AMERICA/BRAZIL - Salesian missionary missing in Amazonia during a storm

Wednesday, 5 September 2018 missionary institutes   missionary animation   priests  

São Gabriel da Cachoeira (Agenzia Fides) - On Monday 3 September Salesian missionary Norberto Hohenscherer disappeared while he was traveling alone on his canoe, down the river Uaupes, in the Brazilian Amazon. According to information sent to Agenzia Fides from the diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, the missionary was heading towards his parish of San Miguel, which is based in Lauaete, on the border between Brazil and Colombia. The incident occurred in the middle of a heavy storm in the region.
Born in Austria on October 6, 1938, Fr. Norberto arrived in Brazil in 1966 and has since worked in almost all the parishes of the diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira. The priest continues to visit the more distant communities in a systematic way, despite his age. In reality it is not the first shipwreck experienced by Father Norberto in his more than 50 years of mission in the Rio Negro region, as the local Bishop, Mgr. Edson Damian reports to Fides.
The news of the disappearance was given to the Bishop around midnight on Monday 3, after a fisherman had found objects and the boat on which the priest was traveling. Research began immediately, with the participation of several boats, together with Father Antonio Carlos Alves, superior of the Salesians of the region, which so far have not produced any results. (LMM) (Agenzia Fides, 5/9/2018)


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