A 43-year-old Portuguese priest passed away on Tuesday following a cardiac arrest at the international scout camp in Kandersteg, Switzerland, where he was participating in a scouting activity.
“With deep sorrow, the Portuguese Province of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus announces the passing of our dear confrere, Father Adelino Manuel Dias Ferreira, aged 43, who suffered a cardiac arrest in Kandersteg, Switzerland, while participating in a scouting activity,” read a post on the Facebook page of the Dehonians – Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
According to the same source, Father Adelino “was a member of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus since September 21, 2000, and received priestly ordination on September 27, 2009.”
“Since 2019, Father Adelino has been a member of the Dehonian community of the House of Santa Maria, in Forte da Casa, where he served as superior and economist; since the same date, he was pastor of Póvoa de Santa Iria, in the vicariate of Vila Franca de Xira – Azambuja, in the Patriarchate of Lisbon,” the statement continued.
Regarding the funeral ceremonies, the congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus stated that “there is no information yet” and that they are “working on transferring his body from Switzerland to Portugal.”
Born in Massarelos, Father Adelino Manuel Dias Ferreira was born on September 26, 1981. After completing the seventh grade, he entered the Padre Dehon Missionary Seminary in Fânzeres, Gondomar, in 1994, later finishing his secondary education at the Sacred Heart Missionary Institute in Coimbra.
The priest graduated in Theology from the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of Lisbon.
