(by Ona Kiser, President) 

I am not always able to be in Campos for ordinations, but was blessed on my recent visit to assist at the ordinations to the subdiaconate of two wonderful young men, João Bosco and Juaci, which took place on the feast of St. Augustine. May they be holy priests! Below are a few photos from the event taken by the seminarians in charge of media.

Please keep them in your prayers!
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You can see more frequent photos of events from the seminary on their instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seminarioic/

Priests at the seminary celebrate a monthly Mass for the intentions of our benefactors and for those who have submitted prayer requests on our site. These intentions are also included in the daily prayers of the seminarians and of the sisters at the convent in Bom Jesus.

​Following are some photos from the Mass celebrated for these intentions on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Christ:

We recently received this special thank you video addressed to our benefactors from Dom Fernando Arêas Rifan, bishop of the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney:

The ceremony was livestreamed and can be seen on the seminary YouTube channel for those who are interested.

I was able to get to Campos for a brief visit and can report that everyone is in good health and good spirits, and bearing well the limitations imposed by occasional regional covid lockdowns. It was a treat for me to see everyone again and to enjoy the silence and solemnity of the daily routine, if only for a day. We are all very greatful for the generous support of our donors, and for your prayers.

​The pantry is well stocked. No one is fat! But they are getting good nutrition. Over 100 new fruit trees were donated by a local nursery: orange, acerola, papaya, avocado, mango and lime trees now grow prolifically on the large property. A new dirt road around the perimeter of the large property is being maintained to serve as an exercise path and firebreak, since the regular burning of the sugar cane fields on either side is a bit nerve-wracking. There are five calves fattening in the back pasture, and another several dozen at a farm in the north of the diocese, which assures some supply of meat for the months to come. Area dairy farmers donate some of their male calves to be raised for food. The care of the grounds is finally in the hands of a part-time groundskeeper, who is helping to maintain a more consistent civilized appearance in a tropical environment where everything one cuts down grows back very, very fast.

Since family-day visits have not been possible under the recurring quarantines, seminarians are allowed to make weekly video calls to their families instead of just audio. Brazil has a very family-oriented culture, and it’s rare for people to spend much time far from home, even in adulthood. Though a good portion of the seminarians are from the diocese of Campos some come from other states. The strict limits usually imposed on the use of internet and cell phone are excellent for building self-discipline, fraternal friendship, and focus on the tasks at hand. But especially for the first year students a little flexibility can help both parents and sons adapt to the novel arrangements.

The cataloguing of the library books is progressing, and Father Everaldo has compiled a list of books they need to purchase, mostly in the areas of philosophy and patristics. The total for that comes to about $3000 US, but they can be purchased a little at a time, so Friends of Campos will contribute as we can. Perhaps we can get discounts from some of the publishers, too. If you are particularly interested in helping with this project please get in touch via our contact page.

We reached a little over half our goal for the Lenten fundraiser, which has allowed us to help with food and pharmacy costs at the seminary and convent. We hope to receive a bit more in the next months to move ahead on the furnishings, library and music program support. The furnishings, too, will be paid in installments, so we are hopeful we can support that project in particular.

The sisters provided this sweet video - with an excellent effort in English narration! - to thank the donors to Friends of Campos for their generosity.

Also, the seminary has a nice instagram feed which includes videos of Holy Week and of day to day activities. If you use instagram you might enjoy following it! https://www.instagram.com/seminarioic/

Please keep us in your prayers and spread the word about the needs of this unique traditional diocese!

Yours in Christ,
​Ona Kiser
President

Dear friends, we have nearly reached the half-way mark towards our goal of raising $16,000 during Lent.  Funds raised right now are being used most urgently to buy food for the seminary and defray pharmacy costs for the sisters in Bom Jesus. In addition, funds permitting, we want to offer grants for desperately needed furnishings and library books at the seminary and equipment for the music program at the convent. 

We are most grateful for the support received so far, but more help is needed!

Please help us reach our goal with your own donations, your prayers, and by encouraging your friends, family and colleagues to support this fundraiser!

​Click here to donate via Paypal or bank transfer: https://www.friendsofcampos.org/donations.html

Here’s a full accounting of the projects we are supporting this season: https://www.friendsofcampos.org/projects.html

God repay you for your support!

​Ona Kiser
President, Friends of Campos

In this brief video new deacon Fabio offers his thanks for all the support you, our benefactors, give to the seminary and shares some footage from his diaconal ordination.

Dear friends,

We’re excited to announce our fundraiser for Lent. Our goal is to raise just $16,000 by Easter. 

This will cover the projects detailed in the Projects section:

-A monthly supplement for the seminary for food, cleaning supplies and other basics
-A monthly supplement for the convent in Bom Jesus for food and pharmacy
-A proper wardrobe for each dormitory room in the seminary
-A round of new books for the library
-New musical instruments for the sisters

Please join us in reaching (or even surpassing!) our goal! Contributions of any size are welcome. Please donate today!

May God repay you for your prayers and contributions. Please share this fundraiser with your friends and colleagues!

Ona Kiser
President
Friends of Campos

They had also desperately needed new hospital beds for the Saint Joseph Care Center for the Elderly, and these were also purchased by a private donor in late 2020. They haven’t been delivered yet, but we’ll post some pictures when they are. We are grateful to see the sisters receiving extra help, especially in such a difficult year. ​

Back at the seminary, I was delighted to see that the Formation Center for Priests has been finished, despite the quarantines. ​

Another joy was to see the progress made on the library. The new shelves are slowly filling with books, the reading room is already in use (and air-conditioned!), and a small team has been trained to repair and catalogue the books under the supervision of one of the priests. There are some treasures to be found, including correspondence, magazines and other publications covering the time of upheaval and transition after the Second Vatican Council. It will make a good resource for researchers in the future. This was not a Friends of Campos project in 2020, but will be in 2021 (see project page for details!).

The sisters and the seminarians are praying for our benefactors during Lent as well there are Masses celebrated for this intention at the seminary. We thank you again for your support in 2020, our first year of service. We hope to grow in 2021!

Check out our 2021 projects here!

Also new this year: the sisters and the seminary are taking prayer requests. You can submit your intentions here.

By Ona Kiser

First, we want to thank you all for your generous support of this new project, Friends of Campos. Our plans for helping out with some infrastructure projects got set aside as the pandemic wrecked the flow of support from the parishes that normally sustains the seminary. Thanks to your charity we were able to make several donations to help keep the seminarians in food and soap.

The seminarians are on summer break now, visiting their families. The new school year starts up at the end of January (the school year runs January to December here). God willing, I’ll be heading out for a visit shortly after the feast of Candelária (February 2). That’s also the feast day of the patron saint of Brazil, Our Lady of Aparecida. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen everyone in person!

We were happy to celebrate the ordination of Father Kelvin in December (see previous post): a joyful conclusion to a rather difficult year. There were also a few minor news stories from around the region:

The end of the school year is a time for public presentation and defense of monographs by the  students finishing philosophy (the end of the third year). The successful presentation and defense of the monograph is required to continue on to theology. In the photo, Eduardo Salomão takes the stand. His monograph was about Natural Law in the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas. He called the subject "awesome but difficult" but said he found the preparation rewarding, especially as the subject is very current.

A calf auction was held recently in Bom Jesus. The sale raised funds to help pay for the new solar panel installation on the Saint Joseph’s Home for the Elderly, affiliated with the Apostolic Administration. I have sometimes purchased raffle tickets for calf raffles, just on a whim, but have yet to win a calf. I live in the city, so a calf is not much use to me, but if I ever do win one it will make a good story. Brazilian cattle are super adorable, with big eyes and floppy ears.

I’ll just add a special mention of two of the oldest residents of Saint Joseph’s: Eliza, who is 108 and Maria de Lourdes, who is 110! Here they are in their Christmas wish list photos which the sisters posted so area residents could bring gifts.

Happy New Year! God repay you all for your continued prayers and support.