On January 10th of this year, some 30,000 Brazilians are reported to have been in attendance for a special mass, celebrated at a stadium in the city of Curitiba in southern Brazil. The occasion marked the 5-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that tragically shook Haiti in 2010. The event also commemorated the death of Dr. Zilda Arns Neumann, founder and head of the Pastoral Care of Children organization. Though Dr. Arns was killed in the earthquake of 2010, her legacy of life-affirming attention to poor children lives on today. The Pastoral Care of Children network of Catholic charities (that she began in 1983), today supports almost two million needy children in Brazil alone, while the organization is also active in many other countries, from Latin America to Africa and Asia. Because of her incredible contributions to the lives of so many poor children and families, Dr. Arns was honored and celebrated, and a request was made by the Pastoral Care of Children to initiate the process of beatification. A petition with some 130,000 signatures accompanied the request, and was officially presented to the archdiocese of Curitiba with the hope that the archbishop will present the case to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican. Dr. Arns was a pediatrician, wife and mother, who dedicated her life to humanitarian causes and solidarity. She received dozens of awards and acknowledgements for her public health and humanitarian work over the years, including nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 2001 and 2006. The commemoration mass was attended by faithful supporters and religious leaders from all over Brazil.
Notable priest, archbishop, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and (many say) prophet from the northeast of Brazil, Dom Hélder Câmara (1909-1999) was also a tireless advocate for the poor, and an outspoken agent for social change. He once described the situation regarding Brazil’s vast poverty-stricken populations: “In the poverty just exists the indispensable, but it does exist. In the misery, not even the indispensable exists.”
The Pastoral Care of Children founder understood and shared this characterization. Witnessing to the issues that they both cared deeply about, and to the faith that they both shared, Dr. Arns said, “Children are the seed for peace or violence in the future, depending on how they are cared for and stimulated. Thus, their family and community environment should be seen as the greatest potentials for the construction of a fairer and more fraternal world, a world to serve life and hope.” She spoke about “the love that we all can and do bring into our hearts, by the grace of God,” as having the potential to transform the lives of so many people.
As Missionhurst Magazine’s valued readers, you may recall reports that we’ve shared regarding our engagement in this important apostolate. As a matter of fact, the local Pastoral Care for Children program has been supported with projects funded by Missionhurst several times over the years of our involvement. Today, Pastoral Care of the Child is present in all Brazilian states, and 19 other countries.
Goal of the Ministry
With the help of trained leaders and volunteers, the ministry strives to nurture, protect and strengthen the lives of needy children with care that begins during pregnancy, and continues up through the age of six. Impoverished mothers and families often need this support in order to ensure the physical and emotional development of their little ones. In concrete terms, the ministry aims to monitor the mothers’ health during her pregnancy, provide the family with the basic health guidelines for young children, and give them valuable information on hygiene, health and nutrition, education and even citizenship.
This organization represents what can be achieved at the intersection of faith and life. The CNBB—National Conference of Bishops of Brazil—integrated this ministry in its social dimension since its beginnings, confirming the message of Jesus: “I came so that all may have life and life in abundance.” The Church thus seeks to alleviate the suffering of many children and their mothers, wiping their tears, so that they will have more life and have life in abundance.
Leadership Training
Since the month of February, the annual training of new leaders has once again begun. In the Diocese of Nova Iguaçu, some fifteen women (several from Our Lady of Fatima parish) meet weekly to qualify for their commitment. Leaders are trained with courses in the basics of biology and physiology of the human body, particularly womens’ health, and they deepen their understanding of the various processes of growth and human development, including: proper nutrition according to age levels, types of infantile diseases and the at-home remedies to treat them, which are often quite favorable and economical.
Furthermore, the new leaders are prepared for the dynamics of their monthly tasks. They are trained in techniques for the weighing of children, keeping accurate records, and in standard protocols for advising mothers in the areas of hygiene, health, nutrition, prevention of household accidents, use of home remedies, and how to combat life threatening diseases for children, like lung infections, diarrhea, dehydration, and others.
During the training process, special attention is given to spirituality and prayer, and celebrations of life. Because of their intimate contact with the family, especially with mothers, it is very important to the success of the objectives of the ministry, that household visits directly confront the actual situations of registered families. The leaders realize that they must possess ethical attitudes, expressed by transparency, honesty, justice and equity, simplicity, joy in serving, and unbiased regarding on race, color, profession, nationality, sex, religion or political belief. In this way, the leader greets one situation to the next openly, and knows how to value all children, pregnant women and families. There is a strong commitment to the greater good—leaders are invited to the mission of the Pastoral in order to multiple knowledge and care.
Monthly activities
Leaders will visit various communities monthly to perform the activities of the program. Weighing each registered child, and completing monthly progress records and appropriate forms are a staple of this work. But leaders and volunteers also present focused topics promoting health practices, including: hand washing, healthy water, breastfeeding, oral rehydration, sleep position for babies, antibiotic use, etc. They also support national prevention and vaccination campaigns dealing with leprosy, tuberculosis, and polio.
While leaders take care of their work, additional community volunteers engage the children by creating an environment of joy through play, and providing them with small toys. Testimony by leaders on the success of their work demonstrates the great value of this pastoral care, which continues to progress and be recognized and praised by government entities for its noticeable results, specifically in reducing child mortality. Graciete, a leader from our community, expressed her experience: “I’m very happy to be engaged in this kind of work, saving lives of the poorest around us. My family already increased, and now I have become a kind of second mother to various poor children.”
Through a partnership with sympathetic professionals, members of the community and governmental programs, medical visits from pediatricians, dental practitioners, and other pediatric specialties is regularly arranged, at no cost to these families.
When the Pastoral Care of the Child began in 1983, the infant mortality rate in Brazil was 80 deaths per thousand live births. The methodology developed by Dr. Zilda Arns Neumann has been applied through the work of this pastoral for more than 30 years now, and the current rate in Brazil is reported to be 16 deaths per thousand live births. In communities where Pastoral Care of the Child is present, it is much lower than the national average: 8.8 deaths per thousand live births. Malnutrition is measureably lower in these communities as well. It is clear that the focus on reliable tracking of weight and nutrition, as well as the educational aspect of this work, is an effective and reliable method of strongly impacting the health and well being of under privileged children and families.
We thank God, Creator of life, for the solidarity of action that happens day by day through the thousands of volunteers invloved with Pastoral Care of the Child: in seven communities of our parish, all over Brazil, and in the many other countries this program has grown to serve. We thank God as well, for the compassionate benefactors who trust and support our involvement as agents in this important apostolate. It could not happen without co-missionaries like you.
Fr. Bernard Masson, cicm, is a Belgian native who joined Missionhurst in 1965 and was ordained in 1978. He is currently the pastor of the Our Lady of Fatima, located in the neighborhood of Cabuçu, which is part of the large Brazilian city of Nova Iguaçu (approximately 25 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro).
