José Rodrigues de Souza

José Rodrigues de Souza CSsR (born March 25, 1926 in Paraíba do Sul , São Paulo , Brazil ; † September 9, 2012 in Goiânia , Goiás ) was a Brazilian religious , Roman Catholic bishop of Juazeiro and human rights activist .

Life

José Rodrigues de Souza joined in 1938 the Congregation of the Redemptorists in and received on 27 December 1950, the priestly ordination . He was responsible for the people's mission of his order and deputy superior in Goiás .

He was a professor at the seminary of Aparecida , São Paulo . Between 1966 and 1968 he studied catechesis and pastoral care in Brussels. From 1969 he was active in the missions in São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paraná and Amazonas. In 1970 he was elected Provincial of the Redemptorists of Goiás and Distrito Federal do Brasil .

Pope Paul VI appointed him Bishop of Juazeiro on December 12, 1974 . The Apostolic Nuncio in Brazil , Archbishop Carmine Rocco , donated his episcopal ordination on February 9, 1975 ; Co-consecrators were Antônio Ribeiro de Oliveira , Auxiliary Bishop in Goiânia , and Juvenal Roriz CSsR, Prelate of Rubiataba .

In the regional bishops' conference of the CNBB he represented the commission for rural pastoral care and youth. He was also President of the Brazilian Redemptorist Pastoral Council.

On June 4, 2003, John Paul II accepted his age-related resignation.

Act

José Rodrigues de Souza worked for the 72,000 people who became homeless as a result of the construction of the Sobradinho hydropower station and for the farm workers (Camponês) in the hinterland of Brazil who suffered under the military dictatorship.

In the diocese of Juazeiro he set up numerous social pastoral projects, initiated the development of communication in the diocese with a library with 45,000 books and a video library with 2,000 video titles for schools and teachers, equipment for radio and television productions as well as print journalism. He was the initiator of a cistern project to store water, which was later taken over by the national Ministry of the Environment.

José Rodrigues de Souza testified in numerous trials and investigations after the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1985, for example on issues such as the land grab in Bahia in 1977 and the terror of the regime in 1981. In 1978, he denounced the Comissão da Bacia do São Francisco commission Problems caused by the construction of the Sobradinho dam. He participated in numerous debates on the drought and famine in northeastern Brazil.

He was a member of the Associação Bahiana de Imprensa . In 2008 he was awarded the Troféu Mandacaru de Ouro by this journalists' association . In 1992 his biography "Bispo dos Excluídos: Dom José Rodrigues" was published, also in German translation.

The people called him pequeno grande homem (little tall man) and bispo dos excluídos (bishop of the excluded).

Fonts

• Implantação e recuperação de pastagens , 1979
• Política: a luta de um povo , 1981
• Bispo dos Excluídos: Dom José Rodrigues , 1996

literature

• Siegfried Pater: The bishop of the enslaved: Dom José Rodrigues. Fonte Viva 1996, ISBN 3889772773

Web links

• Entry on José Rodrigues de Souza on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Thomas William Murphy CSsR	Bishop of Juazeiro 1974-2003	José Geraldo da Cruz AA

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} "Dom José Rodrigues de Souza, Bispo de Juazeiro" ( Memento of the original dated November 12, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais 2008 (Portuguese)  
2. ↑ "Faleceu dom José Rodrigues de Souza, o bispo dos excluídos" , Instituto Humanitas Unisinos - IHU, September 10, 2012 (Portuguese)