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Summer 2003

Dom Helder Camara (1909-1999)
A Saint for our Time

A Biographical Sketch by William J. Myers

At the age of four, a young boy in Fortaleza, Brazil, began to realize his desire to become a priest. Always attentive at Holy Mass, the child would gather his friends and family around soap boxes so that they could “play mass” with him. In response to the boy’s assertion that he wanted to be a priest, his father told the young man, “My boy, priest and self-centeredness don’t go together. A priest is not his own master. He has only one reason for living: to live for others.” The child, Helder Camara, heeded the advice. As a man, he would exemplify this ideal of living his life completely for others.

Born on February 7, 1909, Helder Camara was from a poor but respectful family in Northeastern Brazil. Always sensing his vocation, he entered the seminary for the Diocese of Fortaleza and normally processed through his studies of philosophy and theology. He received special authorization from the Holy See to be ordained at the age of 22. After hearing Camara speak with “erudite and little used terms,” one of his teachers, Father Breno, told him to “stop being foolish... You will speak for humble people.” Camara's first endeavors as a priest included setting up the Catholic Youth Labor Movement and the Catholic Organization of Feminine Labor. Later, he was instrumental in working with Brazilian Catholic Action. He also turned his attention to setting up and renewing various education systems around the country.

He was chosen, on April 20, 1952, as Assistant Bishop of Rio de Janeiro. He began his episcopate by devoting himself to the poor. After beginning several outreaches to ease the plight of the poor, including the Saint Sebastian Crusade, he received the title “Bishop of the Slums.” He also used his position to become instrumental in founding the Conference of Brazilian Bishops and became the secretary general of the organization. He went on to help found the Latin American Bishop’s Council and was active in spreading the message of the “Church of the Poor” at Vatican II. At the council, he requested his fellow bishops to cease using exalted titles and to abandon jeweled pectoral crosses for simple wooden ones. His own simple, wooden cross often served to incite the photographers, who made him out to be a hero and an example. In response to this attention and unwarranted interpretations of the press, he noted that, “... If this wooden cross doesn’t manage to convey what is going on in my heart, if it only serves to set me apart from the “bourgeois” bishops and proclaim that I am humbler, nearer to the poor than they are: then I am done for.” Returning to Brazil he occupied the position of Archbishop of Olinda and Recife on April 12, 1964. He shocked the archdiocese by moving out of the palatial residence of former archbishops and into sacristy room adjoining a small church. Soon afterward, he replaced the golden throne with a wooden one. Dom Helder was a common sight walking around town. Rather than be chauffeured about, Dom Helder relied on the kindness of strangers to drive him where he needed to go.

With his work among the poor--especially promoting the empowerment of the Brazilian poor and all poor South Americans--he often ran into trouble with the military dictatorship that was in power at the time. Death threats, detainment, malicious slandering, and even voodoo curses were employed against Dom Helder. One of his priests, Father Henrique, was even kidnapped, tortured, stoned and shot to death. Rather than succumbing to intimidation, Dom Helder and 10,000 followers remembered the murdered priest with a procession to the cemetery for burial. Dom Helder angered many government officials and even many church officials with his radical preference for the poor, and with his support of Liberation Theology--a position similar to that which lead to the murder of his contemporary, the saintly Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Dom Helder summed up his frustration with civil and religious opposition with a now popular phrase, “If I give food to the poor they call me a saint. If I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

Dom Helder Camara was a true example of a shepherd, a man who used his office for tremendous good. He lived among the poor and downtrodden, he loved them, and he spoke out for them. He knew the suffering that his people had to endure, and he was known for understanding their plight, especially that of prostitutes. One woman, in order to feed her children, resorted to prostitution to supplement her income and discussed it with Dom Helder, expecting his condemnation. His sage words were “... The Lord is not here to tot up unfortunate sisters’ sins. They are the victims. We churchmen frequently make too much of women's sins and sexual sins in general as if sexual sins were graver than sins against compassion. Good Heavens!” he exclaimed, echoing Our Lord in His own vindication of St. Mary Magdalene (Luke 7.36-50).

On April 10, 1985, Dom Helder reached the age limit for retirement, and devoted the rest of his life to lecturing and writing books. He remained in his beloved Recife and continued to be a witness among the poor until his death on August 27, 1999, at the age of 90. His legacy will be forever remembered and especially his message that humans must love one another, a message that he constantly relayed to us Christians. “It is very easy at mass to say, 'Peace be with you' to the person standing next to you; but after that we each go home and the other person is forgotten. If the other people were really our brothers and sisters and we knew they were ill, in misery, perhaps even dying of hunger, we would do all we possibly could for them and more....” He remained, up until the end, an exemplary bishop and an inspiration to us all, and his message continues to inspire us to love one another and especially the poor. I can think of no greater legacy for the “Bishop of the Slums.”

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."