Barasso reported that Immaculate Conception School, run by the Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity, which is next to the church, “was also badly damaged.” The nuns had to close the church because some people were “looting places and the church was at great risk,” he said.
“With the force of the water, we couldn’t even close the doors of the church. Today I was there and we managed to close the parish,” he added.
The vicar said he doesn’t know how long it will take to “return to normal” in the neighborhood, so Masses are being celebrated in St. Louis Gonzaga Parish in midtown Canoas.
‘Worse than a hurricane’
Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the Harmonia neighborhood of Canoas and its 13 communities were also under water.
“Everything was lost, nothing was saved,” the pastor, Friar Juan Miguel Gutiérrez Mendéz, told ACI Digital.
“All the houses” in the neighborhood “are under water” and this “is a very sad, very distressing, and very desperate reality,” he added.
A native of the Dominican Republic, the Capuchin friar said that the situation in Harmonia is “like a horror movie.”
“In my life, I have never experienced a situation like this; it’s the first time. In the Dominican Republic, which is a land where there are hurricanes every year, I had never experienced a situation like this,” the friar noted. “It’s a very difficult time we are going through.”
According to Gutiérrez, the flooding in Harmonia began on the night of Friday, May 3. “It was exasperating,” he continued. He and another friar managed to save more than 40 people.
“We went up to the third floor of the parish, to the catechism room, and we were able to stay there until almost Saturday night, when we were rescued by the firefighters,” he said.
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According to Gutiérrez, “the reality the faithful are experiencing is very sad,” because “many people are falling into depression, with enormous sadness.”
Faith and liturgy
“People are worried about the material things they have lost, but this is the time to encourage all members of the parish by telling them: We’ve lost everything, we have lost material things, but we have to ask God to increase our faith. With a strong, fortified faith, we can believe that better days will come, that we hope to rebuild, to start again,” the priest declared.
St. Pius X Parish in the Mathias Velho neighborhood of Canoas is also run by the Capuchin Friars Minor. According to Gutiérrez, the 10 friars who are there are in Porto Alegre parishes and three friars are still there in Canoas as volunteers because of the flood.
Two friars from Mathias Velho neighborhood who are at the La Salle School in Porto Alegre are celebrating Masses and broadcasting them on the internet. As for the faithful who are in the shelters, the friar reported that “they are being helped with food, but also in their spiritual life with Masses.”
According to the friar, “of the 350,000 people who live in Canoas, I think 150,000 were affected by the floods. There are many people, families who are in shelters.”