The Brazilian community in Waterford (Católicos de Waterford) gathered for a Triduum and a procession for Our Lady from December 5-8. The event, a version of the Our Lady Aparecida procession which happens in Dublin annually, brought prayer and hymns to the streets of Waterford.
The request for the event, said Scarleth Tavares, one of the event organisers, came from the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus (Phonsie) Cullinan. He heard about the Dublin procession and thought the growing Brazilian community in Waterford should have a similar celebration.
Bishop Cullinan speaks Spanish, but with help from Brazilian religious sisters living in the area, he said Mass in Portuguese during the event. “He practiced with them. It was wonderful, he read Mass in Portuguese. The homily was given in English, but he added a few sentences in Portuguese throughout it,” Ms Tavares said.
For the procession, close to 150 people joined, “all Brazilians and the Irish bishop.” Ms Tavares said that “during the procession, we pray and sing in English, so people stopped to pray with us, or joined in the walk. Everyone knows Bishop Phonsie in here.”
For the Triduum Masses, the number of attendees was slightly lower, in between 80 and 90 people, which is the same number of a regular Sunday Mass attendance, said Ms Tavares.
The Triduum Masses were led by two Brazilian priests who live in Ireland, Fr Ademir Marques and Fr Severino Pinheiro da Silva Neto, the Chaplain to the Brazilian Community in Dublin and one Irish priest, Fr Michael Byrne, who lived in Brazil for a few years and speaks Portuguese.
Having an active community who speaks your native language “is a way of welcoming families who have been living here for years and get far from the Church because of language barrier.”
Fr Neto, one of the priests who says Mass in Portuguese three times a month in Waterford, said this was “an experience of joined evangelisation. The community had the opportunity to witness their Catholic faith publicly, as the procession went trough the central roads of Waterford. It’s gratifying to feel welcome by the diocese, as the bishop himself was present, leading Mass and walking the procession.”