Friar Paolo Maria Braghini was returning to his mission one afternoon after going to buy supplies in town. Suddenly, a cloud began to darken the beautiful blue sky over the Amazon rainforest. A heavy storm quickly followed. Due to the limited visibility, a large boat passing by didn’t see Friar Braghini's small boat, which was capsized by a wave.
The friar and a member of the Indigenous Ticuna tribe who was accompanying him were pulled to the bottom of the river. With great effort, they managed to swim to the shore and drag themselves to safety, exhausted. But with dangerous ants, mosquitoes, and other insects lurking, stopping to rest was a luxury they could not afford.
They walked in the darkness for over an hour until they finally found an Indigenous community that took them in.
“It was by the grace of God that we survived. There are similar cases where people have drowned because the currents are so strong,” says the Capuchin friar.
A dangerous mission
What for some would be the adventure of a lifetime was, however, just another day at work for Friar Braghini. The Italian missionary arrived in the Amazon in 2005 and was sent to the parish of St. Francis of Assisi, in the village of Belém do Solimões, on the border between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru.
He currently serves 72 communities scattered across a system of small rivers.
Over the years, he has had dangerous encounters with alligators, his body has been covered with fire ants, and he has had to carry a woman who had been bitten by a jararaca snake. Not to mention the countless times his boat has broken down and started floating with the river current!
“Accidents are part of life. One time, we saw what looked like a tree that had been swept into the river by a storm. When we got closer, it opened its eyes. It was a huge alligator. My heart almost jumped out of my mouth,” recalls the friar.
First priest to visit and celebrate baptisms
Friar Braghini talks about the conditions he found:
When we arrived in Belém do Solimões, we found a parish that had been abandoned for 15 years. There was no priest, no religious services, and only a handful of lay people kept the faith alive. In some communities, I was the first priest to perform baptisms. There was a lot of violence, alcoholism, and high suicide rates among young people. We realized that they were crying out for help, for opportunities. We started with small initiatives, such as music lessons, teaching them to play the guitar and sew, and little by little, we began new pastoral initiatives and evangelization increased.
Great help in spreading the Gospel
The Ticuna are the largest Indigenous tribe served by the Capuchins, with a population of 40,000. The seeds planted by the Gospel in the vastness of the Amazon are already beginning to bear fruit.
The communities in Belém do Solimões have celebrations in their own language every Sunday, as well as catechesis. The region is also home to the first Ticuna deacon, and other Indigenous peoples are currently in the seminary.
Braghini explains:
Our great strength has always been that we believe in them, that they can and should be the leaders and pastors of their own communities, in their own language and with their beautiful culture. They feel and understand that we believe in them, that we love and value them.
We are here trying to hear the voice of God, who cries out through the people. We also ask you to pray for us. It’s not easy to be a missionary in these lands. The challenges are many and great. Pray for all of us, for the missionaries in the Amazon and throughout the world.
About 1,000 miles from Manaus and a few hours by boat from the border with Peru and Colombia, the village of Eware I and II is located in a demarcated area where permission from the Brazilian National Foundation of Indigenous People (FUNAI) is required to enter. It’s one of the largest villages in Amazonas, with a population of almost 5,000.
The only means of communication between the Indigenous communities is by river, and transportation is by wooden canoes. There are no landlines, and the only means of digital contact is through the internet connection used at the computer school, a Caritas project.
Meeting of cultures
For Friar Paolo, carrying out this work is a lesson in faith and hope. He says in an interview with Rede Imaculada de Comunicação:
It’s a great privilege to live among Indigenous peoples who, unfortunately, are victims of much prejudice. It’s an immense treasure to share life with these people. They truly live the charism of fraternity and are very hard-working people. Most families live from agriculture and fishing.
They have an impressive connection with nature, and we Franciscans learn the value of this relationship between creatures and creation here, as St. Francis taught us.
A highlight of his mission is the project to rescue and value Indigenous culture through songs. Friar Paolo explains:
Their mother tongue is Ticuna, which is an isolated and difficult language. It’s unlike any other language in the Americas. So for many years they felt excluded from the Church and the local diocese because they couldn’t interact. Since we arrived here, we saw that it was essential for them to sing and pray in their own language. We translated some songs and prayers, such as the Hail Mary. Today we have a huge collection of songs, about 200 biblical songs translated by them.
Language of evangelization
The project to translate the Holy Scriptures is underway, but the children's Bible has already been translated and is used in the village's catechism groups.
For Friar Paolo, a divine voice confirmed his work and encourages him to continue on this path.
"The whole Church wants to make us aware that God became flesh, and that every culture must be respected in all its dimensions. For us, the Synod was a great encouragement. We were already trying to move in this direction, and when the voice of Mother Church came, we felt so happy and so encouraged that now we feel no fear."
