Thursday, February 27, 2003 2:01 PM

Testimony of Fr. Jonas Abib

The following testimony has been provided by Joao Inacio Wetternick and Fernando de la Riva from Brazil. Fr. Jonas Abib is President of the «João Paulo II Foundation» and member of the Council of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Association. He studied theology in São Paulo, Brazil, at the Pius XI Salesian Institute of Theology, and was ordained Priest in 1964. In 1971, Fr. Jonas became acquainted with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement that marked his life and ministry. He pledged himself to work with youth with determination, and in 1978 founded the «Canção Nova» Community, whose Mission is to Evangelize through the means of social communication. In 1980, «Canção Nova» Community started to transmit with Radio Canção Nova-AM, today reaching throughout Brazil and covering the whole World through AM, FM, MW and SW bands, plus Internet. In 1989 «Canção Nova» started TV transmissions through TVE in Rio de Janeiro, reaching all of the Paraiba River Valley. In a recent program on his television channel, he said: «…I ask my brethren priests, and those that are Bishops, to review the Church’s great sin, which is incredulity. We priests believe in so much nonsense. New Era nonsense, horoscopes, pyramids, and so many other foolish things of this type. We must confess and ask forgiveness of Almighty God our Father for believing in these nonsenses and not believing in the signs that God is giving us today. Our God continues revealing Himself as never before, through private, personal revelations. For a thousand reasons I spent years on end without reading Father Gobbi’s book, Vassula’s books, I was not leading a life in search of revelations; God gave me the grace of showing his revelation to me, making me go deep into the Word and the revelation. When I read Vassula’s books, which had stayed a long time on my bookshelf, everything I already knew was there, it was all there, confirmed. Therefore I, a priest, confess to Our Father God Almighty and ask forgiveness in my name and in the name of all my priest friends, and even for the bishops who are attacking Father Gobbi, Vassula, and thus suffocating the Holy Spirit. I am not criticizing, but humbly asking forgiveness of Our Father Almighty God, for us priests having let Satan steal from us this dimension of faith, of the supernatural, thus we are discouraging the laity from living the messages, reading the books, from praying. I ask you, the laity, to pray to God asking his forgiveness for us priests, for having giving strength to Satan, by worrying only about the social aspect, with human work, through a human methodology. Brothers, pray to God the Father for me, for us priests, so that our supernatural dimension, our dimension of faith be returned to us. The great clamour that you laymen must raise for all of us, is to ask God to send the Holy Spirit to us priests and bishops, so that we can again be filled with the grace of God, for we are empty, and need to see the signs of God again….»