The Redemptorist missionary Father Joaquim Parron has just been announced by the Provincial Council of the Province of Curitiba as rector of the Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. The Archbishop, Monsignor José Antônio Peruzzo, authorised the appointment. Fr. Parron is expected to take up the ministry in January 2024.
In recent years, Father Parron has been involved in the formation of seminarians in the postulancy phase at the São Geraldo Majella Seminary in the Prado Velho neighbourhood. At the beginning of the pandemic, he founded the SOS Vila Torres Movement, which rekindled the solidarity of the people of Curitiba to bring food to people in need. The Movement grew into “SOS Combate à Fome”, which today distributes 2,000 basic food baskets monthly in seven communities.
The SOS movement continues
Asked about the direction of the SOS Movement after his appointment as rector, Father Parron reassures the people of Curitiba that the solidarity work will be strengthened. “The archbishop personally asked me to maintain SOS Combate à Fome, so we are drawing up plans to further strengthen the actions in 2024,” he said.
Father Parron was Provincial Superior of the Redemptorists, Missionary in the interior of Mato Grosso do Sul, rector of the Shrine of the Patroness of Paraná, Nossa Senhora do Rocio and developed a solid evangelising activity in the outskirts of the capital of Paraná. He has a background in various areas of knowledge, philosophy, psychology and theology. He has a doctorate in moral theology from the Catholic University of America, United States, and a master’s degree in university education from the PUCPR. He currently teaches at the Claretian University Centre. He has also been very devoted to the Mother of Perpetual Help since childhood.
For Father Parron, the mission he undertakes belongs, in fact, to the Redemptorist Community. “We are missionaries and live and work in a Redemptorist community. There will be several confreres working at the Shrine of Perpetual Help. The rector is the one who articulates and animates the missionary community, but the mission belongs to everyone,” he said.
Emphasis will be put on the spirituality that generates the lay missionaries engaged in the different fronts of the Church in the Archdiocese of Curitiba. “We must carry out a dynamic mission and an evangelisation incarnated in the life of the People of God”, stressed the Redemptorist.
(bemparana.com.br)
