Father Hans Stapel

Father Hans Stapel of Guaratinguetá, Brazil, is co-founder and president of Fazenda da Esperança Farms of Hope which has established more than 60 therapeutic communities in 10 countries to help people with drug and alcohol addictions rebuild their lives. Stapel, 64, a native of Germany, is a Franciscan priest and in 1979 became pastor of Our Lady of the Glory Church in Guaratinguetá, northeast of Sao Paulo. He started a program to construct houses for poor families and expanded activities to include other social services. He established Fazenda da Esperança in 1983 to help drug addicts in Guaratinguetá, and the enterprise has grown to include operations in Argentina, Guatemala, Germany, Mexico, Mozambique, Paraguay, the Philippines, Russia and Uruguay. A farm soon will open in Portugal. Addicts live in houses of 14 persons for a year, supporting each other and guided by two recovering addicts. More than 10000 people have participated in the program, and 80 percent have abstained from further drug use. “In the first part, we are the ones who carry them,” says Stapel. “After that, they are able to walk for themselves. But the most important part is the third one, when they are the ones who will carry others.” Each day, residents choose Gospel phrases on which to model their behaviors. “Christ said, ‘As you do unto others, you do unto me.’ Because of this, I believe that God is in each and every creation,” Stapel says. “Sometimes we cannot notice it, but He is. And if we …