When you think of a place to adopt an animal, you usually think of an animal shelter or some sort of rescue organization. The church is likely to be one of the last places you will adopt a dog.

But a priest in Brazil opened his church to the many homeless dogs that roamed the streets of Gravatá, Brazil, and in the meantime he helped find some of these dogs as loving homes.

Father João Paulo Araujo Gómez works as a shepherd for some of the 228,000 homeless dogs that live in Gravata.

He takes them and they live with him in the priest’s house.

“You will always be able to go in, sleep, eat, drink water, find shelter and shelter because this house is from God and you are from God,” he wrote on Facebook.

His mission to help stray dogs began in 2013 when he first arrived in Paróquia de Sant’Ana Gravatá.

“Some volunteers came to me to sell cookies to help with a stray animal project,” Gomez told The Dodo. “I gave them time to advertise cookies during the crowd and then started taking part in this NGO’s projects.”

 

Soon he got involved in the project and started taking dogs into his services. In the end he greeted her at his house.

“I started adopting some of the animals that were abused … always with the help of volunteers,” he said.

With the help of volunteers, Gomez was able to feed and groom several dogs and find a home for them.

His unique way of helping animals has earned him praise both online and in his community.

“I have helped many dogs with serious health problems. I took some of them to the rectory and they were later adopted. Three of them stayed with me. Today they are my children and they sleep in my bed,” he told Bored Panda.

Imagine if more churches around the world welcomed stray dogs and cats during their services and encouraged parishioners to adopt them. We may never have to worry about another homeless animal again.

Share this amazing cute action on Facebook.

.