By Matters India Reporter
São Paulo, April 12, 2020: An Indian priest, working as a missionary for years in Brazil, died on April 10 due to complications of the COVID-19. He was 81.
Father Mário do Monte Beatriz de Almeida was over 40-year missionary in the diocese of Santo Amaro, Brazil, Latin America.
He was buried on April 11 in the Fellowship of São Pedro do Cleric, in the Cemetery of the Holy Sacrament on Av Dr. Arnaldo.
His burial took place without funeral wake with a restriction of participation of people because of the quarantine and risks of infection, said Cintia Diniz, a parishioner of Paróquia Nossa Senhora de Sabará, where Father Almeida had served for years.
The funeral Mass in honor of Father Almeida was broadcast live on the parish social media page and people were urged to pray for the soul of the priest, added Diniz.
Father Almeida was born on September 8, 1938, in Goa, western India, and was ordained on August 15, 1962.
“He was a parish priest in our parish from 28 February 1988 to March 6, 2003,” Diniz said.
At the time of his death, Father Almeida was a chaplain at Emilie Villeneuve School of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Castres, São Paulo, Brazil.
According to sources, he went to Brazil as an exchange missionary after his ordination in Goa, in post Second Vatican Council. Later, he was incardinated into the diocese of Santo Amaro.
“Father Almeida was a zealous missionary and a lover of the poor. He used to visit families after the Mass,” Sister Carolina Neckel of the Immaculate Conception of Castres, who knew the priest for years, told Matters India.
“Brazil will always remember him as a good pastor and committed missionary. We will miss him,” she added.