BISHOP JESÚS MARÍA CIZAURRE BERDONCES (ST)
FORMATION
ASSIGNMENTS
DIOCESE
The prelacy of Cametá is located in the Amazon region in the province of Pará. It was established on November29, 1952 and given to the religious of the Mission (Paulists) of Dutch origin. The first bishop, Dom Cornélio, was Dutch and the second bishop, Dom José Elías, was brazilian. The current bishop, Dom Jesús María is Spanish. He assumed direction of the prelacy on May 7 of 2000.
At present, the prelacy is made up of 10 parishes and 2 areas in the process of becoming parishes. The extension of the territory is approximately 48, 000 square kilometers and the population stands at 420, 000 persons. In the prelacy there are more than 600 base communities, 11 communities of women religious with approximately 37 sisters, 16 diocesan priests and 7 religious.
The prelacy has a major seminary, “Bom Pastor” in the city of Belém with 10 seminarians currently studying philosophy and theology. The minor seminary, “Pe. Josimo” is located in Cametá and hosts 6 seminarians.
Since the prelacy is divided by the Tocantins River, the major mood of transport is by boat. In the last few years some roads have been opened making it easier to travel to the parishes by land.
In the last assembly of the People of God, the priorities chosen for the pastoral labor were the defense of life and family and the formation of the laity. The themes chosen include the evangelization of the youth, catechesis, and thithing.