Archbishop Pedro Brito Guimarães

Pedro Brito Guimarães is Archbishop of Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil. On 22 February 1954, in Buriti, municipality of Eliseu Martins, Piauí, Ana Francisca Guimarães Brito and Clemente Brito Porto, already deceased, joyfully received the tenth of their twelve children, who at the baptismal font received the name Pedro. He lived his first years there and began his studies there; later he continued them in Eliseu Martins, where he attended the 2nd year and half of the 3rd year of the old primary school. He went on to Colônia do Gurguéia, where, in 1972, he completed the 3rd year and was authorized to take the admission examination for secondary school. After passing, he entered Ginásio Vale do Gurguéia. He left for Floriano in 1973, where he completed the lower secondary course in 1974 at Unidade Escolar Monsenhor Lindolfo Uchoa. For financial reasons, Pedro took the test for the agricultural college in Teresina. He passed that test and waited to be called, something that, according to the source, had not happened. Because of this, he had to interrupt his studies for two years, when he worked as a teacher and merchant employee. By divine providence, while he was waiting to be called by the agricultural college, in 1976, after a period of pastoral involvement as a leader of Celebration of the Word and as founder and coordinator of youth groups, he entered the Minor Seminary of Oeiras, where he remained until completing, in 1978, the scientific course at Escola Normal Presidente Castelo Branco. From there he was sent to the Major Seminary of Fortaleza, where he studied philosophy and began theology, transferring to the Pontifical Pio Brasileiro College in Rome, where he completed his studies in preparation for the presbyterate after three years at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Returning to Brazil, he became involved in the pastoral journey of the Diocese of Oeiras-Floriano. On 18 August 1985 he received the ministries of lector and acolyte. He was ordained a deacon on the first of December of that same year in the Co-Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcântara in Floriano. Even before being ordained a priest, he assumed the direction of the João XXIII Minor Seminary in Floriano. After being ordained a priest on 26 January 1986, he assumed the missions of diocesan coordinator of pastoral ministry, catechesis, and religious education, in addition to rector of the minor seminary. In 1987 he was sent to Teresina to exercise the functions of vice-rector and professor at the Sagrado Coração de Jesus Major Seminary. In 1988 he returned to Rome to pursue a master's degree in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Returning to Brazil in 1990, he continued the activities previously mentioned at the Sagrado Coração de Jesus Major Seminary. Two years later, he returned to Rome to the same university to pursue a doctorate in the same line of research, and completed it in 1995 with the thesis Os Sacramentos como Atos Eclesiais e Proféticos. Um contributo ao conceito dogmático de Sacramento, à luz da exegese contemporânea, published in the Tesi Gregoriana collection under no. 46. Back in Brazil, in 1995 he assumed the rectorship of the Sagrado Coração de Jesus Major Seminary. In Regional Nordeste IV he took on several responsibilities. On 17 July 2002 he was elected Bishop of the Diocese of São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, and his ordination and taking possession took place on 14 September 2002. He chose as his motto Sitio, I Thirst. The following year he was chosen as a member of the Episcopal Pastoral Commission for Missionary Action and Interecclesial Cooperation and of the Commission for the Continental Mission of the CNBB. On 20 October 2010 he was elected Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Palmas, Tocantins, and he took possession on 17 December of that same year. In 2011 he was elected president of the Episcopal Pastoral Commission for Ordained Ministries and Consecrated Life, an office he held until 2015. At the time of the source, he was president of Regional Norte 3 of the CNBB and had been chosen by Pope Francis for the Synod of the Amazon, to be held in October of the year 2019. He is a guide of spiritual retreats, composer of various religious songs, some recorded on several CDs, and author of several books. The following thought is his: "being a bishop is not an honor and not a power. It is a service and a mission that the Church, my mother, calls me to exercise." The source concludes that his heart is at the service of this mission, and that the mission is his heart, his greatest thirst.