Marcelo praises Portugal’s “spiritual territory” at mass in São José – Observer
The President of the Republic was invited this Sunday to speak at the end of a mass in a Portuguese church in São José, California, and praised the “spiritual territory” of Portugal formed by emigrants.
Going to mass at the Igreja Nacional Portuguesa das Cinco Chagas, in 1914, was part of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s private program, but it ended up transforming the institutional character, with an intervention to the real ones as the President of the Republic, from the tribune , at the invitation of Father António Silveira.
“We are many kilometers away from the characteristic territory of our Portugal and in a celebration in which we are a fundamental Portuguese concern: our social focus that is less distant from the territory of most Americans and that are more common to us. , those who are most dependent, those who are sacrificed the most”, referring to the priest’s homily on poverty.
Repeating an image of emigrant communities, Repeating an image of a spiritual territory that covers the whole world.
“Where the largest is a Portuguese territory, it is in Portugal, and therefore the spiritual territory is much wider than the physical territory, formed by the Azores, the islands of Madeira and the Portuguese mainland”, ours reinforced.
As President of the Republic, he left words of praise from Madeira and to the Portuguese who emigrated to California, from the coastal conditions of the 19th century, “in coastal conditions of the 19th century”, mostly coming from the islands of the Azores, but also from the islands, and to their descendants: “This spiritual is only possible through your example”.
The head of state stated that all those present in this tradition celebrate “in the same Portugal”, but that he would have the feeling “in another faith, in any other meeting, meeting of those who do not have faith” with outside the country.
journalists journalists on the way out of the mass, the manifesto of the republic expressed itself as a number and moved by “these Portuguese chants, in Portuguese, with all the Portuguese chants, people of others so generative, in a high number”, with this “so strong” in San Jose.
“It shows why we have a small territory, but a spiritual, unlimited one, all over the world, and I thanked them for what they do every day and many do for a hundred years, for many decades, to keep Portugal alive here so far away. , on a coast that is so little visited and so little present in the minds of the Portuguese who live there”, added na.
From the Cinco das Chagas Church, where his predecessor also attended a mass in 2011 — Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa das Chagas, next to the Portuguese Hall of the Irmandade do Santo Santo, right there Espírito in São José, for a meeting with Portuguese emigrants and Portuguese descendants of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The way, however, was long, with numerous stops for photographs with people who surrounded him as he left the church.
“People don’t get to him,” someone complained, while an English emigrant reminded the head of state of his meeting with the previous American President: “I was going to greet him like Donald Trump, to the north like that with my arm”. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: “Ah, I pulled it before”.
Another emigrant, a little distant, asked the head of state to “put Costa on the line”, soon reprimanded by his wife: “Hey, this is Mr President”.
“I really enjoyed seeing him, he is a popular president, I like that, he talks to everyone”, said a Portuguese emigrant. “It’s an honor, thank you so much, how wonderful,” exclaimed another.