Hélder Câmara, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife in north-east Brazil from 1964 to 1985, is probably best- known in Eng­land and Wales for the quotation published on a Cafod poster: “If I give food to the poor they call me a saint. If I ask why the poor have no food they call me a Communist.” After organising Brazilian participation in the 1950 Holy Year, Câmara was invited to Rome to meet the sub-Secretary of State, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini. This was the beginning of an important friendship, which continued when Montini became Pope Paul VI in 1963. Montini supported Câmara’s proposals for setting up a Brazilian bishops’ conference and a continent-wide Latin American Episcopal Council. These were to give Brazilian and Latin Amer