Aug 3, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Archbishop Celso Jose Pinto da Silva of Teresina, Brazil, said this week the greatest problem facing the Church in the northeastern part of the country is “the lack of resources for sustaining priests and seminarians.”
During a meeting at the international headquarters of Aid to the Church in Need, Ulrich Kny, who heads up the organization’s II Latin American Section, echoed the bishop’s observation that believers in the remote region of Brazil are extremely poor and therefore unable to support the Church. Thus, “the majority of priests are forced to take on other jobs in order to survive.”
Kny added that sects pose “another challenge for the Church in the region, and therefore traditional piety, including Marian devotion, which is so rooted in the hearts of the people, could help in resisting that temptation.”
According to a study carried out recently by Aid to the Church in Need, in the northeastern region of Piaui, Brazil, 90% of the populace is Catholic, yet the activities of sects continue to advance and spread confusion among believers.