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The Jacobins, the Guillotine, and the Forgotten Fraternity

When answering Portuguese journalist Ana Serra, on September 19, 2008, about what my purpose was in writing Reflexões da Alma [Reflections of the Soul] and having it launched in Portugal, I said that at first it was for my...

Charity at the UN

The LGW’s representative at the UN, Danilo Parmegiani, informs us that the United Nations celebrated the International Day of Charity for the very first time. The recently approved resolution chose September 5 as the date for its...

God and Globalization

On June 21 this year, when speaking to the youth of Good Will, who were participating in the 39th edition of an international forum organized by them, I commented on the Globalization of Fraternal Love, the theme of the day. The goal throughout the...

Charity

Love — The Basis of Dialogue

A Good Will Reflection taken from the book "Jesus, a Dor e a origem de Sua Autoridade – O Poder do Cristo em nós" [Jesus, the Pain, and the Origin of His Authority – The Power of Christ Within Us] from November 2014.

Book Reflections of the Soul (2003)

I have been saying for so many years and I published it in the book Reflexões da Alma (2003) [Reflections of the Soul]: The heart is more willing to listen when Love is the basis of dialogue. For this reason, in Jesus, the Pain, and the Origin of His Authority – The Power of Christ Within Us (2014), I explain the Divine Greatness of the Love of Christ. And a good dialogue is basic to the exercise of democracy, which is the regime of responsibility.

Book Jesus, the Pain, and the Origin of His Authority – The Power of Christ within Us (2014)

I turn to an argument I presented during talks I gave on the Apocalypse of Jesus for the Simple-Hearted, which is also appropriate for those who may think that the responsible construction of Peace is an impossibility: . . . Is this Utopia? Why?! Everything that is seen today as progress was considered madness in the not so remote past. . . .

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If much more were invested in education, teaching, culture, and food, all enlightened by a Superior Spirituality, people would be healthier. They would be, therefore, spiritually, morally, mentally, and physically better qualified for life and work, and would spend less on security. “Oh, but this is work for years to come!” So, let us not waste any time! Otherwise, the civilizing achievements in the world that threaten to collapse may give way to the contagion of disillusion, which will affect the whole Earth. We cannot allow such a situation to happen.

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Alziro Zarur (1914-1979)

Above all, there has to be Real Fraternity, of which Alziro Zarur (1914-1979), the late founder of the Legion of Good Will, spoke in his poem with the same title. This Fraternity is capable of bringing together enemies and out of their paradoxes finding solutions for the problems that are suffocating Humanity, because as I say again and again, there is really a lot to learn from each other.

José de Paiva Netto is a writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), effective member of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and of the Brazilian International Press Association (ABI-Inter). Affiliated to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Writers of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Radio Broadcasters of Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). He is also a member of the Academy of Letters of Central Brazil. He is an author of international reference in the concept and defense of the cause of Ecumenical Citizenship and Spirituality which, according to him, constitute “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love.”