Ship Visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Two AOS ship visitors in Rio de
Janeiro talk about their experiences.
 I
am Rogeiro Celestina Cabongo, originally from the City of
Luanda, Angola. I would like to share with you how I came to
work in the Stella Maris Centre, Rio de Janeiro.
I arrived in Brazil on 21 June 1994 intending to seek
political asylum as a refugee. I was taken in by the
Archdiocesan Caritas which helped me to legalise my
documentation. Then I entered the Federal University of Rio
de Janeiro where I studied psychology. I did some other
courses such as web master and computer languages. And then
one day, I was contacted unexpectedly by the social worker
at Caritas about working with Father Samuel Fonseca, AOS
Port Chaplain in Rio de Janeiro
When I arrived at the Church of Saint Cecilia and Saint
Pius X for my interview, Father Samuel received me with
great kindness. He told me a bit about the pastoral calling
of the sea, what the objectives were, and the services
offerred to the People of the Sea. The next day we went to
the Stella Maris Centre, situated in the port area. We
visited some of the ships that were there and I was very
happy. It reminded me of the ten years I had spent working
on the oil rigs.
It is now four months since I have been part of this
calling. I have visited more than 300 ships and talked to
many people from different parts of the world and the
experience has been wonderful. I thank God for this
opportunity and I hope to do some good work to help the
people who work in this sector."
Rogeiro Celestina Cabongo
≈ ≈ ≈
"My name is Fredy Alberto Fonseca, of Colombian
nationality. I have worked and done activities as a
volunteer in the Stella Maris Centre in Rio de Janeiro for
two years. During this time I have been alongside many
seafarers who pass through the port of Rio de Janeiro.
Ship visiting is a priority. This is where I learned what
pastoral workers should be. At first it was not easy for me
not having mastered English, the official language for this
type of calling. I realised that English was absolutely
indispensible. Slowly but surely, I made progress. Sharing
experiences together with seafarers enabled me to understand
the real culture of men and women of the sea.
During this time I witnessed at close hand the most basic
needs of the people who, for different reasons, live and
work in this profession. The situation enabled us to see
what essential services the Centre should offer. The Stella
Maris Centre is a meeting point for all seafarers in a port.
It is a very important place as it is where they come to us
looking for religious and social guidance.
It is extremely important that the people who work in the
centre have a good knowledge and understanding of what
seafarers need so that we can offer them guidance that is
appropriate and correct. We also need a lot of humility and
perseverance to receive with open arms and hearts the
seafarers who arrive and pass through the Centre every day.
I hope that this beautiful and wonderful calling grows
and flourishes so that an ever greater number of seafarers
can be helped. In truth, they have a great need of
assistance and a friendly word in every port."
Fredy Alberto Fonseca |