Brazilian-Catholic musician seeks to ‘internationalize’ Christian music

Jonathan Campos is pictured in the San Rafael Arcangel Mission chapel where he was baptized as an infant before his family moved to Brazil. He returned with his own young family and is active in music ministry for the Brazilian community. (Photo by Christina Gray/Catholic San Francisco)
 
Sept. 23, 2019
Christina Gray
 
 “It all began here,” Jonathan Campos told Catholic San Francisco, opening his arms wide inside the sanctuary of San Rafael Arcangel Mission chapel in San Rafael where he was baptized three decades ago.
 
After growing up in Brazil where his family moved when he was a toddler, Campos, 31, is back at his baptismal parish with his own young family as a musician for the Brazilian-Catholic community’s 11 a.m. Sunday Mass.
 
He’s also working on a music project called “Risen,” a collaboration with Christian musicians from other countries he hopes will expand the audience for and appreciation of Christian music.
 
“A song is music only if it is heard and experienced,” said Campos, paraphrasing a saying in Brazil that he said defines the Risen Project. “Once it’s out there it can touch people, much like scripture can.”
 
The Risen Project’s first CD, released earlier this year, includes 12 songs in both Brazilian Portuguese and English. Two of the songs were written by Campos; the other 10 feature the songs of Brazilian Christian artists with Campos singing alternating verses in English. Videos of five of the songs are available on YouTube.
 
It’s a compelling mix. It did not take long for this reporter to start singing along to the Brazilian Portuguese verses in the first track, “Livre Sou/Free at Last,” a song by Brazilian artist Essencia do Rei, that celebrates Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.
 
Campos said the “external experience” of music and song “involving all the senses” is imbedded in Brazilian culture and as a result, central to worship.
 
Campos said that before he and his young wife moved to the U.S. from Brazil 10 years ago, he prayed to Our Lady of Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil.
 
“I prayed that if it is for God’s purpose, I would love to serve where I was baptized,” he said.
 
The shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Sao Paulo, Brazil is the largest Marian shrine in the world. It houses the statue found in pieces by fisherman in 1717 after praying to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception for a good catch after a run of bad luck.
 
Legend has it that the fisherman cast out their nets which soon became heavy with plenty of fish and a broken statue of the Virgin Mary. Neighbors began to venerate the statue named by the fisherman as Our Lady of Aparecida and devotion grew as many miracles were attributed to her.
 
St. Raphael Parish and St. Thomas More Parish in San Francisco, both with substantial Brazilian communities, will celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Aparecida on Oct. 12. A traditional procession includes a replica of the statue being carried into the church by pilgrims in a net-covered boat.
 
When they first came to the U.S., Campos and his wife first settled in Maryland. But eventually “doors opened,” he said, and they moved to Marin County and began attending St. Raphael Parish. They also are involved in the greater Bay Area Brazilian charismatic community centered in San Rafael, El Cerrito, Concord and San Francisco.
 
The Brazilian priest at the mission church both prayed the Mass and moved off to the side to play the guitar. Before he returned to Brazil, he handed his guitar to Campos, who at the time knew “no more than three cords.”
 
Like his Brazilian grandfather before him, he taught himself to play. Soon he was leading the music ministry for the parish’s Brazilian Mass. He would sometimes be invited to play Brazilian songs at the parish’s multi-ethnic Masses.
 
Campos said that’s what inspired him to begin doing musical translations.
 
“People would come up and say, ‘Oh, that was so beautiful, but what is the song saying?’ because it was in Portuguese,” he said.
 
Campos said it is not always possible or desirable to translate “word by word” because of the variances in the way language is used in different cultures. Instead, it’s an artful translation of word and feeling, he said.
 
“If there is a hymn that Americans particularly love, I want to translate that and let other countries experience that too,” he said.
 
On Oct. 5, the Risen project is hosting Brazilian Catholic musician Guilherme de Sa at St. Thomas More Church in San Francisco for a two-hour piano and acoustic guitar concert.
 
“For me the inspiration came from God,” said Campos of his music ministry and the Risen project. “I was given the seed and to see it happening is like watching a tree grow.”
 
For more information, contact.risenproductions@gmail.com.