Get to Know… Father Edward D’Almeida at Holy Redeemer

Father Edward D'Almeida poses for a photo in the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church Dec. 10. D'Almeida has been the priest in El Dorado for five years.
Father Edward D'Almeida poses for a photo in the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church Dec. 10. D'Almeida has been the priest in El Dorado for five years.

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of Q&As getting to know members of places of worship. The series will later expand to city leaders, educators, first responders and more. A new feature will be published each Monday.

For the past five years, Father Edward D’Almeida has served as the priest at the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in El Dorado.

He also serves as at St. Luke’s in Warren and grew up in central Arkansas. As a diocesan priest, D’Almeida will serve in the state of Arkansas for his entire life. He was previously assigned at Fort Smith, a pastor for a brief time at Fordyce, Camden and Magnolia, and in De Queen.

The News-Times sat down with D’Almeida at the beginning of December to find out more about him, the Catholic faith and the church.

Q: Could we start with if you grew up in the Catholic faith?

A: Yes. I’m originally from Arkansas, a small little town in central Arkansas called Vilonia. … I grew up Catholic. My parents are from Portugal — Portugal is a very Catholic country. There’s a famous miracle that happened there in 1917 that really influenced not only the country of Portugal, but the entire world, especially the Catholic world. It’s called Our Lady of Fátima. My parents coming from that background really helped me grow as a Catholic.

Q: What was it like growing up?

A: Catholics in Arkansas are a minority, we’re probably 3% of the population. It was an interesting environment because the school district, the whole town of Vilonia, was mostly white people. Even in my time of growing up, the Ku Klux Klan, the KKK had adopted a mile of the highway and they’re known for being very anti-Catholic. However, growing up, I never experienced any backlash or anything negative really on my Catholic faith. I grew up in an interesting town, but it was a good experience for me. I never received any negative growing up in the town. Growing up in the Catholic Church.. I went to St. Joseph’s in Conway, which is one of the largest Catholic churches in the area. The church was instrumental in starting the whole town of Conway because of the railroad that runs through there. So even though we were a small minority, there’s a good heritage that had been founded in the town in Arkansas.

Q: Is it common to be the pastor in two different places?

A: Here it is, yes. You have the same pastor for Camden and Magnolia, then our neighbor off to the east is Crosset and the pastor lives in Lake Village and also sees Hamburg, so he sees three parishes.

Q: Wow. Is that because Catholicism is a minority in Arkansas?

A: Yes and also we have a shortage of priests, so we don’t have a lot of priests to take care of all the different parishes we have.

Q: Have you ever struggled with your faith or have you always been very set?

A: I think everyone struggles with their faith and I had as a teenager and also in college.

I never really struggled with the faith as far as Christianity goes. I had read about and learned about other religions, but when you look at the world, there are so many different religions, and philosophically, you can almost disregard most of them because they believe in a variety of gods. Philosophically, there has to be just one god, there can’t be a variety of gods, so pretty much that leaves three religions: Judaism, Islam or Christianity. I never struggled with Christianity as being a true religion. … From a historical standpoint, I never struggled with Catholicism either.

Q: Did you ever struggle in a personal way?

A: Sure, yeah. There’s the objective and subjective part of it. Objectively saying, well, as far as religion goes, Christianity makes the most sense and has historical roots. Subjectively, looking internally, I think yeah, I did struggle. If Christianity makes the most sense for the entire world, if you apply that personally, it makes that sense true as well.

Nowadays, you have people like Jordan Peterson who is connecting with a lot of people even though he doesn’t claim to be belonging to any religion, but he sees the foundation of western civilization in Christianity. If that happens on a macro level, the micro level of the individual level, it makes as much sense. To help someone grow in virtue, to be a virtuous person, to knowing what is good and doing it habitually with joy and ease, but that’s always a struggle. I can tell you that as an individual, too. I certainly struggled in my teenage years, and in college a bit, in applying the religion that I professed in living it out in a day-by-day basis.

Q: Is ‘living it out’ what got you through those struggles?

A: Yes. I think embracing what I professed and practicing it and, of course, as Catholics, we believe in the Grace of God — that God wants us to flourish, that he wants us to be happy. In fact, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest theologian, that is the end of life, to be happy.


For those interested in joining Holy Redeemer, the church offers classes for both adults and children. D’Almeida said classes typically begin in August or September and go until Easter, which is when Catholics celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

He said during mass they will have Baptisms, confirmation and first holy communions.

“There’s a time of instruction for adults and children for them to know their faith and to make a free decision, whether they want to become Catholic or not,” D’Almeida said. “There are people that want to take more time to make that decision, and that’s up to them.”

D’Almeida also said if there aren’t enough people for a class, he will meet one-on-one with them to discuss a variety of topics.

About the church

Holy Redeemer is located at 440 W Main St.

Weekend Mass is 5 p.m. Saturday (traditional Latin Mass) and 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday in English and Spanish.

The confession schedule is as follows:

Tuesday: 5-5:30 p.m.

Wednesday and Friday: 11:30 a.m. to noon

Thursday: 7 - 8 p.m.

Saturday: 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

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