On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2017, the Mass of Consecration of the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, in the city of Caldas Novas (GO), central Brazil was celebrated. This pilgrimage center was conceived seventeen years ago on the initiative of Bishop Antonio Guilherme Werlang, Bishop of the Diocese of Ipameri, where is located the city of Caldas Novas. He is a Missionary of the Holy Family, a community Founded by Fr. Jean Berthier, a Missionary of Our Lady of La Salette (1840-1908), promoted to become a saint in the Catholic Church.
Construction was begun in 2005, and was carried out thanks to the union and collaboration between the Diocese of Ipameri, the Province of the Brazilian La Salette Missionaries and the South Brazil Province of the Missionaries of the Holy Family.
The pastoral and spiritual life of the new La Salette Shrine is animated by four priests – three La Salette missionaries and one Missionary of the Holy Family.
The celebration of the Consecration of the Shrine church was attended by Bishop Guilherme Werlang, as well as the Provincial Superior of La Salette Missionaries in Brazil, the Provincial Superior of Eastern Brazil and Southern Brazil of the Holy Family Missionaries, many La Salette Missionaries and Missionaries of the Holy Family, most of the priests of the Diocese of Ipameri, and a variety of religious and nearly 1,500 other people.
(Article republished with permission of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family.)