I am very happy to hear that Dom Helder Camara’s cause is being opened (The Tablet, 18 July). In 1986, when I was doing research in Brazil on the Basic Christian Communities, I had an interview with him. He had retired as archbishop at 75 and was living in the sacristy of a sisters’ convent in Recife. He invited me to concelebrate Mass with him at 6.30am. I spoke to a taxi driver and asked him to come at 5.30am as we were going to see Dom Helder. He said: “I shall sleep in my taxi here at your door overnight so that you will not be late”. This illustrated the response he had from the workers and the poor.
It was an amazing experience to concelebrate Mass with Dom Helder. He had a simple approach and seemed to be talking to Jesus as he directed his prayers towards the small crucifix that lay on the altar. After Mass he entertained us for breakfast in a small room off the church and was enthusiastic about the work he was still able to do in spite of being informed by his successor bishop that he was not to preach publicly. Previously he had suffered a national ban for years from the (then just defeated) military government, which forbade him to speak publicly on account of his radical views on the poor.
Dom Helder was a strong influence on the Second Vatican Council, on behalf of the “Church of the poor” and combating structural injustices endemic in the world. His work influenced the formation of the Comunidades Ecclesias de Base (Basic Christian Communities) and the adoption of elements of liberation theology. As Secretary General of the Brazilian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CNBB), he was a leader and main organiser of the 1968 Bishops’ conference of all South America (CELAM) in Medellin, which was a ground-breaking exercise for all the bishops’ conferences of South America.
Another response from the poor was when I went to a favela (shanty town) near Rio de Janeiro. The people there had been pushed out of their housing to make way for the airport and were living in a swamp with snakes under the catwalks between huts. But at last, owing to the pressure Dom Helder exerted, they had now started building on a new, acceptable site. They were full of thanksgiving for Dom Helder.
Edward ‘Ted’ Rogers, SJ, Corpus Christi, Bournemouth
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