And you fortunate woman, you who have received plenty, share with your brothers and sisters the gifts the Lord has generously given you. Do not hesitate. It is now or never! May Mary, our Mother, accompany us so that like her we may know how to be attentive to the signs of the times and respond with a gentle and joyful attitude. Open your arms and your heart: listen to the anguished heartbeat of humanity; feel their pain with the living strength that Francisco Palau has imbibed in you to defend justice and rights…that we may achieve a peaceful world.

 

The Magníficat of the "Missa Quilombo"
Mary, Our Lady, Mother of Christ and Mother of humankind.
Mary, Mother of all peoples of every race and colour, from all the corners of the world.
Ask your Son that this feast will not end here;
the final march will be beautiful to live.
But it is important, Mary, that the Church of your Son
will not remain in words or in applause.
What matters is that the Episcopal Conference
commits itself fully to the cause of the blacks.
As it has committed fully to the cause of the Earth and the native indios.
It is not enough to ask forgiveness for the mistakes of yesterday.
It is necessary to ascertain the path of today without worrying what they will say.
Mary, surely they will say it is politics;
that it is subversion, that it is communism. It is the Gospel of Christ, Mary.

D. Helder Camara
Brasil – 1981