The Mother Church of São Sebastião, in Ponta Delgada, will now offer religious services in English to meet the high demand for religious services in a foreign language, the new Parish Director, Father Marco Sérgio Tavares, told Igreja Açores.
“Ponta Delgada has the great religious aggregating pole of the diocese, which is the Sanctuary of Senhor Santo Cristo, and it has many churches in the city’s heart. That’s why we need to take another look at the pastoral care of welcome. At the city zone meeting, we decided that it was important to offer pastoral services and moments of prayer in English to meet the demands of tourism, which is no longer so seasonal,” stated Father Marco Sérgio Tavares.
“There needs to be a dialogue with the pastoral care of mobility: we have the largest airport in the Azores, with frequent daily flights; the phenomenon of maritime tourism is also on the rise, so we need to invest in a pastoral care of tourism. The celebration will take place in the parish church, because it’s the most central church and now we just need a priest who can provide this service in English,” he explains.

But the dialogue between the pastoral care of mobility and the pastoral care of tourism and urban pastoral care, of which Ponta Delgada “is an excellent laboratory,” is not the new ombudsman’s only priority.
“Ponta Delgada is a large center, in terms of space and human mass; “it has very different problems because it coexists with urban and rural reality, where the problems are different, but it also faces the other side of the coin of a large pole, which is the social problem,” the priest said.
“We have the problem of homelessness, which Caritas tries to respond to in its Shelter House; we have problems of drug addiction and indigence with delinquent behavior… Sometimes it’s not easy to give a ready and authoritative response to all these social problems. We already have a lot of answers, but we always need a fresh look,” adds the new ombudsman.
“The Church has to coordinate better with other entities and perhaps give more, as our bishop says.”
“I’m counting on the collaboration of my colleagues and the encouragement they’ll give to all these issues, but I’m also counting on the laity. Our consultative bodies are working and we will continue to do so,” he concluded.
One of the initiatives planned for next year is the organization of a summer camp for young people in Ponta Delgada, similar to the camps organized by congregations and religious institutes of consecrated life to “take advantage of the new blood” that was mobilized and came out of World Youth Day in Lisbon.
Marco Sérgio Tavares has been a priest for 21 years; since September, he has been the new parish priest of São Roque and Santa Clara after serving mainly in rural parishes. He teaches Catholic Moral and Religious Education at the Ginetes school and is Director of the Diocesan Acolytes Commission, part of the Diocesan Liturgy Service.

In Diário dos Açores, Osvaldo Cabral-director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.