Lenir Rodrigues: Gratitude and Joy for the Canonization of Our Father and Founder

Professor Lenir Rodrigues with the pelligrini of Roraima in the Basilica of St Paul in Roma. Photo: Jaime C. Patias

The participation of many laypeople, friends of the Consolata family from all over the world, in the events surrounding the canonization of Giuseppe Allamano in Rome and Turin was truly significant. We share the testimony of Lenir Rodrigues, a teacher who was part of the delegation from Roraima.

By Jaime C. Patias *

“I am a pilgrim from Roraima, where the miracle attributed to our Father Founder Joseph Allamano took place. I spent my childhood in the municipality of Mucajaí, where Father Ricardo Silvestre, one of the first Consolata missionaries to arrive in Roraima, died by drowning. He was also the founder of the church of Our Lady of Fatima,” recalls Mrs. Rodrigues. “The Consolata missionaries arrived in Roraima on June 14, 1948, when it was still a Territory (before it became a State of Brazil). All our adolescent and youth formation was provided by the Consolata Missionaries, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, who made significant contributions to our State,” she says with gratitude, recalling some important names.

“Sister Maria Evelia, Sister Maria Costa, Father Luis Palumbo, Father José Galantino, Monsignor Aldo Mongiano, Father Lírio Girardi, and all the others, have made a great contribution to the youth of Roraima. Today, I am a teacher and a public defender (court-appointed lawyer), and I am grateful to be part of this canonization of our Father and Founder here in Rome.”

* Father Jaime C. Patias, IMC, Communications Office, Rome

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