Father Leo Visits from Brazil

6 August 2010

Our priest who’s been ministering in Brazil since 1971 has been visiting his home diocese over the past few days.  As well as meeting up with friends and supporters in Bath and Bristol, Father Leo Dolan met up with Bishop Declan and has recorded a special extended podcast for cliftondiocese.com.

You can listen to Father Leo’s podcast in the multimedia panel.  He talks about his life in Brazil and the everyday struggles of his parishioners in the Amazon. He also tells us about one of his amazing parishioners who was dedicated to reducing infant mortality in Brazil.  She then went to assist people in Haiti following January’s devastating earthquake.  She was tragedy killed in the Caribbean, but Father Leo explains how her legacy lives on.

Father Leo recalls Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Brazil in 2007.  In particular he talks about how the Holy Father spoke with young people recovering from drug addiction, and how the young people and the Pope really communicated with each other in a natural way.  Father Leo looks forward to next month’s papal visit predicting a similar positive connection between the Pope and the people of our countries.

After spending this weekend in Bath, Father Leo heads to Ireland for a little time with his family before flying back to his parishioners in South America.

To find out how you can become more aware of Father Leo’s work in Brazil and get to know about the lives of fellow Catholics in South America you can use the special new address padreleo@cliftondiocese.com and make contact with Dr Derek Indoe.