St. Francis Munduruku Mission
Ministry
St. Francis Munduruku Mission
The St. Francis Mission of the Cururu River among the Munduruku Indians is a hundred years old. The Paim, as the Franciscan Friars have been known in the Mission, have never limited their efforts to encourage the natives to be protagonists of their own history.
The first friars who arrived in this region and founded the Mission, brought with them the desire to strengthen the culture of the Indians and to value them as owners of their land. Throughout these years the mission of the Franciscan Friars and the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception has become a reference for the Munduruku people and for the local and national Church.
It was the missionaries who brought to the villages, health, education, energy, transportation and other benefits that did not exist before. The old missionaries taught the Indians to make bricks, tiles and ceramics. They also invested in the teaching of maintenance of machines, motors and generators of electricity.
The younger missionaries are engaged in the organization of a more active church, which includes pastoral and social actions. The more than one hundred villages of the Cururu, Teles Pires and Tapajós Rivers, which are attended to by the friars, are organized with liturgy teams, singing groups and ministers of the Word. Also, they organize themselves in associations that fight for their rights for health, education and preservation of the earth.
It is the Indians themselves who claim that this Mission of the Friars has been a great incentive and responsible for the organization and achievements they enjoy today. The Mission, undoubtedly, was and is of great importance for the indigenous people, for the Franciscans themselves and for the Church in Brazil.