Fr. Agostinho Clemente Neto
* 07.08.1952† 12.07.2022
Father Agostinho Clemente Neto was born on August 7, 1952 and was 69 years old. He took his first vows on October 6, 1974 and was ordained priest on August 7, 1982.
He was currently living in Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal). He belonged to the Province POR.
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing (Ps 23:1)
Agostinho Clemente Neto, less than a month before his 70th birthday.
The news of Fr. Clemente’s death surprised everyone. Despite being in a therapeutic process to overcome a depression, diagnosed this year, and despite being more depressed in recent days, the news was nothing but pain.
Agostinho Clemente (Agostinho Clemente Gonçalves Neto), born on August 7, 1952, was a native of Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, where he was baptized on August 24 of the same year.
He entered the Sagrado Coração Missionary College, in Funchal.In 1965 finished the 7th year of High School in the Sagrado Coração Missionary Institute, in Coimbra.In 1973, he began his Novitiate in the House of the Sagrado Coração de Jesus, in Aveiro.
He made his religious profession on October 6, 1974, in Aveiro, and his perpetual profession on September 29, 1979, in the Seminary of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, in Alfragide. He did his theological formation, during the transition from ISET to the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Portugal. Between 1974 and 1982, he attended the Institut Catholique de Paris.
He was ordained as priest on August 7, 1982, in the Cathedral of Funchal, by the hands of D. Teodoro de Faria, Bishop of Funchal.
He left to Madagascar in 1984 with the first group of Portuguese SCJs and remained in that Region of the Congregation until 2019.Serving the church in Madagascar for 37 years in parish ministry, in formation in SCJ seminaries, and in the governance of that entity of the Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Since his return from Madagascar, Fr. Agostinho Clemente has been part of the Dehonian Community of Santo António in Vila Real de Santo António since September 2019, collaborating in the parish pastoral care of the pastoral areas entrusted to the Dehonians.
His Confreres join his family and friends, as well as the entire Dehonian Family, in prayer and communion of feelings.
May Fr. Clemente rest from his labors and efforts in the loving arms of the Heart of Jesus, to whom he consecrated his entire life.
