It is Urgent to Reeducate!

It is from Aristotle*2 (384 – 322 B.C.) the teaching that follows:

"All of those who have meditated on the art of governing human beings end up being convinced that the destiny of empires relies on the education the youth receive." 

The Stagirite is right. 

Education and Culture with Ecumenical Spirituality for the People, ever since childhood, are one of the major concerns of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), in addition to its acclaimed Human and Social Promotion. Furthermore, in a true Democracy everybody has the right to freedom of expression, to nourishment, good Education, culture, health and work, with the indispensable spiritualization of human feelings, in any historical stage of social evolution of the nations.

It is in teaching that resides the great objective to be achieved, right now! And let’s go even farther: only Re-education, even of Education itself, as Alziro Zarur*3 (1914- 1979) praised, is able to guarantee days of prosperity and and harmony. Nevertheless, as I wrote in my book Reflexões e Pensamentos ― Dialética da Boa Vontade (Reflections and Thoughts ― Dialectics of the Good Will) (1987): (...) as we refer to the union of all for the benefit of all, somebody might get scared, thinking of capitulation of his or her points of view under the boresome effect of a depersonalized union, under a deplorable human automatism. It is quite another thing. In the Divine Democracy, everybody has the right to express, in civilized manner, his ideas and way of seeing things. However, nobody has any right to hate on the ground of thinking in a different way. Gandhi*4 (1869-1948) used to say that:

"Divergence of opinions should never be a reason for hostility."

And it was for thinking this way that the Mahatma became the liberator of his people. The duty of expressing a point of view in a civilized manner does not mean that — for Democracy to be enforced — You ought to become a winner at any price. On the contrary, democratic is to know how to live also with defeat.Those who do not accept this fact do not know what is Democracy,which, by the way, is the regime of responsibility.

It is from the wise Indian also this remarkable assertion regarding the need for promoting the Culture of Peace in people’s hearts to overcome the animosity among those, who think in a different manner:

"Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny."

Spiritual Democracy — a proposal of the LGW

Upon launching of the Cornerstone of the World Parliament of Ecumenical Fraternity, the ParlaMundi of the LGW, on October 21, 1991, located at Quadra 915 Sul, in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, I recommended in my article Manifest of Good Will:

The World Parliament of Ecumenical Fraternity was created under the seal of Democracy, but not just Democracy in terms of elections and political parties. (...)

We predicate Democracy not only in Politics, but in all segments of human life, mainly in Religion, which must march up front, by force of its mission of peace on Earth. Otherwise, of what avail would it be? This is an action of humility, that to bear fruits, it must first of all be armored and protected by a sound courage, which does not approve of violence in the name of a God, which is Love and Salvation. Zarur, the late founder of the Worldwide LGW used to say that:

"The greatest criminal in the world is the one who predicates hate in the name of God."

He also says that:

"To govern is to teach each individual to govern himself."

Nobody would define more suitably, the deepest meaning of Education for a strong nation in the Third Millennium.

Spirituality and Education

According to what I wrote in the book Epístola Constitucional do Terceiro Milênio [Constitutional Epistle of the Third Millennium], published on September 7, 1988, in the chapter "To instruct is to enlighten the Consciousness": Without Education and Instruction there is no progress. 

However, to educate and to instruct does not only mean to teach how to read and plunge into books Above all, it means to illuminate the intelligence for the harmonic functions of the Human Being in society (...). This will only be achieved when the human creature knows how to see beyond the intellect, with the eyes of the Spirit (...).

Planetary Citizenship

That is why our motto, having being proclaimed for so long, is Education and Culture, Nourishment, Health and Work with Ecumenical Spirituality, therefore being the birthplace of all the most generous values that originate from the Soul, the home of emotion and reasoning enlightened by intuition, the environment that embraces all that transcends the vulgar field of matter and provides with the sublimed human sensitivity, as for example, Truth, Compassion, Morals, Ethics, Honesty, Fraternal Love. In short, the constant math that harmonizes the equation of the human existence. The understanding of the Superior Spirituality evolves the character of the creatures, and consequently directs it to the construction of the Planetary Citizenship.

Spiritual World, Science, and Microscope 

Spiritual World, Science, and Microscope There is also — which is essential to point out — the Spirituality understood as the experience of the Being in the Invisible Spheres, in which Life expands permanently. At last, the Spiritual World! It doesn’t exist?! Why not?! Because the contemporary Science still doesn’t recognize it?! In the same way it also didn’t accept the microcosm that was an invisible universe before the microscope was invented. Not very long ago, allergic patients suffered the suspicion of many physicians, for no one knew about acarus until the invention of more modern optic instruments for investigation of the habitat of infinitely small organisms.

Jesus’ New Commandment, World Solidarity and Voltaire

Regarding the constant need of a solidary spirit in the personal relationships, among the communities and the nations, it is worth noting the New Commandment of a great pedagogue, the disectarianized *5 Jesus, when He teaches:

"Love one another as I have loved you. Only by this shall you be recognized as my disciples, if you have the same Love for one another. (...) There is no greater Love than this one: to give his or her own Life for his friends. (...) As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my Love. (Gospel according to John, 13:34 and 35; 15:12,13 and 9)."

And also this affirmative from Voltaire*6 (1694-1778):

"From India to France, the sun doesn’t see more than a huge family that should behave by the lawsof Love. Mortals, we are all brothers."

Christ’s New Commandment and the reflection of the polemic French illuminist philosopher form two strong pillars of a society that would want to live far from the general war suicides of all kinds, each time more destructive.
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*1 This though of Paiva Netto can be found in his book Sabedoria de Vida (Wisdom of Life), 2nd ed., 2001, page 100, published by Editora Elevação.

*2 (Read at the end of the text)

*3 and 4 (Read at the end of the text)

*5 Disectarianized Jesus – In 1989, in an interview to the Polish journalist and TV man, Roman Dobrzyński, Paiva Netto pointed out that one of the tasks of the LGW is just to disectarianize Jesus. Please read the Proclamation of Christ, the Statesman, second volume of Diretrizes Espirituais da Religião de Deus (Spiritual Guidelines of the Religion of God) page 31, or visit the site www.boavontade.com.

*6 (Read at the end of the text)

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The Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy

I bring you some considerations that I delivered during an improvised speech to the reaching body of the LGW’s educational centers, which was also partly published in Correio Braziliense, a newspaper from Brasília, capital of Brazil, in February 2000:

(...) Our objective is to reach the greatness of the human Spirit, which is the constructor of all things. And just like the body needs support, our eternal part also needs the transubstantial nourishment, without which it gets sick. Here is, therefore, the Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy *7. Health for the Spirit is singularized in Fraternal Love, basic principle of the Human Being, generating factor of Life that is everywhere and is everything." (...) There is no greater suffering than the lack of it (...), sound foundations of healthy communities whereby the social reform should come from the spiritual reform, that is, from the inside strength of the creatures that makes them powerful and indestructible in their altruistic ideals.

Jesus said:

"The kingdom of God is within you." (Jesus’ Gospel, according to Luke 17:21)

No one can oppress the Soul of a Human Being freed by the knowledge of the Truth illuminated by Divine Love. Therefore, the immensurable virtue of the knowledge conducted by the good feelings that make the human survival possible: that of Justice allied to Fraternity.

Science discovers the prayer

Therefore, it is our wish that not only the brain should be clarified, but also the heart, and that the permanent bonds with the Superior Spiritual World never be forgotten. For this harmony to persist forever and ever, we have the habit of praying, investigated today by a judicious Science*8, where it has found pleasant surprises of unknown capacities of the Human Being.

(From my book Os Mortos Não Morrem [The Dead do not Die], a brief passage, very appropriate for these comments:

Addressing to the pilgrims, on November 2, 1983, who were united in the Saint Peter Basilica, in Rome, Pope John Paul II*9(1920-2005) declared: 

"The dialogue with the dead should not be interrupted because as a matter of fact, life is not limited by the horizons of the world...").

The prayer of a skeptic and the broad meaning of prayer to the religious and atheists

Surprisingly, I will present below the prayer of a writer already quoted by me, known as skeptic, atheist, and materialist. His name? François Marie Arouet (Voltaire). Indeed, he was not an atheist in the meaning attributed to him. What he did not accept were the counter orders, whether of political or religious nature, quite common at his time, prior to the French Revolution. The author of Philosophical Letters (1734) irritated many of his contemporaries with his remarkable intelligence.

At a certain moment he must have thought: "There is no solution; we must look for a higher force". And he remembered God, who has nothing to do with the dissentions among the Human Beings, who use and abuse of their free will, ipso facto suffering the consequences of their excesses. 

The prayer is for all of You. Submit your requests. God will hear You. If You do not believe in the Creator, think of everything good You have within yourselves, so that this resurges to You with more intensity.

For the atheist brothers there is meditation, which is similar to the act of praying. The opportunity of strengthening the Soul should not be lost, on what is beneficial to the human creature, for matters of different opinions about religion, ideology or culture. The physical laws that rule the survival of the body are the same for believers and nonbelievers. This is quite an evident ecumenical scientific truth.

Voltaire’s Prayer*10

It is not to mankind that I address myself now, but to you, God of all beings, of all worlds, and of all times! If it will be allowed to weak creatures lost in the immensity and imperceptible to the rest of the universe, dare to beg You anything, You, who gave us everything, You, whose decrees are unchangeable and eternal, deign to look with mercy on the errors tied to our nature; that such errors do not become calamities. You did not give us hearts to hate each other; nor did You give us hands to strangle each other; make us help each other in carrying the burden of a painful and ephemeral life; that the little differences in our clothes that cover our bodies, in our inadequate languages, in all of our ridiculous customs, in all of our imperfect laws, in all of our conditions, which are so disproportionately important to us and so meaningless to you; that these small variations that distinguish one from another those atoms that we call men, may not be signals of hatred and persecution. May all remember that they are all Brothers! If the calamities of wars are unavoidable, let us not hate each other, let us not destroy each other, as we live in peace, and let us use the instant of our lives to praise unanimously in a thousand different languages, from Zion to California, Your kind Mercy, which allowed us, oh Lord, this moment. 

Pray = Meditate

In my book Somos todos Profetas *11 [We are all Prophets], I affirmed that we live in our bodies, but we are Spirit. To pray and meditate, I repeat, are similar. We could say that if the one who has Faith prays, the non-believers meditate. To be humble in face of the Truth is the conduct of people of goodness, and these people are found among the religious and atheists.

The Prophet Mahomet*12, in the 10th Sura, verse 5 of the Holy Book of Koran brings to us an important revelation on the act of meditating:

"(...) God did not create everything but with truth. He details his revelations for those who meditate."**

The instrument of Solidarity

Thus, our tool to construct the Ecumenical Citizen (religious or not) is something we cannot do without: the universalist spirit whose instrument is the Solidarity that enlightens minds and hearts. We live in a single and huge home, the Earth. If we don’t walk towards the direction of understanding, where will we live if the madness of selfishness and greed are not removed from our paths in this Planet in new times of globalization? Planetary society, pleasures and misfortunes in the same level. It’s pure math.

"What type of peace do we wish for?"

Conveniently, this passage of a speech addressed by the North-American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy*13 (1917-1963), on June 10, 1963, in Washington, DC:

"(...) Let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small Planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal. (...)"

Oswaldo Aranha, the UN and Peace.

In 1947, the Brazilian Diplomat Oswaldo Aranha (1884-1960), took over the Presidency of the UN. Previously, he had already occupied, among others, the position of Brazilian Ambassador in Washington and of Minister of Foreign Affairs. The biographer Francisco Talaia O’Donnell, in his book Oswaldo Aranha*14 states:

"Speaking at the UN, when taking over the presidency, on September 16, 1947, Oswaldo Aranha once more took the opportunity to transmit to the world the seeds of his ideal:

‘The totalitarian world collapsed because it wanted to affront the freedom of the human consciousness. The spiritual conquests are not subject to be changed by force.’

"Preaching Peace to the peoples of the world, which was his life’s tireless mission, he affirmed:

‘Here teaches, doctrines and above all believes and the peoples learn to know each other and believe in each other and all in the need of a common and fraternal destiny.’ (...)"

Several peoples have expressed their gratitude to the Temple of Good Will (TGW), a worldwide point of expansion of the Ecumenical Solidarity, among them Chile, the Netherlands and China.

Morocco was the first nation to present the monument of the LGW, as soon as it was inaugurated in 1989, in recognition to its relevant role fulfilled in society. Its embassy in Brazil, donated in the name of the Government and population of Morocco, a beautiful stone mosaic, typical from the Islamic creed.

The Embassy of Iran contemplated the TGW with a traditional Islamic painting, made on goat skin. Also, an authentic gesture of international friendship. 

Everyday the number of people, that around the world understand that the Temple of Good Will is the house of where the human creatures can fraternize, expands.

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*7 Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy ― This thought is from the President- Director of the Legion of Good Will: “The youth is the future in the present. Let’s trust him/her!” This assertive expresses the culture of respect to the new generations, encouraged by the LGW, that maintains schools all over the Country “Education ― true and correct ― sets mankind free, and allied with Spirituality, it sublimates,” says Paiva Netto. “This is the Pedagogy predicated on the values originated from the Universal Love, prompting the human being to live the Ecumenical Citizenship, grounded on the full exercise of the planetary Solidarity."

*8 Author’s Note ― Please read the chapter “Jesus, the Living Bread that has come down from Heaven ― I”, starting from page 197 of the 53rd edition of As Profecias sem Mistério (The Prophecies without Mystery), where I present the considerations of the French scientist, Dr. Alexis Carrel (1873-1944), Nobel Prize of Medicine in 1912, and the study "Effects of Prayer on Health", by the School of Medicine of the University of Brasília (UnB), in the capital of Brazil. 

*9 (Read at the end of the text)

*10 Voltaire’s Prayer ― This prayer was presented by Paiva Netto during broadcasting of his program by Rede Mundial ― (Mundial Network) The TV of Education, Culture and Solidary Citizenship with Ecumenical Spirituality, by the Bandeirantes Television Network and the Goodwill Radio Network and also published in his book Ao Coração de Deus (To God’s Heart) Volume II, launched by Editora Elevação.

*11 Somos todos Profetas (We are all Prophets) ― A bestseller of the writer Paiva Netto, which along with the books As Profecias sem Mistério (The Prophecies without Mistery) and O Apocalipse sem Medo (The Apocalypse without Fear) form the collection O Apocalipse de Jesus para os Simples de Coração (Apocalypse of Jesus for the Simple-hearted), which has sold more than 1 million copies.

* 12 , 13 e 14 (Read at the end of the text)

**NT – Translation from the Portuguese version of Mansur Chalita, President of the Gibran International Cultural Association. 

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The wealth of a country is its People

I open parenthesis once more — on my speech to the instructors of the LGW’s school — to transcribe a note of clarification that is made in my article "The Dynamism of Peace", which I dedicated to the participants of the Millennium World Peace Summit, held in August 2000, at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York:

(...) Whenever You read or hear the word Ecumenism in my writings or speeches, please take it in its original meaning. According to its etymology, ecumenical — from the Greek oikoumenikós— means: "of worldwide scope or applicability; universal". We use this term abundantly because there will never be true Peace in the World as long as it is not extended to each and every inhabitant of the Earth.

IV Beijing Conference on Women

As I wrote in my page There is no world without China, published in the International Business and Management magazine in 1987, and reproduced for the participants of the IV Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995: The path of the Legion of Good Will, the LGW, is Peace. No more wars! Brutality is the law of ferocious animals, not of Man, who considers himself superior. We preach the valuation of the creature, which is the wealth of a country. China’s fortune are the Chinese, just like Brazil’s and all of the other nation’s are their Peoples. (...)

Buddha and the Solidary Share

Let’s go back to the considerations with which I addressed the teaching body of the LGW’s educational centers: 

Therefore, at the Legion of Good Will we cultivate the Divine Part, that is, sublime, which exists in every individual, waiting to be awakened to demonstrate its effectiveness for the Good, illuminated fraction that each creature holds inside oneself, afar of creeds or faithlessness. Mercy, Compassion, Justice ― allied to Fraternity ― and other noble feelings are manifestations of this superior component of our character. I explained this concept when I addressed, offhand, to those present in the "7th World Congress of the Legionnaire Women", held in the city of Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, on May 7 and 8, 1982: All the positive aspects found in the husband or wife, in the fiancé or fiancée, in the boyfriend or girlfriend, in the father or the mother, in the son or the daughter, all of this is what we can call of Divine Part, or Solidary Share that each reature of the Creator, knowingly or not, possesses. Unhappy people are those who do not look for such sparkling power inside themselves and in their fellow creatures. When we focus this Noble Fraction, in us or in others, we face with the true happiness. From the moment when You reach the Divine Part within yourself, you acquire the privilege to recognize it in everyone.

The Apostle Paul (between 5 and 15 A.C. — 62, 64, or 67) proclaimed in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, 3:16:

"You are the Temple of the Living God."

Buddha (563-483 B.C.)*15 used to say that the Human Creatures, as all things in this world, are composed of a sole essence, only differing from one another by the shape they receive, by virtue of the influence, which affect them. Consequently, the Human Beings are characterized by their acts. For this reason, during his long journey, the creator of Buddhism did not cease to point to good actions as one of the advanced ways toward enlightenment:

"Do not underestimate evil, saying: ‘It will not harm me.’ As the water falling drop by drop fills the glass, in like manner, evil, performed little by little also fills the Soul of the offender.When a traveler, after a long journey, comes back safe and sound to this home, his relatives and friends celebrate his return. Likewise, when a person, who did good passes to the other world, he is welcome by the merits he conquered during his life, in the same way as relatives welcome a beloved person, who returns."

Ecumenism of the Souls

We preach Unrestricted Ecumenism, the Ecumenism of the Souls, or Ecumenism of Fraternal Feelings (that transcends everything), which constitutes the highest projection of Hope of those who yearn to unite themselves in the construction of a happy future for everyone. Someday, Science, with such progresses that have favored the nations, will attain the final understanding of what the universalist mystics have already sensed: we are all one.

(And here I make an observation: the scientific reason, concerning the same origin of the Human Being, has alreadytaken this step, as I pointed out in the article I wrote for Manchete Magazine, on July 8, 2000, "Genome, Ethics and Fraternity", about the mapping of the human genome and the discovery of its sequence for the first time in History.)

And it is for such victories and for the human evolution in several fields of thought still to be reached, that I have always affirmed and published in my book Dialect of Good Will, in the 80s: Do I miss anything?! I miss the future!

Longing only for the future, indeed! It is necessary to look forward decidedly and sure of better times. As for the past, it contributes as a valuable teaching, so that we don’t run into the same mistakes, according to Cicero’s*16 (106-43 B.C.) warning:

"History is the master of life."

In spite of the Master’s lessons, one cannot deny that it may have some bad pupils.

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*15 (Read at the end of the text)

*16 (Read at the end of the text)

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The kinds of Ecumenism

At this point, I take this opportunity to put an emphasis again on my article "Peace for the Millennium", published for the Millennium World Peace Summit, also during the year 2000, at the United Nations — UN:

When we talk about Ecumenism, we mean Universalism, Fraternity without borders. There are many people, however, who might think of Religious Ecumenism alone*17, which already constitutes a great step for the civilization that urgently needs Peace.

Yet, Ecumenism is begging to be practiced in every field of human life, as the Legion of Good Will demonstrates, embracing all fields of human life with its actions:

Ecumenism in Education
Ecumenism in Communication
Ecumenism in Politics
Ecumenism in Science
Ecumenism in Art
Ecumenism in Philanthropy
Ecumenism in Economics
Ecumenism in Law
Ecumenism in Philosophy
Ecumenism in Sports, and so on.

It is important to point out the Ecumenism of Race, the Ecumenism of Social Class, the Ecumenism that permeates the Nationalities, the Ecumenism of Culture, in short, you cannot miss a comma from the knowledge and Fraternity that people, with a great deal of struggle, conquered. The contribution to planetary survival should come from all parts, from men and women, tribes and nations of the Earth and of the Earth’s Heaven because there is life in the Spiritual World, as the Judicious Science will prove one day, for the dead do not die.

For this reason I announce the Unrestricted and Total Ecumenism*18, which proposes the alliance of the two Humanities, as Alziro Zarur announced, saying: 

"The secret of the government of peoples consists in uniting the Earth Humanity with the Heaven Humanity."

This is a challenging task to be won with determination, by Reason and Faith.

Supplanting the intolerance

All the animosities that customarily divide Human Being in litigating groups should be undone, in a way to bring down intolerance, that has been contributing to the maintenance of this state of multiple tensions, which are pushing the world towards an indescribable conflict which nobody in their perfect mind can wish for.

We see the Unrestricted and Total Ecumenism as the utmost expression of Love and Justice, the gravitational axis of a healthy society. It is the natural state and spontaneous wish of any creature when he or she is spiritually integrated with the Creator, or to the true meaning of humanity, the flag of those, religious or not, who work for a better planetary life. Ecumenism, as it is preached by the Worldwide LGW, does not impose anything on anyone, it only extends an invitation to a natural understanding between civilized people.

Prophet Mohammed, Virtue and Mercy

Acting like this, as we have just seen in one of the transcription of a passage from The Dynamism of Peace we will be contemplating a divine desire revealed by the ProphetMohammed (570-632):

"Virtue and mercy for yourselves."

Virtue and mercy, two essential pillars to the human feelings, sublime concept that, one day, will be incorporated to the political actions of the nations, before there is no room left for any saving providence. (…...). Nowadays, it is already evident the results of the greenhouse effect, which were denied to the extreme during many years, by many of those whose subaltern interests supplant the instinct of survival itself, to the point of having forgotten about theArrhenius Effect consequence of a progress without ecological worries, of the indiscriminate use of coal in the sensitive terrestrial atmosphere. The dangerous abuse already goes on for more than 200 years, the age of the industrial era, according to what I wrote in Epístola Constitucional do Terceiro Milênio [Constitutional Epistle of the Third Millennium], with the first edition being printed in 1988.

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*17 Religious Ecumenism ― Paiva Netto does not see Ecumenism as limited solely to Christian religions and he does not admit it solely as restricted to the religious sphere. Ecumenical means universal.

*18 Unrestricted and Total Ecumenism ― Paiva Netto defined the two expressions created by Alziro Zarur as follows: “The Unrestricted Ecumenism preaches the perfect relationship among all creatures in the Earth. The Total Ecumenism announces the brotherly alliance of the Earth’s Humanity with the Humanity of the Superior Spiritual World and with any civilization, which may exist in the space. Why not?! Is the Universe in front of us simply to be lazily contemplated by us, (with the exception of astronomers and poets)? Perhaps so, if and when we remember to raise our eyes to it... It would be a presumption on our part to admit that the existence of other forms of life in the Cosmos is impossible."

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Ecumenism compassionate with sorrow

(...) Before coming back to my message to the LGW educators, I would like to repeat the words I said on April 23, 2005, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, during a meeting with superintendents, managers, and advisors of the Good Will Institutions*19, which are presided over by me. In these words I emphasize the intrinsic and essential relation between the ideal of Ecumenism and the divine institution called Love for the strengthening of vital and good characters of the Society in the Third Millennium:

Mankind is a family. And there is no single family, in which all children behave the same way. Each member is an independent cosmos, but this does not mean that these "heavenly bodies" should be jostling against one another. This would be chaos.

Therefore we must live according to the Unrestricted Ecumenism, not limited to the Christians, who make up one part of the peoples. And more: Ecumenism not circumscribed to religions, however that which expands toward all areas of science, philosophy, politics, social classes, occupations, football teams, ethnic groups, and so on, finding itself over and above the perspective of knowledge that rules the intellect in this Planet; since we merely experience its expectation, and not its Understanding, in a broad sense, which would be to immerse into the ocean of the Divine Knowledge; with Body and Soul bathing in the bright sea of God’s Wisdom. We preach the Ecumenism of Hearts, of good feeling, which does not depend on the common differences of the human family, where people reason according to their own maturation with or without the extension of their knowledge. We refer to Ecumenism, which is compassionate with sorrow, takes off a shirt to dress the unclothed, brings the healing balsam to those who are sick, protects the orphans and widows*20, knows that Education with Ecumenical Spirituality is fundamental to raise the Peoples, to strengthen a nation (not for a nation to rule over others), to protect a country and the survival of the celestial globe, which wraps us up as its not always well-behaved children.

At last, Ecumenism of Charity, God’s Strategy for the survival of the peoples, of a feeling also disclosed by the keensighted critic Anatole France*21 (1844-1924), as I published in As Profecias sem Mistério (The Prophecies without Mystery)22: 

"True charity is the gift of the works of each one to all, it is kindness, it is the harmonious gesture of the soul overflowing as a vase filled with precious nard, and expanding itself in money; money that flows mixed with love and thought."

In my publication Science and Faith on the Path to Equilibrium, which I addressed to the participants in the First Plenary Session of the Permanent World Forum Spirit and Science, held on October 18-25 2000, at the ParlaMundi of the LGW, I had the opportunity to transcribe a very beautiful poem written by Sam Levensen "Time Tested Beauty Tips", which the Belgian actress celebrated in Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn (1929-1992), on her last Christmas on Earth, read to her two sons. A dedicated mother, she transmitted her love to the children of the world, becoming Ambassador of UNICEF23. The experience of her kind heart may be a model for all:

For attractive lips/Speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes,/seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure,/ share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair,/let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with knowledge/ you will never walk alone...
People, even more than things,
have to be restored, renewed, revived, 
reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed.
Never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself,/ the other for helping others.

Ecumenism of the Brotherly Religions

This is the Ecumenism of the Brotherly Religions, pioneered proclaimed in Brazil, by Alziro Zarur. It is the religious inter-relationship of the Religion of Good, the Ecumenism, which places Peace above all barriers, which loves everybody, and is the common denominator that overthrows every hatred, illuminates the creature’s eyes and fertilizes their hearts with Love, as the priest João de Brito (1647-1693)*24 says: "it is God’s sublime impulsion, an energy that moves the worlds", which is everywhere and is everything.

On November 2, 1979, during a speech given at the former Headquarters of the Legion of Good Will’s branch, in the city of Niterói/RJ, soon after the decease of the philosopher Zarur, I closed the gathering with these words: the greatest suffering is the absence of Love.

By the way, Yogi Ramacharaka (1862-1932)*25 wrote in his Advanced Course of Yogi Philosophy*26, a valuable gift of my beloved parents, Idalina Cecília de Paiva (1913-1994) and Bruno Simões de Paiva (1911-2000):

"The thousands of pieces of straw flying in the air indicate from where the wind comes and where it blows. A breeze can be felt; within a while it becomes stronger; them a gale forms, which overthrows many things thought to be constructed to last for centuries. And after the storm, man will construct even better things ― things which will persist. Did you not see the signs, did you not feel the breeze? Please note: the final transformation will not come from Hatred, from Vengeance and other unworthy reasons — it will come as the result of a great and increasing Love, from a feeling, which will convince the persons that they are all one and the same family, that the suffering of one is the suffering of all, that all of them are One. Then there will appear the dawn of the Golden Age." (Boldface is ours).

The Ecumenism of Fraternity will become the reason of being of the human creatures during the Third Millennium. This is a matter of progress (and of survival) which generations and generations that preceded us believed in. Otherwise, where would we be today? Perhaps in the chipped Stone Age!...

The Most intelligent politics

Love is not a degradation of bodies or minds, it is the Force of God or of the Superior Wisdom (or as our atheistic brothers may think) in us, it is the most intelligent Politics that a person can conceive. Otherwise, what will come over the Earth is the painful reverse, as for example this suicidal ecocide we can see here and there. It is necessary to spiritualize, within the Ecumenism of hearts, the people. This is the only way for the various segments of society to really live in harmony, for whatever time required for achieving this goal. It is fitting to mention here a deep reasoning of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)*27, which could be read at the office of Alziro Zarur, at the former Mundial Radio Broadcast in the city of Rio de Janeiro, at the time, from 1956 to 1966, the Good Will broadcasting station:

"A Man who decides to stop until things get better, will realize later on that the one who did not stop and collaborated with time will be so much ahead that he will never be reached."

I usually state in my talks: If it is difficult, let us start soon, yesterday!, because there is too much left to be done.

And when I say spiritualized Beings, I want to reaffirm: imbued with a Brotherly Love that Humanity needs for living, even in the political sense, urgently. José Bonifácio (1763-1838)*28, the Patriarch of the Brazilian Independence wrote:

"A sound politics descends from Moral and Reason."

Thus it is the religious and political action of the Ecumenism of the Hearts: the Ecumenism which raises the fallen, and does not precipitate in the face of the illusions of philosophical disputes, when merely for the pleasure of discussing transcendental matters, without helping those who lie helpless by the side of the road. This is an Ecumenism that is not influenced by the lucubrations of an intellect when arrogant; on the contrary, it enlightens the intellect tirelessly, each time it is invited to manifest its sublime quality. It does not know any hatred, it does not live or disseminate hatred. It is the Brotherly Love, which promotes the Strategy of Survival, which spiritualizes the Economics and the discipline. (...)

Minister emphasizes the ecumenical origin of the LGW

Through the Solidary Team of the Legion of Good Will in Europe, I received a rare copy of the newspaper O Cristão (The Christian), on January 31, 1950, from the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is a Commemorative Issue of the 58th Anniversary of this Official Publication of the Union of the Congregational and Christian Evangelical Churches of Brazil.

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*19 Good Will Institutions: ― Formed by the Legion of Good Will, José de Paiva Netto Foundation and the Religion of God. 

*20 Protection of orphans, widows, and the sick... ― Acts of Charity recommended by Jesus in His Gospel, particularly according to Matthew, 25:31-45.

*21 (Read at the end of the text)

*22 As Profecias sem Mistério (The Prophecies without Mystery) ― A work of the writer Paiva Netto, a book of the collection Apocalipse de Jesus para os Simples de Coração (Apocalypse of Jesus for the Simple-hearted), which along with the book Somos Todos Profetas (We are All Prophets) and Apocalipse sem Medo (Apocalypse without Fear), has sold more than a million copies. One of the most sold books in 1999 according to the ranking of the Brazilian magazine Veja. It was also a success at the 12th International Book Fair in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the 52nd edition sold out after four days of the event.

*23 UNICEF ― United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.

*25 and 26 (Read at the end of the text)

*26 Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy ― Paiva Netto got this gift from his parents when he was 7 years old (1948) and began to read it in 1956, when he was 15 years old.

*28 (Read at the end of the text)

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On page 10 of this publication, we find an article entitled Value of Cooperation, signed by Salustiano César*29, an Evangelical Minister, who documents the foundation of the Legion of Good Will by Alziro Zarur in 1950. I will present below a few passages for historical records:

Value of Cooperation

...We are God’s cooperators...

Paul Apostle, 1 Corinthians, 3:9

There is a great deal of things in Christian life, not yet been duly evidenced in terms of evangelical powers. Cooperation is one of such things, whose conceptual understanding better firmed will open new courses toward remarkable realizations.

We feel a need of talking about cooperation, but not as it is usually done, with the use of ornate expressions and stylistic elegance.

I will begin affirming that the spirit of cooperation among us has generated and produced very few effects in all levels of our denomination. What is missing is not a cooperativist feeling. This exists very latent in people’s hearts, however, without education, planning, guidance. (...)

The value of cooperation is undeniable in the existence of highly renowned undertakings. (...)

In our society today we find certain facts, which are real challenges to the Christian people. On January 7 of this month, invited specifically as a Protestant Minister, I participated in a very interesting if not surprising meeting at the Building of the Brazilian Press Association, where the cooperative spirit, in a providential manner was characterized by the representation of a group of persons of different creeds and philosophical currents. Our word, based on Romans 12, was heard with extraordinary applauses, side by side with various orators: Israelite, Positivist, Exoteric, Spiritualist, Roman Catholic, (Free-thinker). This solemnity was very much impressive due to the culminant objective of congregating the "persons of Good Will" in favor of those who were relegated to the fringes of life. With this objective, the "Legion of Good Will" was organized to help "without any prejudices" those who suffer lying in bed, at home or confined to hospitals.

What a lesson given by God! (...)

Let us act in the spirit of the Word of God, who says:

"Love each other in your hearts, with brotherlylove, preferring yourselves in mutual honor.

"Do not be late in care: be earnest in your spirit, serving the Lord:

"Communicate with the Saints in your necessities, be hospitable."

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*29 In BOA VONTADE magazine, July 1956 edtion, page 5, the following historical record was published: "The Crusade of Brotherly Religions had its beginning on January 7, 1950, at the Brazilian Press Association Council Hall. Seven orators took the floor: Teles da Cruz, a Roman Catholic, Murilo Botelho, an exoteric, Leopoldo Machado, a spiritualist, Eugênio Figueiredo, a free-thinker, Reverend Salustiano César, a protestant, Samuel Linderman, a Jewish, Ascanio de Farias, a positivist. The memorable session was presided over by Alziro Zarur, the President of the Legion of Good Will".

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The sense of Religiosity

Let us return now to the transcription of my message to the instructors of the LGW’s Institute of Education, in February 2000:

Our position on the development of religiosity — not of "religionism"*30, which generally end up in conflicts — seeks the sublimation of this fraternal feeling that doesn’t put itself as a competitor of the religions nor does it present itself as a bitter taste in the throat of those who have sustained skeptic ideological criteria or have lamented the tragic history of some past religious conflicts and even of the present, consider the religious teaching a retrogression. (...) However, as I wrote in an article for the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, on August 9, 1987, and later in my book Mãezinha, deixe-me viver, in 1989 [Mommy, let me live]: One cannot hinder, eternally, the manifestation of what is born with the individual, even when an atheist: the meaning of religiosity, which is expressed in the most various altruistic ways. Before Science fatally proves in a laboratory the continuation of Life, it is up to Religion to have no fear to talk about the existence of the Spirit after "death", with greater objectivity, and to research, decidedly, the active Invisible World.

(...) The Ecumenical Citizen is the one who understands the need of overcoming barriers that separate masses because they don’t have the same religious, political and social thought, or do not belong to the same culture or ethnicity. He is the one that joins forces to diminish the overwhelming needs of communities or of a single person without worrying about color, sex, religion, ideology and so on. (...).

(There must be a path that does not lead the Earth to destruction by the weapons or by the criminal negligence with its populations or with itself.) 

The purpose of our work is the survival, with Ecumenical Spirituality, of populations in this era of fierce globalization. Unfortunately, since the past, things have been this way. The Roman Empire was a ferocious globalization: at all costs. More than ever, today’s globalization is, above all, being conducted by the mental dominion of the crowd because of the standardization, stimulated by the media (...).

If we destroy the Planet, where will we run away to?

The Heavenly Father — or Ultra-Intelligent Energy that has managed to keep Humanity surviving the madness that many have been spreading throughout History — expects us to learn to live peacefully as a planetary community. There is only one race: the Universal Race of God’s Children. However, when I refer myself to the Heavenly Father, I am not considering the anthropomorphic god, hence, created after the individual’s imperfect image and similarity, responsible for so many catastrophes in this world, for as the same time progress is promoted, the Planet is destroyed*31. Actually, I refer to the Divine God, described by Alziro Zarur with much good sense, in the poem transcribed farther on. The civilized Human Being still needs to educate himself, to become civilized, in order to understand that above and beyond greed he must avoid to destroy our collective home. Let us ask, just for discussion, that if anything happens to Earth, where will we run away to?

No more excuses

I open parenthesis once again: The present situation is so serious that experts in the most diversified scientific areas are multiplying their efforts for actions to be urgently taken, as theAgency Reuters reports on June 7, 2005:

Man would be the cause of global heating

Scientists from 11 countries, among which the United States, China, and Brazil, signed a joint report today to state that humanity is the greatest source of global warming and that this matter requires immediate actions. The statement was divulged one month before the G8 Summit. 

(...) Global warming will be on top of the agenda of the G8 Summit, which will be held in July 2005, in Scotland. (...) "It is obvious that the world leaders, including the G8, can no longer use the uncertainty on aspects of climatic changes as an excuse for not taking urgent actions to ban the greenhouse gases," said Lord May, President of the national science academy of the Royal British Society (the boldface is ours).

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*30 “Religionism” ― I beg your pardon for this neologism.

*31 Promotes progress, destroys the Planet ― This topic was approached in Paiva Netto’s article “Destruction progress”, published in Revista LBV, year III, number 25, April, May, and June 1992 and on Folha de São Paulo newspaper, on June 29, 1986.

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Effective Preparation

Let us return now to our message addressed to the LGW’s educators in 2000:

The Spirit has a preponderant place in our work. However, to prepare the youth for subsistence in this material world of a technology never seen before, and paradoxically, in our days so unstable for those who struggle for their own future, we should bear into consideration to the highest extent, the youth, who must be efficiently prepared for the current work market. 

And more: do it in such a way that they do not follow a path that, the profession they were prepared for, no longer exists at the end of the course. They must be educated to becomebusinessmen, to be able to overcome any of those events, which at any moment challenge our society, scaring a great number of people. (...)

Third Age youth

The situation today is different from the time when others and myself were young boys. In the face of the present reality, we, the more experienced ones, cannot be relegated to the modern conjuncture by virtue of our age. 

If in old times it was said that "life starts at 40", now, in view of the considerable progress of Medicine, life may surely start at 60. In Brazil it can be heard that the Third Age is the best age. Indeed, old is he or she who lost his or her ideal. Even lying in bed, a person more than 50, 60, 70, 80 years old can raise many of those fallen in the daily struggles. Zarur stated, in his radiobroadcasted preachings that "a word can save a life". Now, more than ever, due to the progress of technology in the areas of communications (mobile telephone and internet, for example), even a person lying ill is able to raise a person who suffers, though being thousands of kilometers away. In our days, the possibility to help is at hand to everybody. Therefore, the good ideal should not be lost since it is determinant in the active age of all creatures. You yourself will decide whether you are old or young, however hard appear to be your current conditions, whether temporarily or permanently. During my long life dedicated to the social and spiritual causes of the Legion of Good Will, I have witnessed unequalled examples given by persons, who by virtue of pitiful health conditions could consider themselves dismissed from the obligation of helping, even by one word, other persons also needing care. Many of such persons — surprisingly helped by others from whom nothing else could be expected (according to human criteria), owing to grievous sufferings — were able to react against their sorrow, frequently finding, after unexpected help, reasons to stand their dramas with such a determination thought to be lost long ago. This means to have that Good Will about which Zarur preached insistently:

Good Will and Divine Law

Those who study the Divine Laws, which are the natural laws, with Good Will, know why they must love their neighbor as themselves: each human being is a particle of the large organism called Mankind. The entire organism suffers because of a sick organ. Therefore, nobody will be absolutely happy while there is one unhappy being on the face of the Earth. He who hurts his neighbor hurts himself. He who hates his neighbor hates himself. He who deceives his neighbor deceives himself. He who betrays his neighbor betrays himself. He who robs his neighbor robs himself. He who kills his neighbor kills himself. Without Good there will be no salvation for anybody! (...)

Jesus’ Good Will

Our Good Will is by no means the good will made vulgar at banquets of human futilities. Ours is the Good Will of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one which knows how to discern between Goodand evil, between Truth and error, between fact, and the appearances of facts (the boldfaces are ours).

The great human cellar

The Human Being is the cellar of permanent accomplishments. The true wealth of civilization. He or she cannot continue to be cruelly exploited, made slave and despised. Conditions need to be created for him/her, simple as they may be, to live with dignity, whatever the time he or she has lived.

During all these years, we (from the Institutions of Good Will) have gathered respectable experience, without any arrogance, with the Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy, proposed by the LGW, to labor among the most active fighters of the educative process that prepares new generations.

Thus I ended the speech with which I greeted the educators of the Legion of Good Will’s Integrated School, located in the capital of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, in the year 2000.

School does not replace the home

However, on the sequence of this publication on Solidary Altruistic Ecumenical Society, let us continue explaining such crucial subject. 

School is fundamental, but it does not replace the home. The State and society, united, must generate solutions so that families raise and educate their children with dignity, as I published in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, Brazil, on June 27, 1986.

Later on, I wrote down this assertion of the Jewish German scientist and philosopher, Albert Einstein*32 (1879-1955), naturalized American citizen:

"World’s hope resides on the children."

Production without consumption?

Still in my Manifest of Good Will I pondered:

(...) Our entrepreneurs should understand that the modernization of machines is worth nothing if they do not have people capable of operating them. And it is impossible to imagine a civilization of robots that produce, but do not consume.

Forming brain and heart

This passage of the mentioned Manifest makes us meditate on the perplexity of desolate populations in face of the growing brutality of the increasingly injustice, revealing that the refinement of the brain — underestimated, however, the clarity of the heart well instructed by spiritual greatness — makes the Human Being forcibly weak to prevent the march of a shortsighted economical system (…), that drags him to situations of extreme poverty in vast regions of the Planet. However, People themselves affirm, seconded by the most eminent thinkers in the world: "While there is life, there is Hope". The most correct way is still the area of Education with Ecumenical Spirituality — a step ahead in the approaching Third Millennium.

Nevertheless, the insensibility of many was the motivation of the lament expressed by the extraordinary leader of civil rights, the African American protestant pastor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.*33 (1929-1968):

"Along History’s path, one of the greatest tragedy of Men has been the limited interest for his fellow man, be it a tribe, race, social class or nation."

Therefore, the world efforts must be oriented and applied to the task of rescuing the underprivileged portion of the Planet, thus inserting the values of society into the right order causing the march of economic development be directed in favor of the Human Creature, for the living beings are who generate progress, in spite of the machines. On the contrary, the governments might not be governing in favor of their peoples.

It is fundamental the teaching of Gandhi, the Indian icon of the non-violence philosophy, which I present next:
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*32 (Read at the end of the text)

*33 (Read at the end of the text)
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"A civilization is judged by the treatment it gives to minorities."

And then, in the indifference of many Human Beings towards others, lies their weakness if they don’t do anything to change the course of facts, for what is also necessary to stop blaming God and His teachings for the stumbles in life. Hence, very up to date this warning of an old proverb:

"Foolish is the one who sinks his own ships and blames the ocean for having done so."

The deserved attention to the children

For this not to happen to many children who are being prepared for life, I proudly inaugurated in São Paulo, Brazil, on January 25, 1986, on the anniversary of the colossal South American city*34, the Jesus Super Day– Care Center, that is part of a great Institute35, today responsible for the daily education of over one thousand children, teenagers and adults who come from low-income communities.

Let us meditate on the teaching of the Prophet Mohammed from the Holy Koran:

"Children are the ornaments of life in this world."

In respect of the little ones, Christ’s Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 19, narrates in the Holy Bible that:

13 Then, children were brought to Jesus so that He might lay His hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked the people.

14 Jesus, however, said, "Let the little children come to me, for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven."

15 And having laid His hands on them, to bless them, He went away.

Pedagogy of Love, Care and Affection

When I opened the doors of the Legion of Good Will Integrated Schools to the community, I summarized its work philosophy in a few words: Here we study. Brain and heart are formed.This is the Pedagogy of God, which is Love, the one that prepares the individual to live the Ecumenical Citizenship, established on the full exercise of spiritual, human and social Solidarity. This is the reason to affirm for so long that it is urgent to spread the Pedagogy of Love, Care and Affection, so necessary to nourish the Soul, and that are energetic remedies to heal any illness, beginning with the psychical illnesses, which impair the absorption of the lessons necessary for the intellectual development of the students. The good taste of life is the infinite apprenticeship.

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*34 Colossal South-American City ― São Paulo, SP, Brazil, was founded by Manuel da Nóbrega (1517-1570) and José de Anchieta (1534-1597) on January 25, 1554. Present population: approximately 11 million.

*35 Institute ― The author refers to Instituto de Educação da Legião da Boa Vontade (LGW’s Integrated School) founded by him on the anniversary of the city of São Paulo, in 1993. The Good Will Legionaries, followers of the Legion of Good Will, LGW, in Brazil and in the world, gave the Institute the name of José de Paiva Netto. This is a due homage to its founder.

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From O Capital de Deus [The Capital of God]

I take this opportunity to present passages from my book O Capital de Deus*36 (The Capital of God), in which I approach a few comments pronounced, offhand, during radio programs in the 80s and 90s:

(...…) Without the notorious stimulus of the Solidarity taught by Christ and by scholars of the creeds and elite philosophers, the human progress will always be below the groups’ expectancies. It is not in vain that all over, the society grows in commerce, industries, means of transportation, science, art, sports, etc., but the confusion remains. New problems are added to old ones because the Human Being has not learned, until now, to open a path inside himself for the Ecumenical Fraternity to reach his heart and mind. He needs, then, to recognize that he is the precious Capital of God, according to the definition given to him of the Human and Spiritual Economics of Ecumenical Solidarity, component of the Survival Strategy that I have been preaching for years. As Alziro Zarur used to proclaim:

"The Human Being is the Creator’s Masterpiece."

Economics should come from the Spirit

Economics, as it is usually still understood and practiced, could not become the main factor of the true welfare of the Human Being in History, according to sugge n stions of the school of thoughts of many branches of rationalism, as it is a consequence also of other infinitely more important factors, i.e., the spiritual ones, considered, however, by the top scholars, as of personal order. Actually, these same factors are, nevertheless, the real backbones of direct and concrete orders, of the Economics’ dynamics that has as its purpose, the well-being of the civilizations as a whole because originating from the individual’s ethical relations, above all understood as a spiritual entity, when aware that he was created after God’s image and similarity – but not of the anthropomorphic god, but of the Heavenly God, extolled by Zarur in his incomparable:

Poem of the Divine God

The God who is the Perfection, and whom I now try
To praise in sincerity-pervaded verses,
I have never seen Him, nor at any time
Have I seen the wind or electricity.

But this God, who is my eternal breath,
God of Love, of Justice and of Goodness,
I, who do not see Him, feel Him truly,
Like the electricity, like the wind.

And I feel Him in the purifying throes,
In the renovating manifestation
Of Beauty, of Purity, of Affection

I speak to Him in ineffable prayers,
Enveloped in indescribable vibrations,
That bring me flashes of Perfection.

........................................................
........................................................
........................................................

Goodness – which the sins do not consume –
From the Divine Spirit to His children:
God always descends upon His son, man,
When man rises up to his Father, who is God!

For I believe in this imperishable God
Who sustains Mankind with its extreme imperfection:
God of an inaccessible Perfection
To the most fallible human inquiry.

Right was Shakespeare*37 (1564-1616), when he put in Hamlet’s mouth this reflection: 

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

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*36 O Capital de Deus (The Capital of God) — A publication of Editora Elevação.

*37 (Read at the end of the text)

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Last interview with Ibrahim Sued

In 1995, the old and respected Brazilian social columnist, Ibrahim Sued*38 (1924-1995), who for many years wrote for the O Globo newspaper in Rio de Janeiro, generously chose to interview me, about the course of Education in the country. On the occasion, he asked me:

"I know the Legion of Good Will adopts an innovative approach to pedagogy. What is the LGW’s formula to solve the problems of Education in Brazil?"

I answered to old Ibrahim with the following words:

Apply, first of all, the not always deservedly valued Love, in the definition of Sister Laura, a character of the book Nosso Lar, by the Spirit of Dr. André Luiz*39, as:

"The Divine Bread of the Souls, the Sublime Nourishment of the Hearts."

Love versus connivance

Well, my dear Ibrahim, what we most see out there is a result of the lack of Love. Nothing is more pedagogical than Fraternal Love, although it be strong and just. Naturally, Love cannot be confused with connivance in error, for there are those who believe that to love means to agree with everything, not worrying about if it is wrong. To love is exactly the opposite, but to know how to correct the person at fault with generosity, even if with judicious rigor. (...)

However, where does true Education begin? (...) In the Pedagogy of the Legion of Good Will that preaches the Fraternal and Solidary Altruistic Ecumenical Society, we aim at forming the Ecumenical Citizen, or in other words, the Human Being that transcends mere competence, being that many people held as such are leading the world to a situation of calamity and danger. The Ecumenical Citizen is the solidary citizen, therefore not selfish. It is one who is not seduced by fanaticism because he understands that there is no sense in hating in the name of God, which is Love. Finally, it is one who knows how to respect the sacred human creature without prejudice or sectarianism. That which is ethical cannot be intimidated. When the territory is not defended by the good ones, the evil ones make "just" the victory of injustice. (...)

Misery is not the Human Being’s destiny

Actually, my dear Ibrahim, what the LGW proposes is an extensive program of Re-education. That’s what we have been doing within our means, trying to draw the attention of so many idealistic people who, just like us, do not believe in the fatality of destinies condemned to disgrace for social, political, religious, ethnic reasons. Beyond this, nothing can be constructed based on oppression. (...).

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*38 and 39 (Read at the end of the text)

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Moses and the Fiat Lux!

In my book Crônicas e Entrevistas (Chronicles and Interviews) ― published by Editora Elevação in December 2000, on the occasion of the "Viva Jesus! Congress", held in the city of Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, I expressed myself in a reaffirming clamour for a more just society guided by the laws of Fraternity, I wrote that Moses*40, while describing allegorically, the creation of Heaven, Earth and of everything it contains, he reveals in the book of Genesis, 1:3 and 4:

3 And God said: "Let there be Light!" And there was Light.

4 And God saw that it was good Light, and He divided the Light from the darkness.

Well, there can’t be Luminosity, that is, Life in human-spiritual fullness, where Love doesn’t exist in its most highest sense (...).

Persevering in keeping the consciousness distant from this sublime feeling and from this cosmic strategy, the Human Being, whether religious or atheist, runs the serious risk of putting himself (...) in a harmful situation for his Soul (or Consciousness), the biggest reason of so many woes that befall on the world, since the experience of the Ecumenical Spirituality, that is, of Goodness, is motive of mental and social health for the Planetary Citizen, as I affirmed preaching the Gospel of Jesus to the Simple-Hearted, still in the 1970s.

As a consequence we can conclude that the glorious Fiat Lux!, revealed by the Hebrew chief and legislator, could, in its brightness, be interpreted with these words:

Let’s establish Fraternal Love as the Supreme Law of all citizens and peoples (Fiat Lux!).

(Now, if men have or not followed the teachings, it depends on them… However, it is time to correct the course of things because danger is right at our doorstep. Violence dominates. And Religion is to fraternize.)

Human Rights and the Human Trafficking of Women and Children

Here it is the urgent precaution to oppose the social Darwinism*41, amplified by the globalization unprovided of solidary characters: the raw and naked truth of the survival of the strongest. Deviation caused by a wrong sociological interpretation of the evolutionist scientific theory of the still so discussed and famous English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882)*42. Well, the Human Being cannot be reduced to the unrestrained impulses of an irrational animal and in such a way be classified, impulses driving to aberrations such as the human trafficking of girls, boys, and women, as shown in the dossier distributed in various languages by Agenzia Fides of Vatican: The Recent Slaveries of the 21st century, which, owing to its importance and scope, was published in several parts in August 2004. See below a short sample of this serious problem:

City of Vatican (Fides Service) ― (...) In the recent two decades, prostitution and trafficking of persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation has reached alarming magnitude throughout the world. A few data give us the idea of the seriousness of the problem. (...) The United Nations Report of September 2000, estimates that 4 million women are sold each year for one of the following purposes: prostitution, slavery or marriage; and 2 million girls aged 5-15 are inserted in the sexual trade.

Now, more than ever, the experience of the Solidary Divine Love is essential because it is the only one capable of removing from the Earth, the darkness of crime, misery and pain when understood and carried out in all its compassionate, just, and therefore, efficient power not only by Religion, but also by Politics, Science, Economics, Art, Sports, by the international relationships, by the simplest worker to the most idealized public man. Actually, the Human Being, knowing it or not, searches instinctively for the equilibrium that can only come from the practice of Fraternity, the great forgotten one ― as Dom João Bosco (1815-1888)*43 complained — of the French Revolution trilogy (Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité), so much that its position is the end of the reforming motto, when it should be its forefront. This is why it turned out so bad with so many people guillotined. (...)

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*40 (Read at the end of the text)

*41 Author’s Note: Social Darwinism – A school of thought that appeared at the end of the 19th century, which basic principle was the application of the biological model of species evolution to the human societies, understanding that its dynamic should be given by the law of the survival of the most capable in the fight for life. With a racist mark, this hypothesis was abandoned after World War II, when its assertions became unbelieved, losing scientific legitimacy. Although, if we observe well the planet, social Darwinism still continues, disguised by many nicknames.

*42, 43,44 (Read at the end of the text)
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It wasn’t without any reason that Victor Hugo (1802-1885)*44 stated:

"Without Fraternity there can be no Peace."

Peace is only constructed with tolerance

The inspired French poet is absolutely correct. Therefore, let us not renounce from the practical measures for the construction of this new and fraternal society, for as the Spirit Dr. Bezerra de Menezes (1831-1900) reveals through the psychography of Francisco de Assis Periotto*45:

"Peace, the so desired Peace is the dream of all us in the Spiritual World and on Earth. Peace is only constructed with tolerance. It is impossible to believe that the path of war, hatred, and violence might generate a true Peace. But the world follows unexpected roads. Therefore, it is really important to take the path of Ecumenism and fraternization among all countries."

To transform pain into victory

Let us not be uncertain of our capacity as Human and Spiritual Beings, to reach what is considered today to be insuperable. We have many abilities to overcome problems, as huge as we consider them to be, as the physician, psychologist, philosopher and North-American writerWilliam James*46 (1842-1910) warns:

"Most people live in a physical, intellectual or moral circle very restricted from their potentials. They make use of a very small part of their possible consciousness and of the resources of their soul in general, just like a man... that becomes used to using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how our vital resources are more than what we imagined them to be."

Before this statement, if the difficulties are bigger, superior are our talents to overcome them. If this wasn’t true, where would we be today, if those who anteceded us for centuries, had become cowardly? The worse tragedy is to give up because of the misfortunes of the world. It is to fail, therefore, with those who trust us. Those who came before us — with the fuel of Faith —sublimed pain into victory.

Efficient education to free the people

If it is difficult to raise the true Solidary Altruistic Ecumenical Society, then let us begin yesterday! 

As I have told you before, Hope never dies. In my book Crônicas e Entrevistas [Chronicles and Interviews], I expressed myself on Hope, by stating that, in spite of all winters of the hearts, it has to warm the Souls. I said that, certainly, similar expectancy is still held, for example, by the hearts of many Angolan children. A diplomat, an acquaintance of my companion in ecumenical conviction, José Santiago Naud, co-founder of the University of Brasilia (UnB), could appreciate them in their happy innocence, despite the war*47 that bloodies Agostinho Neto’s (1922-1979) native country for more than 20 years. As the illustrious educator narrates:

"A friend told me upon a return trip that in the interior, close to Luanda in Angola, being deeply touched, he watched a group of about a hundred of them sing around his poorly paid professor, who danced: "If I could I’d fly/ to meet Peace/ I’d abandon this war, / I’d stand beside Peace." 

Educators’ orphanhood

This moving narrative of professor Naud, which I just transcribed, brings to mind a passage from another book of mine, Dialectic of Good Will, in the time of the dichotomy communism-capitalism: Actually, what is lacking is a better treatment given to teachers, who are the orphans of an inhumane economic system that grows stronger in throughout the world. For the sake of argument, we can say that — where better conditions of material existence are permitted — the right to think and to feel are denied, and — where the act of thinking is not withheld — they are not granted decent survival...

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*44, 45, 46 and 47 (Read at the end of the text)

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Solidary Altruistic Ecumenical Society – Conclusion

Here it is: educated, instructed and ecumenically spiritualized people are People who burst the handcuffs of misery and throw them away. That is why we have been saying for so long thatwhile efficient education, desired by all those of common sense, does not prevail, any nation will suffer the captivity of the limitations imposed upon it by the lack of preparation.

For construction of a true Solidary Altruistic Ecumenical Society, we need to have Education and Culture, but also a lot of Ecumenical Spirituality. Consequently, without fanaticism, of course! 

Dom Bosco instructed his disciples on Fraternity as pillars of education:

"Remember that education is something that comes from the heart."

And Alziro Zarur, the Founder of the Legion of Good Will, brilliantly advised that:

"The vibration of hatred destroys the human body, which was created to vibrate in the Law of Love."

Hence, take care of the Spirit, reform the Human Being. And everything will transform itself.

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*1 This though of Paiva Netto can be found in his book Sabedoria de Vida (Wisdom of Life), 2nd ed., 2001, page 100, published by Editora Elevação.

*2 Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) – Son of Nichomachus (doctor of Amyntas, king of Macedonia), was born in Stagira, Greek colony of Thracia, in the northern coast of Aegean Sea. His master was Plato, with whom he studied during twenty years. Founded, in Athens, his own school, called Lyceum. He was responsible for systematizing and organizing the history of Greek philosophy and can also be considered the creator of logic. In 343 B.C., he was invited by king Philip of Macedonia to his court. He became tutor of Prince Alexander, at that time a 13 year old youngster. Gradually isolating himself from social and political life, he dedicated himself to scientific investigation.

*3 Alziro Zarur (1914-1979) – Was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Jesus’ Christmas of 1914. Journalist, broadcaster, writer and poet, founded the Legion of Good Will (LGW), on January 1, 1950. Brilliantly directed it until his return to the Spiritual World, on October 21, 1979. Polemic and charismatic, he was an enthusiastic preacher of the Christ’s Gospel and Apocalypse, in a new and popular way. Zarur was also the great precursor of the Unrestricted and Total Ecumenism in the world, of the religious interrelationship, a thesis that he already used to sustain since his teenage years, when he casted the Crusade of Brotherly Religions. In 1965, he founded the Partido da Boa Vontade – PBV (Good Will Party), when he launched the Politics of God; on October 7, 1973, he proclaimed in the city of Maringá, State of Paraná, Brazil, the Religion of God, Religion of the Universal Love, Religion of the Third Millennium, with the following definition: "The Religion of the Third Millennium, Religion of God, of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, is more than all Religion itself, it is the whole Science, the whole Philosophy, the whole Politics, and the whole Moral, the whole human progress united to the progress of all worlds, of the whole Sidereal Humankind ― the Universal Love in the apotheosis of the Almighty, Omniscient and Omnipresent Creator, our God, our Father!”. Paiva Netto had this magnificent statement of Alziro Zarur fixed on the main wall of the Art Gallery of the Temple of Good Will, in Brasília, capital of Brazil. This Temple, the most visited in the country, was erected and opened by Paiva Netto, the successor of Alziro Zarur on October 21, 1989. Zarur proclaimed the New Commandment of Jesus, which had been practically forgotten in the Holy Bible, demonstrating among other things, its Practical meaning and its Hidden Meaning.

*4 Mahatma Gandhi ― Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is the true name of the Indian pacifist leader. Mahatma, which means “Great Soul”, became known for his pacifistic leadership. Undoubtedly he is the main personality of the independence of India. In 1891 he graduated in Law, in England, and immediately returned to India, where he worked as a lawyer. Two years later, he initiated a movement in South Africa ― then a British colony ―, to fight for the rights of the Hindus. In 1914, he returned to India and propagated his movement, using passive resistance as his main method, and preaching non-violence as a form of struggle. In 1922, he was imprisoned after organizing a strike against the raise of taxes, being condemned for six years, but in 1924 he was released from prison. In 1930, he commanded the march toward the sea, a 320 km walk to protest against prices of British taxes. Finally, in 1947 the independence of India was proclaimed, Gandhi also worked to avoid the struggle between Muslims and Hindus, who formed a separate state, Pakistan, divided into two factions, one of which became later Bangladesh. Accused for the territorial division of India, he attracted the hatred of the Hindu nationalists. One of such nationalists assassinated him the next year, when Gandhi was 78 years old. He was cremated and more than one million Indians were present at his funeral. A part of his ashes was cast into theholy waters of the Jumna river. Forty nine years after his death, a second portion of his ashes was cast, during a special ceremony, into the Ganges River, in the city of Allahabad, a holy place for the Hindus.

*5 Disectarianized Jesus – In 1989, in an interview to the Polish journalist and TV man, Roman Dobrzyński, Paiva Netto pointed out that one of the tasks of the LGW is just to disectarianize Jesus. Please read the Proclamation of Christ, the Statesman, second volume of Diretrizes Espirituais da Religião de Deus (Spiritual Guidelines of the Religion of God) page 31, or visit the site www.boavontade.com.

*6 Voltaire (1694-1778) – Philosopher, writer and poet of the French illuminism, whose baptism name was Francois Marie Arouet. Born in Paris, became symbol of the liberty of thought. By the way, his contesting spirit cost him prison at the Bastille, where he spent 11 months (from 1717 to 1718), adopting, from this occasion on, the pen name Voltaire. He was a defensor of justice and author of many books, among them we emphasized The Age of Louis XIV (1751), Philosophical Dictionary (1764) and Candide (1759), this last one is considered his masterpiece. 

*9 John Paul II ― The first non-Italian Pope since 1523, Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland. He was ordained a priest in 1946 and got a Doctors Degree in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, in 1948. He was elected Pope on October 16, 1978, as the successor of John Paul I, who governed the Roman Catholic Church for a short period of 33 days. Wojtyla adopted the name of John Paul II. On May 13, 1981, he was seriously hurt by a murder attempt at when riding by car Piazza San Pedro, in the Vatican. John Paul II published poems, and also, under the pen name of Andrzej Jawien he wrote a drama entitled The Goldsmith Shop (1960). His ethical and theological writings include Fruitful and Responsible Love and Sign of Contradiction, both published in 1979. Known as the Pilgrim Pope for his innumerable missionary travels, he contributed sensibly for Peace in the entire world. Suffering from Parkinson Disease, he died at the age of 84, in the Vatican. Being substituted by the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78, considered to be the main theological counselor and close adviser of John Paul II for 23 years, he was the guardian of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, and adopted the name Benedict XVI. 

*12 Mohammed – The Prophet of Islam, born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. In his several trips he had many talks with Persians, Jewish and hristians. He married a rich widow named Khadija, cousin of a Christian. Since 610, he started having visions, alerting him that he was destined to establish the Islam religion, that is, submission to one God only. Persecuted, he was invited to make the city of Yathrib, in the North of Mecca, the headquarters of his apostleship. The gradual migration (Hijira) of the new religion’s followers was then started. The movement ended on September 25, 622, the date that became the initial mark of the Mohammedan chronology. Mohammed, whose name means "one praised", died in Medina, also in Saudi Arabia of today.

*13 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) – First catholic President of the United States of America. Graduated from Harvard, in 1940, he signed up for the Marines. In 1943, when his ship was surrounded and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, he conducted safely, besides the deep wounds, the survivors through the turbulent waters. Back from the war, he became a congressman for the Democratic Party, reaching Senate in 1953. In 1955, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize of History. He was murdered, in his wife’s presence, Jacqueline (1929-1994), in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963 – the murderer is still unknown -, while he was parading in open car, before the crowd that applauded him. 

*14 Oswaldo Aranha (1894-1960) – Born in Alegrete/RS on February 15, 1894, the son of Colonel Euclides de Sousa Aranha and of Luisa de Freitas Vale Aranha, owners of the rancho Alto Uruguai in the Municipality of Itaqui, in Rio Grande do Sul. The second from 11 children of the couple, he was a direct descendant , on the paternal side, of Maria Luiza de Sousa Aranha, baroness of Campinas (São Paulo state area now corresponding to the city of Campinas). His father, born in São Paulo, ruled the political party Partido Republicano Rio-Grandense-PRR in the city of Itaqui. Upon completion of the secondary school courses, he became a friend of Virgílio de Melo Franco, who later attained a high political position during the Revolution of 1930, and together with Rubens Antunes Maciel, who would present him to Luiz Carlos Prestes, a revolutionary of 1924, and later on a communist leader. He attended Law School and in the early 1917 set up his Law office in the city of Uruguaiana. Then, he married Delminda Benvinda Gudolle, and they had four children: Euclides, Osvaldo, Delminda, and Luisa. Between 1917 and 1923, he dedicated himself almost exclusively to his Law office, attaining in a short time a high professional status. In the mid 1917, another lawyer, Getúlio Vargas, who graduated in 1907, consulted him on legal matters. Aranha was one of the main articulators of the Revolution in 1930. After the coup d’état, he became the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government and Minister of Finances. He was Ambassador in Washington between 1933 and 1937 and the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1938. In 1947 he had an outstanding participation in the United Nations for foundation of the State of Israel. In 1953, invited by Getúlio Vargas he became again the Minister of Finances, where he developed the "Aranha Plan", an essentially anti-inflation plan. After the suicide of Vargas, in August 1954, he abandoned the public life and returning to his Law office. In 1957, he was invited to participate in the Brazilian delegation to the UM and on December 6 was appointed as chief of the Brazilian Delegation to the 12th General Assembly of the United Nations. In 1960, he would be a candidate to the office of Vice President of Brazil headed by General Henrique Teixeira Lott, but he died on January 27, 1960.

*15 Buddha (563-483 B.C.) – His real name was Sidhartha Gautama. He was born in the Himalayan region. Sustained by his father, king Suddhodana, Buddha (the awakened, the enlightened) had a luxurious life, which was abandoned after he saw the misery and the poverty when he walked by the surroundings of the palace. From then on, he dedicated his life to spiritual issues. In the 4th century a.C., he founded the Buddhism, religion that preaches the creed on transmigration of Souls. 

*16 Cicero (106-43 B.C.) – His complete name was Marcus Tullius Cicero. Speaker and Roman politician, his eloquent text against Catiline (Lucius Sergius Catalina) (108-62 a.C.) became famous, when Cataline, audaciously, showed up at the Roman Senate after his conspiracy against the Republic was discovered: Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? (Until when, Cataline, will you abuse of our patience?) Besides rhetoric treaties, he published Philosophy works.

*21 Anatole France – Born in Paris, France, considered as one of the greatest writers of the universal history. He was elected member of the French Academy in 1896. His works carry the signs of a subtle wit, a refined irony, with a classical and easy style. He was involved in the famous case Dreyfus. He found in this case the subject for his Contemporary History, one of his most famous successes. He created also the known M. Bergeret, a central character of many of his books. In 1921 he received the Nobel Prize of Literature.

*24 Father João de Brito – One of the greatest icons of the religious history of Portugal. For his abnegated missionarism in the East he is considered as the last Portuguese follower of the great apostles of the 16th century, called the "Second (Francis) Xavier (1506-1552), the Jesuit missionary known as the "Apostle of the Indies". João de Brito was born in Lisbon, traveled to India to preach the Gospel of Salvation to the poorest and shelterless. There he endured persecutions and, finally, suffered martyrdom. He visited Brazil. He became known for his saintly life, firm character. He was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII.

*25 Yogi Ramacharaka (1862 -1932) — Pen name of William Walker Atkinson, born in Baltimore, USA, in December 1862, the son of William C. Atkinson and of Emma L. Mittnacht. In 1889, with almost 27 years of age, he married Margaret Foster Black and they had two children. In 1896, following a deep spiritual crisis, he approached the New Thought School, which preached the efforts to obtain health, well-being and happiness by control, trust, and expectation of meeting the positive divine and benevolent principle. He initiated his career as a writer thanks to two editors of the New Thought: Sydney Flower and Elizabeth Towne, who published his writings for long years. Finally, Atkinson opened his own school, the Atkinson School of Mental Science. He usually used pen names when writing his books; the most famous one was "Ramacharaka", which he used from 1900 to 1912 to publish his works on Hinduism, still in our days very useful and important works. For the majority of his writing under this pen name, he evidenced, among others, the topic of insistent need for man to appropriate his body and health, before proceeding to a higher level of consciousness. Later, he moved to California, starting to sign new works under his own name. He died in Los Angeles on November 22, 1932. 

*27 Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) – Remembered as the abolitionist of black slavery in his country. He is considered as a bulwark of modern democracy and one of the greatest figures of the North- American history. In 1860, he runs for President and was elected the 16th President of the United States of America. Beginning his government in 1861, he faced the separation of seven southern proslavery states, which formed the Confederated States of America. The "old Abe", however, did not recognized the separation, he ratified the national sovereignty over the insurgent units, exhorted them to reconciliation, assuring that never he would start an armed offensive. But the separatists took the Fort Sumter in Western Virginia, originating the famous Secession War. The confederated surrendered on April 9, 1865 in Appomattox. In the night of April 14, 1865, a Holy Friday, the actor John Wilkes Booth (1839-1865), a defender of black slavery and strongly allied to the confederated, member of a famous family of actors, assassinated Lincoln at the Ford’s Theater, in Washington.

*28 José Bonifácio – Known as the Patriarch of Independence, he played a fundamental role in the preparation and consolidation of the Independence of Brazil. He was born in Santos, state of São Paulo, on June 13, 1763. His family was one of the richest and most important in the city. When he was 21 years old, he left for Portugal to study in Coimbra, where he specialized in Mineralogy. In 1822, holding the position of Minister of Dom Peter I, he was called the "Father of Fatherland", "Steersman of Independence", "the Patriarch" by his party members. In various newspapers and publications of his time, he was acknowledged as one of the first opponents to the recolonizing politics of the Court. He was also a leader of the campaign for stay of the prince in Brazil. He died in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, on March 6, 1838.

*32 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) – A Jewish-German physicist, one of the greatest genial scientists of all times. In 1900 he graduated from Zurich Polytechnic School, in Switzerland and assumed the Swiss nationality. After his marriage, in 1902, he started a job in Patent Department, in Berna. Three years later, he formulated the Theory of Restricted Relativity Theory and began to publish articles on theoretic Physics. Later, he announced his Theory of Relativity, presenting a new idea of the gravitational phenomena. In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize of Physics. When Hitler took the power he had to leave from Germany to the United States in 1933, where he became a naturalized North-American citizen, in 1940. His theories permitted the construction of the first atomic bomb. After the atomic bomb explosions in Japan, in the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) he defended the inspection of the use of atomic energy and fought for pacifism. 

*33 Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) – He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated in Theology, from the University of Boston. His non-violence philosophy was based on Christian principles and on the work of Gandhi (1869-1948). He extended the black community’s space in his country. In Washington, led a march with 250 thousand people and pronounced his historic speech about the dream in seeing black and white people fraternally united. This march hurried the approval, by Lyndon Johnson’s (1908-1973) government, on the Civil Rights Law (1964) and of the Right of Voting Law (1965). In 1968, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

*37 Shakespeare (1564-1616) – One of the greatest poet of the universal literature, William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon- Avon, England. Beyond achieving great success at his time, what calls to attention is the fact of his work having survived throughout the centuries, being, until today, target of study and inspiration of movies and play writers. Example of this are the stories King John, Richard II and III, Henry IV, V, VI and VIII and, the tragedies Coriolanus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra and Cymbeline. 

*38 Ibrahim Sued (1924-1995) – He is considered the pioneer in social columns in Brazil. Some years after launching himself in printed journalism, he extended his column, focusing on issues with national and international interest. The interview with the President of the LGW was the third and last great reportage of the gender made by the journalist, in his long and victorious career. In addition to Paiva Netto, Ibrahim Sued interviewed, among other important personalities, the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), Marshal Arthur da Costa e Silva (1902-1969), President of Brazil, the writer Jorge Amado (1912-2001), Pope Paul VI (1897-1978) and the socialite Tereza de Souza Campos, now a Princess, spouse of Prince João de Orleans e Bragança. He also interviewed, in the inauguration of Brasília, the Brazilian President Juscelino Kubtschek (1912-1976).

*39 Dr. Andre Luiz – Pen name of a noted doctor that, after accomplishing a brilliant role in the Brazilian society, left the flesh and, afterwards, by the spiritualistic writing medium Francisco Candido Xavier (1910-2002), wrote many books about aspects of the Spiritual World.

*40 Moses – Leader and the one who freed the Hebrew people, he is the author of the first five books of the Holy Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, that form the Mosaic Pentateuch, or Torah (Law), for the Jewish. According to the Rabbi Henry Sobel, President of the Rabinato da Congregação Israelita Paulista (Rabinate Israelite Paulista Congregation), sometimes the term Torah is used in a more broad sense, which includes the additional laws transmitted orally from generation to generation until the end of the 2nd century of the Common Era, when they were coded and compiled. This collection was called Mishna.

*42 Charles Darwin (1809-1882) – British Naturalist, at the age of22 he went aboard the Beagle for a scientific circumnavegation exploring expedition for five years (1831-1836). From the registries of this trip, collected mainly during his visit on the Galapagos Island and at South America, he produced, among others, his master-piece: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), which contains his explanatory theory of the biological evolution of the beings. His evolution hypothesis had great success, as well as originated violent controversies. Published works of great influence in many areas of natural sciences.

*43 Dom Bosco (1815-1888) — Giovanni Melchior Bosco was born on August 16, 1815, in Becchi, near Torino, in the north of Italy. He lost his father when he was 2 years old and was raised by Margarida, his mother. On June 5, 1841, he was ordained a priest at the time of the Industrial Revolution. He soon started his work for education of children. He dedicated his work to the abandoned children in the city of Torino, whom he considered "offspring of the industrialization era", which was beginning. He initiated his work and the following years he founded the Salesian Congregation, the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Helper and the Salesian Co-operators. He constructed in Torino the Basilica of Mary the Helper, founded 59 Salesian homes in 6 countries and opened missions in Latin America. He published the Catholic Readings for simple people. He developed the Gospel methodology of education by Reason, Religion, and Care, recorded in history as a pedagogical reference named as Preventive System. In a very known passage in his life, it is said that on August 30, 1883 he dreamed of the foundation of Brasília, the capital of Brazil, to be constructed precisely between the parallels of 15º and 20º, which would become a blessed land. He died on January 31, 1888. He was beatified in 1929 and canonized by Pope Pius XI, in 1934.

*44 Victor Hugo (1802-1885) – Poet, novelist, dramatist and French politician. He wrote a powerful and vast collection of works, being spokesman, in poetry, of Romantism in his country. When the Revolution of 1848 exploded, he was thrown into rapture with the innovative ideas of the poorer layers of society. Elected congressman, he became one of the most eloquent opponents of Napoleon III (1808-1873). When Napoleon III (whom Victor Hugo used to call "Napoleon, the Little") became emperor, the writer was forced to exile himself. During this period, he wrote The Legend of the Centuries (the first serie of this work was published in 1859 and the third and last serie, in 1883) and the romance Les Miserables (1862).

*45 Francisco de Assis Periotto – Legionnaire sensitive, journalist and member of the Brazilian Press Association – ABI , also Director and Editor responsible for the BOA VONTADE magazine, a monthly publication of Elevação Publishing House. 

*46 William James (1842-1910) – Born in New York, USA, this philosopher and President of Harvard University graduated in Medicine at Lawrence Scientific School, also in Harvard. He followed Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), Swedish zoologist, in his expedition to the Amazon, following right after to Germany, so that he could improve his medicine knowledge. His first great work is from 1890: The Principles of Psychology. In 1898, at the University of California, he formulated the theory of pragmatism. He also published the book Etudes et Reflexions d’un Psychiste, in which he affirms that in England, one in ten adults see Spirits. 

*47 War – The present article of Paiva Netto was published, in first edition, in 2000, when Angola still suffered from the horrors of a civil war, which lasted 27 years and destroyed the country after becoming independent from the Portuguese domain, in 1975.