Padre João

João Carlos Siqueira , better known as Padre João , is a Brazilian priest and politician who has been a federal deputy for Minas Gerais (PT-MG) since February 1, 2011. A native of Urucânia (MG), he was ordained a priest on July 8, 1995, and dedicated a large part of his life to promoting social initiatives in poor communities, such as community gardens, soup kitchens, and income-generating projects, before definitively entering institutional politics through the defense of family farming, food security, housing, and human rights.

Political Career

In his political career , Father João was a state representative in Minas Gerais, elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. He served on committees such as Agricultural and Agro-industrial Policy and Public Administration, and proposed several state laws to incentivize urban agriculture, creole seed banks, and protection for those affected by dams. In 2010, he was elected federal deputy , being successively re-elected until the 2023-2027 legislature in the House of Representatives , as a member of the PT-PCdoB-PV Federation . In Parliament, he chairs the Mixed Parliamentary Front for Food and Nutritional Security and the Parliamentary Front for Rural Education , and participates as a member or head of committees related to Human Rights, Environment, Agriculture, National Integration, and Dam Failure Monitoring . He has also signed reports and participated in special and external committees.

Performance in the House of Representatives

In the National Congress , Father João has a solid and continuous legislative performance, with 144 proposals of his authorship and 4 reported in 2025 registered on the House of Representatives' website. Among the projects he presented are PL 5182/2025 , which amends Law No. 8,080/1990 to incorporate community-based popular health strategies into the SUS (Unified Health System); PL 2412/2024 , which amends the Public Registry Law to exempt fees and emoluments in the acquisition of rural properties via Agrarian Reform ; PL 154/2024 , which amends the educational incentive law to include students from community schools in rural education ; and, in previous years, PL 5080/2023 , which provides for the prohibition of the use of the active ingredient atrazine throughout the national territory . He was also the author of important projects in previous decades focused on rural education, the inclusion of waste pickers as special insured persons ( PEC 309/2013 ), the promotion of transparency in the installation of radioactive waste repositories, and incentives for family farming, in addition to being a co-author of proposals on emergency aid to family farmers and labor rights for app delivery workers.