Vatican documentary on priest who transformed poverty into hope

Known as the ‘Holy Fighter’ or ‘the man of miracles’, Father Pablo Pedro Opeka, the Lazzarist missionary shows Christ’s compassionate face to the poor in the peripheries of Madagascar through his humanitarian work. Father Pedro Opeka, an Argentinian with Slovenian origins, was ordained a priest in Buenos Aires on 28 September 1975 and was sent to a rural parish in southeast Madagascar.

Fr Opeka discovered that the people there were living in utter poverty with no proper food or shelter. He created a local non-governmental organization called Akamasoa (the good and faithful friends) in December 1989, which now sustains about thirty thousand people in 18 villages. 

His story has been made into a documentary, entitled " Good Friend - Pedro Opeka", and was screened in the Vatican on Friday, November 16. The images chosen by the film's creator - Slovenian national television journalist, Jože Možina - do not focus, as often happens, on suffering and degradation, but - like Father Pedro Opeka's entire life - on dignity and rebirth.

The film is being presented thanks to a collaboration with the Embassy of Slovenia to the Holy See and the Slovenian Ministry of Culture.