Brazilian and Portuguese families living in Oxford have been given the chance to worship in their own language following the arrival of a new priest.

Father Frederico Ribeiro, from Taubate, Sao Paulo, in Brazil, has been recruited to serve Portuguese-speaking Catholics who have made the city their home.

Fr Ribeiro, 55, is based at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in Sawpit Road, Blackbird Leys, and has attracted about 30 Portuguese people to each of three Sunday masses he holds at the church.

The Brazilian has also been regularly joined by about 60 of his fellow countrymen and women to his 3pm mass - also in Portuguese - at the Chapel of St Thomas More, in St Aldate's.

Fr Ribeiro said: "For me, it's a pleasure to serve my people - the people who speak my language.

"I can pray with them and assist them and I feel most rewarded.

"It is much better for them to speak in their own language.

"They feel very comfortable, so they can open their souls to someone with the same understanding.

"The only thing I don't have is music. I've not found someone to play Portuguese hymns in the mass.

"In the afternoon Brazilian mass, I have two young people who play the guitar."

Fr Ribeiro said during the Brazilian masses, parishioners would clap, wave their arms and sway to-and-fro due to African influences on their home country, although Portuguese mass was conducted in a manner similar to European services.

Fr David Hartley, of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, said: "We were aware that there were many young adults from Brazil and other Portuguese speaking countries who were working in the Oxford area.

"It was a pleasant surprise that we were able to find someone so quickly.

"The parishioners enjoy having him here. He's a very positive and entertaining person, and they very much enjoy his preaching and getting to know him."

Fr Ribeiro, who worked at a Catholic church in Whitechapel, London, between 2002 and 2006, added: "Oxford is a lovely place. It's very beautiful and it has a very high standard of life.

"The quality of life is much higher here than in London. The native people are very welcoming to me. Living here, you see real Englishness."