Brazilian Catholics find a home in Smithfield

Located in Smithfield, a vibrant community of Catholic Portuguese speakers have found their home away from home in a church in the heart of Dublin. The priests, the laypeople and the majority of the community attending Portuguese Mass and church events in the St Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin 7, are Brazilian immigrants.

Católicos em Dublin, in English ‘Catholics in Dublin’, was founded in 2009 with a small group of Brazilian youth missing their country and feeling the need to attend Mass in Portuguese.

Looking for a priest who could say the Mass in their language, they found Fr Patrick McNamara who lived in Brazil, and was fluent in the language. Fr McNamara was the first of many priests who would take turns saying Mass in Portuguese for the first few years of the community.

All celebrations would happen in different churches, according to the availability of the priests and spaces. They did not have an official chapel or regular Mass until 2019, when the first and current chaplain, Fr Severino Pinheiro da Silva Neto arrived.

Celebrate

“Fr McNamara was the first one to celebrate Mass in Portuguese. It first happened in the St Saviour’s Church, in Dominic Street. Then he brought the Mass to Halston Street Parish”, Fr Neto mentioned.

“The community started with him”, the priest added “he was an important priest, and worked a lot defending the rights of Brazilians who came to Ireland to work in meat factories.”

Part of the community for over seven years, Sheila Maria was part of Brazilian events and activities before the community was an official chapel. “We had rosary on Tuesdays and adoration on Thursdays, and funny enough we would pray for a Brazilian priest to be sent to our community every week,” she said.

Ms Maria remembers how the community was mostly formed by young immigrants, coming together to pray and how that changed over time. “The friar began working with families and helped to grow the number of it in the community,” she said.

The Archbishop even mentioned to Pope Francis how on Sundays between 400 – 500 young people would attend Mass here. He likes to tell that story”

“A woman called Lady Anne was the responsible bringing a Brazilian retreat to this place,” Fr Neto mentioned about the first activities of the Brazilian community in the Church Street location.

“The Archbishop Diarmuid Martin visited the chapel a few times and celebrated Masses and confirmations. In 2017, he came during the Our Lady Aparecida festivities, and was impressed with the number of young people attending the celebrations,” Fr Neto remembers.

“The Archbishop even mentioned to Pope Francis how on Sundays between 400-500 young people would attend Mass here. He likes to tell that story,” the priest joked, and continued, “It was him who requested the Capuchin Friary to provide a Brazilian friar to assist the community in St Mary of the Angels.”

Capuchin

Fr Neto is a Capuchin Friar from Rio Grande do Norte, a state located in northeastern Brazil. He told The Irish Catholic that Ireland was always in his mind before moving here, and that visiting the state was one of his biggest dreams.

The priest lived in Rome for a few years where he studied for his Master’s degree in biblical theology. Moving back to Brazil he worked in different parishes there for a few years, but the calling to visit Ireland was still there.

The priest moved to Dublin to study English, and decided not to stay at the Friary at the time. He rented a room like any other exchange students and attended the Masses blending with the community.

Fr Neto was back working in Brazil in 2018 when in a national meeting the Capuchins received a letter from Ireland requesting a Brazilian friar to be sent to Church Street. He showed interest, as he felt that would go along with the calling he felt to come back to Ireland.

The idea was received by the Capuchin Friary, who gave and keep giving support and structure, allowing Brazilian priests to assist the Brazilians in the Church”

“They said that another friar had already been selected, but would consider myself. Later they told me it would be two priests and I was one of them,” he said. “In the end, only one friar was sent, and it was myself.”

The Archbishop was the one who requested to Fr Adrian Curran, provincial officer at the time, to bring a Brazilian priest and to create the chapel, as the Brazilian community was already very big but had no structure or hierarchy.

Fr Neto said they are all grateful for the assistance the Friary gives to the Brazilian community. “The idea was received by the Capuchin Friary, who gave and keep giving support and structure, allowing Brazilian priests to assist the Brazilians in the Church.”

He highlighted a few times that “the Archbishop suggested the idea of bringing a Brazilian priest, but without the active support of the Irish Capuchins we would not be here. They provide all the necessary support for us to be here.”

Growing

A second priest, Friar Ademir Marques arrived in 2023, as the community was growing too much and had only one Brazilian priest.

Layman Lucas Miguel Silva, arrived in Ireland with his wife in February 2019, they were part of laity in Brazil, and searched for a Brazilian Catholic community in Dublin from the moment they decided to move into the country.

“My wife was checking the Católicos em Dublin social media posts from Brazil, so we knew when Mass would happen, all activities and events planned. When we arrived we wanted to keep anonymous, only attend Mass and nothing more. But it didn’t work, God wanted us involved.”

Mr Silva said that he and the Chapel ministries’ members assist Fr Neto in his visits to other Brazilian communities in Ireland. Cork and Roscommon have their own Brazilian priests, but Fr Neto and Fr Marques would take turns to go to other cities to say the Mass, hear confessions, baptism and provide all services the community needs.

On a regular Sunday, the Mass has 400 attendees, but in an Our Lady Aparecida celebration Mass or during Easther, for example, it can have more than 750 people”

“It’s a long list,” Mr Silva said, “we provide services to Naas, Ballyjamesduff, Edenderry, Portarlington, Limerick, Letterkenny in Donegal, the list goes on. On May 11, Fr Severino said the first Brazilian Mass in Drogheda,” he added. “There are also some people in Gort, which is the town with the biggest Brazilian percentage in Ireland. The biggest number of Portuguese speakers.”

In the other churches around the country, the friars say Mass in Portuguese once a month, but in Church Street it happens every Sunday at 4pm. “On a regular Sunday, the Mass has 400 attendees, but in an Our Lady Aparecida celebration Mass or during Easter, for example, it can have more than 750 people.” Mr Silva explained.

Mr Silva mentioned that, even though most people in the community are Brazilian, it is open to all nationalities, Portuguese speakers or not. For that, some Masses happen in English, or are said in a mix of both languages.

The layman explained that their “Brazilian roots and values are Catholic, and immigrants find that here. We have the image of Our Lady Aparecida… The person enters the church and knows they are home.”

Community

Fr Neto believes Brazilians have a particular way of living their Catholic faith, and that attracts them to the community. “The most important element that makes a Brazilian community so important is the language. People would come here, and the English language is a big difficulty, to pray in English is. But that is not the only element, the culture would be as well. The unique Brazilian way of living the faith, even though the Catholic faith is only one everywhere.”

For the priest, the existence of a Brazilian chapel in Ireland helps immigrants to stay and live a Catholic faithful life. “It helps them to maintain their faith and have a better life in Ireland.” For him, it also helps people to participate of the Irish community. As the chapel is fully integrated with the Parish and Diocese.

“It is also a way to contribute with the local parish. Always collaborating and bringing our particularities to the local community, at the same time we are open to learn the ways of the local Church.” For Fr Neto there are two important elements in the relationship of the Brazilian chapel and the parish: “to contribute and to receive.”

We have many adult baptisms here, people who were protestants and discovered the Catholic faith here. People who were not faithful in Brazil and discovered it here”

Fr Neto sees the Portuguese Masses as an opportunity to attract people to Catholicism. “We have many cases of people who are being converted here. People who had no faith and for multiple reasons, loneliness maybe, were faced with essential questions that only faith can answer.”

“We have many adult baptisms here, people who were Protestants and discovered the Catholic faith here. People who were not faithful in Brazil and discovered it here. Other re-discovered their faith in here,” the priest explained.

Ms Sheila Maria is a catechist, and just recently started to work with children, most of her catechism work in her seven years in the community was with young adults and adults.

Confirmation

“For example, many people want to get married in the church but never did a confirmation. So they would come to us to get it,” Ms Maria explained. She mentioned a former Muslim man who came to the church and was converted. He attended catechesis (in English) for months and today has all Sacraments.

For privacy reason, Ms Maria could not mention his name, but he is still very active in the Church. “He is living in the south now, so he can’t come very often, but he always sends us pictures when he is attending some Mass,” she said. For Fr Neto the Chapel does “significant evangelisation work.”

The priest believes that a community who speaks the people language is of extreme importance. “The Church needs to fulfil people’s needs, like God coming to Earth as a man. He came to meet his people, and the Church needs to do the same. As many people have difficulty with the language, having a community who speaks their own means they can be included.”

Cultivating the traditions can helps non-practicing Brazilians to go back into a more active Catholic life”

One of the biggest contributions of the Brazilian community to the Irish Church is that the people there are very young, vibrant, and bring testimony. “I am under the impression that the testimony of young Brazilians being part of the Church is very important. Other young people can see that faith is alive. Our Brazilian community is an inspiration for other young people. Faith testimony is our biggest contribution to the Church.”

Similarly, Mr Silva believes the most important part in the community life is the testimony. And how cultivating the traditions can helps non-practicing Brazilians to go back into a more active Catholic life.

Procession

“We do the Our Lady Aparecida procession every year. It starts with a novena, then on Sunday we walk the procession. Last year we even walked on Capel street, and it had around 600 people in the procession,” the layman commented. “It is an important event, as many Brazilians would not know about the Catholic community, but would recognise Our Lady Aparecida’s image on the streets and join the procession,” he concluded.

Ms Maria told The Irish Catholic they provide assistance for all who need help and go after them for support”

But the Católicos em Dublin also do work to assist the community in more ‘social service’ ways. Ms Maria told The Irish Catholic they provide assistance for all who need help and go after them for support. “Our community has been a reference to other Brazilians in Dublin as well. We assisted people dealing with cancer, helped people living on the streets, and I remember this specific case of a drug addict, who is today living in Brazil, well and with a life completely different than the one he was living here.”