On December 17, 2021, the Congregation of Holy Cross's District of Brazil celebrated the Diaconate Ordination of Mr. Antônio Wanderly O. Santos, C.S.C. (left) and Mr. Rivaldo Oliveira da Silva, C.S.C. (right). Both of these men professed their Perpetual Vows on December 17, 2020. The Most Rev. Eduardo Vieira dos Santos, a former member of the District and currently the Bishop of Ourinhos, São Paolo, presided at the Ordination in the main chapel of Mosteiro de Itaici Retreat Center.

Although COVID regulations limited the number attending the ceremony, family, friends, and lay collaborators joined in celebrating their two newest deacons. After the ordination, those in attendance enjoyed a social and lunch in the dining room of the Mosteiro.

Learn more about Holy Cross in Brazil

Deacon Antônio will serve his diaconate year at Área Pastoral Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora in Guadalajara-Paudalho, Pernambuco, while Deacon Rivaldo will begin his ministry at Paróquia São José do Jaguaré in São Paolo. He will also serve as the Vocation Director for the District.

Although Antônio and Rivaldo started and completed their initial formation in Brazil, both of them spent several years in the District of Chile-Peru, making their Novitiate in 2014 in Huaycán, Perú, and living for three years in the Holy Cross House of Formation in Santiago, Chile.