Father Pedro: a life helping the poor people

Father Pedro Pablo Opeka was born in 1948 on June the 29th in Argentina, in San Martin, a suburb of Buenos Aires, from parents of Slovene origin. He started working as a bricklayer with his father, himself also a bricklayer.

At 15, he decided to become a priest and enter the seminary of the Vincentians (Lazarists) fathers. At 20, he went back to Lubiana in Slovenia, the land of his parents, to further his training. Two years later, he went to Madagascar where he worked as a bricklayer in the parishes of Lazarists fathers. It is there that he discovered his vocation as a missionary.

He finished his studies in the Catholic Institute of Paris. He met the Taizé Community and travelled all over Europe. On the 28th of September 1975, he was ordained priest in Buenos Aires and was nominated responsible of a rural parish in the South-East of Madagascar, Vangaindrano.

In 1989, his superiors nominated him director of a seminary in Antananarivo, the capital. This is when a new story started. Father Pedro could not remain indifferent to the misery of thousands of homeless people in the capital, who lived in utterly impoverished conditions, in the streets or in rubbish tips. Father Pedro became friend with these people and gained their confidence. This is how the Akamasoa association was born...

Father Pedro with the Pope Benedetto XVI
Rome - January 2007