May 3. “It was exasperating,” he continued. He and another friar managed to save more than 40 people.
“We went up to the third floor of the parish, to the catechism room, and we were able to stay there until almost Saturday night, when we were rescued by the firefighters,” he said.
According to Gutiérrez, “the reality the faithful are experiencing is very sad,” because “many people are falling into depression, with enormous sadness.”
Faith and liturgy
“People are worried about the material things they have lost, but this is the time to encourage all members of the parish by telling them: We’ve lost everything, we have lost material things, but we have to ask God to increase our faith. With a strong, fortified faith, we can believe that better days will come, that we hope to rebuild, to start again,” the priest declared.
St. Pius X Parish in the Mathias Velho neighborhood of Canoas is also run by the Capuchin Friars Minor. According to Gutiérrez, the 10 friars who are there are in Porto Alegre parishes and three friars are still there in Canoas as volunteers because of the flood.
Two friars from Mathias Velho neighborhood who are at the La Salle School in Porto Alegre are celebrating Masses and broadcasting them on the internet. As for the faithful who are in the shelters, the friar reported that “they are being helped with food, but also in their spiritual life with Masses.”
According to the friar, “of the 350,000 people who live in Canoas, I think 150,000 were affected by the floods. There are many people, families who are in shelters.”
Gutiérrez highlighted something important to him: “the solidarity of the people. How many people have called me: ‘Friar, we are praying for you there in Canoas.’ How many people are contributing financially so that the people in the shelters can eat and be well,” he noted.
Gutiérrez also said that on May 12 he received news from a friar from the parish in the town of Amaral informing him that the leaders of this parish “are ready to go to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish” and to the St. Pius X Parish in Mathias Velho.
“These people are going to go there when the water goes down to clean the chapels and then make an evaluation of what is missing in each chapel, so that later we can carry out a recovery campaign for all the communities,” he stated.
This story was first published by ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by ACI Prensa and CNA.