According to the priest, “people are very discouraged because it is the third flood in nine months” and “many people” have said they will leave the city. “Even the heads of the parishes”, added the priest.
“So it will be a long and difficult job of reconstruction. I’m trying to stay in touch with parishioners via WhatsApp, via video, and I’m trying to stay close [a loro] with messages of perseverance”, said the priest.
Since the water invaded the rectory, Glaser said he has taken refuge in the parish of Our Lady of Fátima in Guaíba, a nearby city. “I am in the rectory with a family of parishioners and there are about 140 people who have taken refuge in the parish hall,” he said.
“Here in the parish I am celebrating Mass,” said the priest. “So, every time there is a Mass, I tell people and those nearby to come and participate.”
The parish of the Immaculate Conception, which has been in the Rio Branco neighborhood for 72 years, was “the first church devastated by the rains” in the city of Canoas, according to the parish vicar, Father Rodrigo Barroso. “The water went through the pews and entered the sacristy and the parish office. We have lost a lot of material assets,” Barroso told ACI Digital.
According to the priest, the parish “was the rescue point for around 1,200 people who began arriving at the church trying to be rescued” by boat.
Barasso said the Immaculate Conception school, run by the Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity, which is located next to the church, “was also seriously damaged.” The nuns had to close the church because some people were “looting the place and the church was very at risk,” he said.
“With the force of the water, we couldn’t even close the doors of the church. Today I was there and we managed to close the parish,” he added.
The vicar said he doesn’t know how long it will take to “return to normality” in the neighborhood, so Masses are celebrated in the parish of San Luigi Gonzaga, in the center of Canoas.
The parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Harmonia neighborhood of Canoas and its 13 communities also ended up under water.
“Everything has been lost, nothing has been saved,” the parish priest, Friar Juan Miguel Gutiérrez Mendéz, told ACI Digital.
“All the houses” in the neighborhood “are underwater” and this “is a very sad, very distressing and very desperate reality,” he added.
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Originally from the Dominican Republic, the Capuchin friar said the situation in Harmonia is “like a horror movie.”
“I have never experienced a situation like this in my life, it’s the first time. In the Dominican Republic, which is a land where there are hurricanes every year, I had never experienced such a situation”, observed the friar. “It’s a very difficult time we’re going through.”
According to Gutiérrez, the flooding in Harmonia began on the night of Friday 3 May. “It was maddening,” he continued. He and another friar managed to save more than 40 people.
“We went up to the third floor of the parish, in the catechism room, and we managed to stay there until almost Saturday evening, when we were saved by the firefighters,” he said.
According to Gutiérrez, “the reality that the faithful are experiencing is very sad”, because “many people are falling into depression, with enormous sadness”.
“People are worried about the material things they have lost, but this is the time to encourage all members of the parish by telling them: We have lost everything, we have lost material things, but we must ask God to increase our faith. With a strong, fortified faith, we can believe that better days will come, which we hope to rebuild, to start again”, declared the priest.
