Fr. Fagner Dalbem, C.Ss.R. and Fr. Ricardo de Carvalho, C.Ss.R., on July 12, 2021, moved into a new parish house attached to the Church of St. Alphonsus, near the centre of the city of Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname. This house was once the monastery of the Redemptorist Missionaries, and when our Dutch confreres left, it was transformed into a parish house. Providentially, it is now a Redemptorist religious house again.
The house is lovely and well furnished. There is an office and a hall on the ground floor where some parish work is carried out. The Redemptorist Community lives upstairs, which has three bedrooms, a bathroom, a laundry room, a kitchen and a large living room, where there is also a table for meals. However, since there are few confreres, meals are taken at a table on the veranda that surrounds the house’s entire length. And … the view is quite beautiful.
Soon Fr. Patricio, who lives further north in the city, will also be living in the house. The confreres of the Mission in Suriname are very happy with this change because the house and its location provide more quality of life and more contact with the people.
INSTALLATION AS PARISH PRIESTS
On August 1, the feast of St. Alphonsus, Fr. Ricardo took over the pastoral care of the St. Alphonsus Parish. Monsignor Karel Choennie presided at the Eucharist. In this parish, apart from the main church of St. Alphonsus, there are two more chapels, one dedicated to St. Paul and the other to Zacchaeus.
On Sunday, August 8, Fr. Fagner was installed as a pastor of the Parish of St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, composed of the St. Clement church and the chapel dedicated to our confrere St. Gerard Magela. This chapel is inside an older people’s home where the elderly residents and nearby parishioners participate in the celebrations.
Fr. Fagner is exercising the ministry of parish priest for the first time and is still learning, besides the language, the local culture and customs, which are very different from those in Brazil, including the rites.
Fr. Patricio continues as pastor of the parish of Our Lady of Nazareth, which serves the community of Brazilians.
With this, the Redemptorist Mission in Suriname has the task of revitalizing three parishes. But it is still part of the project to work with the Spanish speaking migrants by having a weekly mass in Spanish in one of our parishes. There is also the desire to do missionary work in the country’s interior, where Brazilians work in the mines.
May God bless our confreres who are evangelizing in the Mission of Suriname!
(www.provinciadorio.org.br)
