Paul Keenan
Spiritan missionaries in Brazil have described the Rio Olympics as a positive step for the country despite recent media coverage of protests there.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic this week as the 2016 Games were underway, Fr Seán Doyle, who has ministered in Brazil for 43 years, acknowledged that there had been some local opposition to Brazil hosting the Olympics but he insisted that the event was a benefit to the nation.
“The Games were won during the boom, that was two years ago,” Fr Doyle pointed out. “Now the country is in a crisis. But the Games are a major boost to any city that gets them.”
Fr Doyle went on to point out that between 30-40,000 people were directly employed in preparing for the Games, while the design of the facilities was planned in such a way that they can be dismantled afterwards to be reconstructed in schools for the benefit of young Brazilians.
Likewise, Spiritan Fr Tony Sheridan, who works in Itaguaí, some hours from Rio de Janeiro, said the Games represented part of the progress Brazil has made in the last 10 years.
Improvement
“Sure,” he agreed, “the areas of education and health need improvement, but would they have received money even if Rio was not hosting the Olympics?”
Both priests state that the big issue for Brazil today is the prevalence of drugs, with drugs gangs moving their deadly trade to the suburbs of Rio while the police beef up security in the city for the duration of the Games.
“If the Spiritans were beginning their work today,” Fr Doyle said, “the key would be to reach young drug addicts, who right now have no future.”
However, no less positive than his fellow Spiritan on Brazil’s progress, Fr Doyle added that Brazilians remain “positive and creative” about the future.