We have received with great sorrow the news of the departure of Mgr. Jonas Abib, founder of the Canção Nova Community, a great evangeliser and charismatic, who has given so much to the Church and to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, of which he was one of the pioneers in Brazil and in the world.
We thank the Lord for Mgr. Jonas, for raising up in him a man with a living faith, capable of bringing the message of the Gospel with the fire of the Holy Spirit to so many young people who accepted the message he proclaimed and transforming lives. In his later years, Fr. Jonas lived the cross with courage, in this wa, associating his suffering with that of Christ, in the silent offering of his life to the One who conquered him as a child. Fr. Jonas entered the seminary at the age of 12 and was ordained a priest in 1964, remained faithful to God and always in love with his vocation.
We hope that his legacy will bear much fruit and make the soil where he sowed fruitful, both in the CCR and in the Church. “I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.” (Jn 12 24).
CHARIS expresses our closeness and our prayers to the Canção Nova Community, so that this moment of passage may be fruitful for all!
Pino Scafuro
Moderator of CHARIS on behalf of CHARIS International
