Sr. Nilza Fátima de Moraes
Councilor for Formation
She was born on 25 November 1965, in Natividade da Serra – San Paolo, a municipality in the Vale do Paraíba region (Brazil).
At the beginning of her adolescence in 1979, she went to study in Lorraine, together with her sister Marilza, at the so-called Domestic School with the Salesian Sisters, who resided and worked in St. Joseph retirement home for the FMA. There she receives the human and spiritual care of the sisters, participates daily in the Eucharistic Celebration, in singing rehearsals twice a week, in domestic activities, and on Sundays at the San Luigi Oratory, a space where children played, practiced sports, had a snack, and took part in the catechesis organized by the FMA and the Salesians of Don Bosco.
Between 1979 and 1981, she participated monthly in vocational meetings in Our Lady of Carmel School, Guaratinguetá, where in 1982 she lived the time of vocational discernment.
In 1981 she began her formation as an aspirant in the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in San Paolo.
In 1985 she began the stage of the Novitiate and on 24 January 1987 she made her Religious Profession and was sent to the Community of Santa Inés in San Paolo.
During temporary vows, from 1987 to 1993, the year in which she made her perpetual vows, she lived in three communities, followed a course in pedagogy, and exercised various functions in the school, in the oratory, and in student youth ministry.
In 1994 she went to live in the House of Formation – Aspirants / Postulants in the Perdizes district of São Paulo as a member of the Formation Team and worked in the Institute of Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora in Belenzinho.
Since 1998, still residing in the Aspirantate, she works in Santa Inés School until the first semester of 2000. During the second semester, she goes to Rome to take a Catechesis Course at the Faculty of Education “Auxilium” and stays there for a period of three and a half years.
At Christmas 2004, she returned to Brazil and worked in various communities as a teacher of Religious Education, Coordinator of Youth Ministry, Animator of Communities and Schools, Formator of Aspirants and Postulants. She also teaches liturgy and catechesis.
From 2008 to 2013 she was Provincial Councilor, from 2014 to 2020 she was Provincial Vicar, and in 2021 she was appointed Provincial of the Brazilian Province of Our Lady of Aparecida (BAP).
On 7 October 2021, on the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, during the XXIV General Chapter, she was elected Councilor for Formation.
