The Red
Bishop
Goes to
Heaven
During the Second Vatican Council in 1963 Dom Hélder suggested to his fellow bishops they should abandon titles of nobility like eminence and excellency and to exchange their valuable crosses for bronze or wood ones. As archbishop he used to receive phone threats and shots were fired against his house.
Francesco Neves "Are you going to heaven?", a reporter asked him once. "I have great hope," answered Dom Hélder, a man who liked to be called just with the honorific title for bishops, Dom, and whose main virtue wasn't humbleness. He loved to tell this little joke about himself: "Dom Hélder died, went to heaven and there was Saint Peter waiting for him at heaven's gate. Already impatient that the bishop didn't make up his mind to enter, the gatekeeper saint asks: "Why is he taking so long?" To which one aide answers: "He is waiting for the media to cover the event."
And cover they did. The bishop whose name could not even be mentioned in the media during the darker years of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and who was derisively called "Red Bishop" by one of the most influent Brazilian papers, conservative O Estado de S. Paulo, found his death making front cover headlines across the country.
As witness to the love people had for him, more than 2000 people walked for two hours under the sun following the Fire Department truck that carried his casket through the streets of Recife to Olinda where Dom Hélder was buried at the mausoleum of the Alto da Sé Church. Thousands more had come to the daylong wake. On their way to the mausoleum the faithful sang the national anthem, church hymns, as well as Roberto Carlos popular songs "Jesus Cristo" and "A Montanha".
Diminutive (he was 5"2') and gaunt, Hélder Câmara was big enough to face the powerful and condemn the atrocities they committed in the name of national security. An admirer of Fidel Castro, he used to attack capitalism and the United States. An inspirer of Liberation Theology he didn't want to be linked to any ideology however. Contrary to the Liberation Theology, which condemns the giving of alms, he used to give to the poor. Talking about his dilemma with the military he declared in 1964: "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."
During the Second Vatican Council in 1963 he suggested to his fellow bishops they should abandon titles of nobility like eminence and excellency and to exchange their valuable crosses for bronze or wood ones. He wrote: "Let us end once and for all the impression of a bishop-prince, residing in a palace, isolated from his clergy whom he treats distantly and coldly." Following his own advice when he took his post as archbishop of Pernambuco state's Olinda and Recife, on April 12, 1964—less than two weeks after the March 31 military coup against President João Goulart—Dom Hélder chose to live in a little house behind a church instead of the Episcopal mansion. He also took out the gilded throne his predecessor had and adopted a wooden chair in its place. Dom Hélder kept his Franciscan habits until the end. Instead of the embroidered frocks favored by his peers he preferred an old worn white cassock.
At his inauguration homily he talked about his beliefs: "On Judgement Day, we will be judged by the way we treated Christ represented by those who are hungry, thirsty, and go through life dirty, hurt and oppressed."
More:
http://www.brazzil.com/p08aug99.htm
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