A Pop Star Catholic Priest
An edited version of an article that first appeared in LADOC, Peru
With his front line role in taking religion to the masses in Brazil through the electronic media, Father Marcelo Rossi has been at the center of more than one storm in recent years. While he denies being a ‘pop star’, it is difficult to see him any other way. Newspapers describe him as ‘young, handsome and athletic, selling millions of records, with TV stations vying for his presence.’
I never took a communication course and don’t want to create a model (of mass communication). All I want is for the Church I love to grow more each day,’ says the 34-year–old priest, who is based in Santo Amaro Diocese in Sāo Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. More than 80 percent of Brazil’s 160 million people are Catholic. According to Fr Marcelo, as the priest is popularly known, about four percent of all Catholics took part in the charismatic movement in 1997, a figure that quickly grew to 12 percent. He thought it ‘could reach 40 percent’ soon.
From time to time we come across a book or document, from another age, which moves us. One such Brazilian document that moves me profoundly is known as the Book of Slave Marks. It is a register of more that fifteen hundred slaves, their baptismal names, nation of Origin, sex and approximate age, as well as the marks with which they were branded and the part of the body on which these marks were inflicted.
One of the many cultural shocks I experienced upon arriving in Brazil was the celebration of the Feast of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated with unique traditional pomp, lots of noise, a red flag, an “emperador”, a “maestro” and a banquet.
On her favorite porch in front of her little two-room house, day after day, 78 years old Donna Cypriana sits quietly and watches as the streams of people pass along her street. I sense a little flicker of joy in her face ad she spots me, her ‘Japanese’ friend, approach. (For some reason, Donna Cypriana and most of the folk in this part of Brazil think we Filipinos are Japanese.)
Indigenous people all over the world are under pressure. Their humble forest homes are coveted by miner and ranchers. We have told the story in every issue in the Urgent Action section of MISYON. Nowhere in the pressure so strong as in the Amazonian region – the last vast remaining rain forest in Latin America.