Province of St. Mark

Augustinian Presence in Rolandia, Brazil

The Parish of St. Peter the Apostle and Our Lady of Fatima, in Rolandia

The Parish, dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle and Our Lady of Fatima, under the care of the Augustinian Friars, became a parish on 6th October 1991. The first parish priest was the Italian Fr. Angelo Mattenzzo. He was a hard-working and very helpful person. Unfortunately, this parish priest died after a year, due to an illness. During this illness, the Augustinian Friars made known their desire to work in the state of Paranà. After many discussions between the Archbishop Dom Albano Cavallin and the Augustinian Provincial Fr. Adeodato Schembri, Fr. Richard Attard was chosen as the new parish priest on 2nd October 1992. During his time, he started building a Parish Community Centre. After six years of hard work as a priest in Rolandia, Fr. Richard Attard was sent to the Augustinian Priory in Catania, during the Provincial Chapter of 1998. When Fr. Richard left, Fr. Paul Formosa took over as a parish priest on 17th January 1999. A few months after he arrived in Rolandia, Fr. Paul together with Fr. Raphael Abdilla, started building a new church since the old one was too small for the population, which was always expanding. In a short time, the old church was demolished and about two years, a new modern church, which holds 1200 people, was built.

The Parish and its role

At present, our parish consists of 25,000 people. It is a parish, which is expanding everyday, since it has a lot of space around it and there are still many houses which are being built. The parish has 25 pastorals. Every pastoral has its own role. For example, one could find a number of women, who visit families who have child problems, including physical problems. These women help their mothers by teaching them how to take care of their children and their houses. They teach them how to cook and sew clothes. This is one of the pastorals, which is very helpful amongst families, who do not know how to educate and take care of their children. One could also find other pastorals like that of evangelizing. There are some lay people who visit a number of families every month. Many people who stopped believing in the church, come back to thank us. All this is done with the help of these missionaries, who do the visits. Apart from that, the priests who work in the parish, visit the prisoners and a mass is organised every month in the prison for those who would like to take part. Visits to the Old People's Homes are also made. Apart from the parish work, there are also five communities, which are at some distance from the parish but which are also taken care of by us. In these communities, mass, Confessions, Holy Communion, doctrinal meetings and other activities are frequently held. At present, one of the chapels is being refurbished since it is in a very bad state. A hall is also being built for parochial activities and pastoral work. At present, about 50 catechists from the parish teach doctrine to 1,200 children. Nowadays, a need is being felt to build another nine halls so that we would continue our mission amongst the children. There are three priests working in this parish and one cannot thank God enough for all the work being done and the task, which the Augustinian Maltese Province entrusted to us.