The chaplain to the Brazilian community in Cork, Polish priest Bernard Morawski OFMCap said the Brazilian Catholics should be an inspiration to the Irish. Working with that community for the past two years in the Holy Trinity Church, Cork, Fr Morawski said that it’s an inspiration to see so many young people in the church, “practically all young people.”
The priest said that the community is always joyful, singing and praying, which should be an inspiration. The joyfulness of the Brazilian community has been noticed by other members of the Holy Trinity Church.
“There was a choir participating in the English Mass, singing… They sang in English and in Portuguese,” the priest said. He said that after seeing the Brazilians singing during Mass, “the Irish director of the Irish choir in our church said that she will [tell] the Irish choir, ‘we should sing like the Brazilian community’.”
The singing is not the only difference between the two Masses. The Brazilian missal, the priest said, is distinct. “It is different in a way that it’s much more dialogue.” In the Irish Mass, he said, this dialogue happens in just a few moments, while in the Brazilian Mass the community response happens much frequently.
Fr Morawski said that the Brazilian Mass attracts people from other nationalities, even those who don’t understand the language.
“There’s one Irishman from Cork who [a] few times participated in the [Brazilian] Mass, and he said to me when he was leaving that he doesn’t understand Portuguese, but he was very happy to participate three times in that Mass,” the priest said. The energy of the Brazilian community in Cork makes people ‘feel’ Mass, even when they can’t understand what is being said.