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MARIAN MILLER
Saint Mary College
Xavier, Kans.
The Priests of the Favelados
Sir:
TIME's reporter on Rio's favelas [TIME, March 31] missed an interesting sidelight for U.S. readers. If he ... visited "the human anthills," he must have passed St. Francis Friary . . . where live the U.S. Conventual Franciscans whose parish includes these notorious shantytowns. Two of these priests had been working singlehandedly among the favelados long before Dr. Guilherme Ribeiro Romano appeared on the scene . . . Helped by folks back home, these young Franciscans built and have maintained medical clinics and social centers, schools and chapels on Kerosene, Escondidinho and São Carlos Hills. [One] . . . piped water up the hill ... To get ... permission to tap the city water-main below ... he had to pull more strings than a quartet of puppeteers.
These priests, known and beloved among the thousands of favelados, must gratefully welcome Dr. Romano, eleventh-hour hero though he be! ...
(V.REV.) SEBASTIAN WEBER
O.F.M. Conv.
Immaculate Conception Province
Syracuse, N.Y.