BRAINTREE -- Father Wellington Oliveira's father was skeptical of his decision to become a priest.

The older Oliveira wanted his son to become a police officer, politician, or attorney. With a canon lawyer for a son, he ended up getting his wish.

"His will came to fruition now in a different way," Father Oliveira said.

Father Oliveira, 45, has been named the Archdiocese of Boston's new judicial vicar, succeeding Msgr. Robert Oliver. Msgr. Oliver himself is now vicar general, succeeding Bishop Mark O'Connell, who became Bishop of Albany, New York, on Dec. 5. Father Oliveira, the first Brazilian judicial vicar in archdiocesan history, began in his new role Dec. 1.

"The Lord has opened the path for me to serve the people here, not only the Brazilians, not only the Hispanics, but the whole of the archdiocese," he said. "And for me again, it's (that) I'm grateful, I'm joyful, and I ask the Lord to keep helping me to act according to his will, so that I may be faithful to what I have received."

As in civil government, there are three branches of governance in a diocese or archdiocese: legislative, executive, and judicial. In a diocese, the legislative function of making laws is reserved to the diocesan bishop or archbishop. The executive power to make day-to-day decisions for the diocese can be delegated to a vicar general. In the same way, the bishop can delegate authority to his judicial vicar to oversee all matters that fall under the judicial branch of governance.

In his role as judicial vicar, Father Oliveira oversees the archdiocesan court, the Metropolitan Tribunal, and all its canonical legal cases. The majority of the Tribunal's work consists of adjudicating marriage annulments. At his desk is a handy chart listing every possible marriage between Catholics and non-Catholics, and whether or not those marriages are licit or valid in the eyes of the church. Determining the validity of marriages is a common job of the Tribunal.

Also on his desk rests the Code of Canon Law, a phone-book-sized tome that guides Father Oliveira's work. He said the code is a living document whose purpose is to save souls.

"It is not a set of rules that have been put in some place, during some time, and it is stable there, because every case demands a new interpretation of the law," he said.

He has served in the Tribunal for seven years as a volunteer, advocate, moderator, and adjutant.

"The work here at the Tribunal is very pastoral, in which we do take into consideration the needs of the people," he said. "We listen to people. We see their histories. We see the stories of their lives, the sufferings that they come from, the misunderstandings that are connected to that."

Despite his breadth of experience at the Tribunal, Father Oliveira said he was "in shock" when he found out he was going to be the new judicial vicar.

"It was not something that I was expecting to happen," he said. "I feel grateful, honored by the trust of the archbishop in the work that I do and willing to serve the people, to open the doors of this department here for the clergy, for them to feel that we are working for them."

He said some of the parishioners he works with believe that the church doesn't care about them. Others tell him that the church is all they have.

"We try to deal with their weaknesses, with the evidence that they provide to us, with the focus of bringing them back to a dignity now to establish again, an openness for them to be accepted again into the sacraments, and maybe even to have a possibility of reconciliation with their past," he said.

When he first entered the Tribunal, he saw that language barriers prevented it from fully serving the archdiocese's diverse communities. He speaks four languages himself: Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Italian. He has worked with speakers of French, Polish, Vietnamese, and Korean. Bishop O'Connell served as his mentor.

"Bishop Mark O'Connell has awakened in me the desire to study to help people, especially marriages, especially with different situations, that the church can again offer to them some sort of support," he said.

Last year, the Tribunal instituted a program called Pathways to Matrimonial Healing for victims of broken marriages. Father Oliveira wants to make canon law easier for everyday people to understand.

"This Tribunal also establishes mercy," he said. "We cannot mix mercy and justice, but mercy is a result of justice."

Father Oliveira felt called to the priesthood since he was a child, but pursued a career to please his father. He studied math and physics and worked as a schoolteacher and computer programmer. (He still enjoys coding to this day). At 25, he had a stable job, a degree, and a series of relationships that made him consider marrying and starting a family.

One night, on the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Aparecida, a friend died in a car accident. It made Father Oliveira reflect on his life. Had he died in such an accident, he thought, he would have spent his life ignoring God's call. He entered Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Chestnut Hill in 2007.

Father Oliveira was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley in 2017 and was only the second Brazilian-born priest ordained in the archdiocese. Despite that, most of his ministry has been in English and Spanish-speaking communities, save for his final parish assignment as pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Revere.

Prior to that, he served as the parochial vicar of St. Joseph in Lynn and coordinated its youth center, where he oversaw a program that served 125 children, five days a week. Many of them came from broken homes and/or were victims of abuse. The church was the only place they could go for help.

"I started seeing, first of all, the fragility of people," he said. "In the family compositions, in the understanding of faith, in the understanding of human dignity."

The experience gave him a deep respect for the Sacrament of Marriage. He believes that canon law can help remind people that "the doors of the church and heaven are open to them no matter what happened in the past."

He earned his licentiate in canon law from St. Paul University in Ottawa in 2023.

His mother, who early on encouraged him to become a canon lawyer so he wouldn't have to choose between being a priest or an attorney, passed away before his ordination.

"I am very sure that my mom is ecstatic in heaven with everything that the Lord does with me here," he said.