By JORGE FELIX*
Frei Betto's peacemaking work
At a time when programs reality shows they produce influencers of all kinds, digital networks manufacture pseudo-politicians and people idolize beings invented by artificial intelligence, it is essential to remember humanistic figures, otherwise we risk losing connection with ourselves. Frei Betto will be honored here for his 80th birthday, recently completed. Just one fact from his biography would justify the tribute.
Do you know anyone of any nationality who has changed the Constitution of another country? I always ask this question when it comes to him. And more. He did this in the name of peace. It is curious that Brazil does not honor this feat. A former member of the National Liberation Alliance, the most famous organization of armed struggle against the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship, he was always committed to bringing peace to all peoples.
After publishing Fidel and religion (1985), best-seller in 33 countries, the writer from Minas Gerais managed to double the commander of the Cuban revolution, the Cuban communist party and enshrine in the revolutionary Magna Carta that Cuba would, from now on, be a secular country.
More than freedom of worship, Frei Betto guaranteed peace to the Cuban people in the midst of so much religious war and was invited by several countries to convince socialist leaders that faith and politics should be separate in the name of harmony. It is a failure of the commission of relevant awards in the name of Peace, such as the Nobel, to have never valued his pacifist work.
in your book Paradise lost, behind the scenes of socialism, he tells how arduous this undertaking was and how he faced resistance in the Church to simply preach peace. Guarantee, regardless of political ideology, the sacred secularity of the State.
The other nobility of Frei Betto's pacifying actions is his personal donation of energy, time and courage to the fight against hunger, following the principles of Liberation Theology. There is also pacifying work there. Violence is born from the stomach of the hungry animal, including the human animal.
His missionary work spanning six decades, during the first Lula government, as a special advisor for this purpose and his work, to this day, in several countries, on behalf of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), constitutes an immeasurable of actions for peace and the challenge of living together on the planet with more equality and social justice.
The pastoral work of Frei Betto, the peacemaker, should also be celebrated. We hear a lot, from people from different sectors, social classes and ages, the phrase: “Being in his company brings me a feeling of peace”. This inner peace, the ability of the religious person to imbue the interlocutor with his or her tranquility and tenderness.
He manages to convey this radiance of peace even in his famous Letters from prison. He was imprisoned from 1969 to 1973, without ever allowing himself to be invaded by furies of revenge. He left prison even more pacifist. A peace so powerful that it is capable of crossing Brazil's borders at all times and allowing other nations, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, to continue to benefit from its greatest weapon: the word. Be it God's or his own.
*Jorge Felix is a journalist and professor at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities at USP.
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