This is what don Lucio Nicoletto, first fidei donum missionary of the diocese of Padua told Fides, who along with Don Benedetto Maria Zampieri, will guide São José Operario parish, in the city of Caracaraí, almost in the center of the Diocese of Roraima.
"The path that led the diocese of Padua to mature this choice was long and painful", says Don Lucio. "In Brazil since 1953, the Paduan missionaries have been mainly engaged in the territory of the Baixada Fluminense, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. But already in the eighties they felt the need not to reduce the missionary commitment in Brazil only in this specific area. Today, after years of reflection, prayer and dialogue, the churches of Padua and Roraima thank the Lord for this epiphany of the Spirit which is visibly manifested in the missionary commitment between two Churches in dialogue and cooperation. In this context one cannot forget the concrete sacrifice of Fr. Ruggero Ruvoletto, Paduan fidei donum brutally killed in Manaus in September 2009. Through his missionary experience in Manaus, he was already working to open the eyes and heart of the Church of Padua in order to welcome the cry of the Amazonian peoples immersed in a context of social injustice and unprecedented environmental exploitation. His blood, a sign of martyrdom and of prophecy, reminds us of the missionary dimension of every baptized person and of the whole Church, a dimension that becomes prophecy especially when he welcomes the cry of the poor and oppressed of the world and renews the preferential option to walk with them for Christ's sake".