wfn.org | Brazilian archbishop had unwavering commitment to the poor

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 2, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-32-71B{443}

By United Methodist News Service

The first time the Rev. Dow Kirkpatrick, a United Methodist missionary, met
Helder Camara, he immediately realized the Brazilian archbishop's unwavering
commitment to the poor.

Popularly known as Dom Helder, the Roman Catholic cleric presided over
northeastern Brazil, a poverty-stricken region where slaves originally had
been brought from Africa. When Kirkpatrick visited him in the city of
Recife, he found Dom Helder was not living in the colonial-style palace that
traditionally had served as the archbishop's residence, but at a church in a
poor neighborhood.

"He so identified himself with the struggles of the poor that he was not
thought of by them as the archbishop but as the bishop of the poor,"
explained Kirkpatrick, a retired member of the Northern Illinois Conference
now living in Atlanta.

Dom Helder died Aug. 27 in Recife at age 90. Burial was simple, as he
requested, but Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso declared three
days of national mourning for a man Kirkpatrick said was held "in almost a
mystical regard."

As a leading advocate of what became known as liberation theology, Dom
Helder's mission had an impact on both Catholics and Protestants. But it
didn't always make him popular with the powers-that-be, fostering
accusations of political subversion. According to his obituary in the New
York Times, he once responded, "When I fed the poor, they called me a saint.
When I asked, 'Why are they poor?' they called me a Communist."

Kirkpatrick and his wife Marjorie got to know Dom Helder during the 12
years, from 1975, that they served in Latin America as "reverse
missionaries" for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Instead
of taking the Gospel to the people, the Kirkpatricks lived in various parts
of Latin America to study the nature of spirituality among "the very poor of
the earth."

Dom Helder, he said, was a leader in the Catholic Church's plans to apply
the changes from the Second Vatican Council to the Latin American scene.
"That released a tremendous force because it gave the laity the right to
read the Bible for themselves," he added.

In 1968, the archbishop was among the Latin American bishops at a meeting in
Medellin, Colombia, who crafted documents calling for the church to stand in
solidarity with the poor. The Catholic liberation movement on the continent
"had its impact on the leadership of Protestant churches in varying
degrees," Kirkpatrick said.

In a press release from the World Council of Churches, Methodist Bishop
Federico Pagura, a Methodist from Argentina, called Dom Helder "one of God's
prophets and a pioneer in the social and ecumenical movement." Pagura, who
first met the archbishop while welcoming him to the Methodist seminary in
Costa Rica in the 1970s, is one of the WCC's eight presidents.

The archbishop also made a contribution to the musical world. With a Swiss
composer, Pierre Kaelin, he wrote the lyrics to "The Symphony for Two
Worlds." Kirkpatrick managed to get a copy of a recording of the symphony
and played it one Easter for friends from the University of Wisconsin.
Eventually, on April 24, 1983, the work was performed at the university with
Kaelin directing the orchestra and Dom Helder providing narration.
Kirkpatrick called it "one of the greatest nights of my life." 

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