Frei betto biography channel

Frei Betto is a one of the major voices for social justice in Latin America. A Dominican friar from Brazil, he has been a political prisoner and lived as an activist with the poorest of the poor. He is the author of 34 books, some of which have become bestsellers in Brazil and other countries of South America. He has been chosen Intellectual of the Year by the Brazilian Writers Union and won the national literary Jabuti Award. This dialogue with Dada Maheshananda, a yoga monk, was held in the Dominican Seminary in Sao Paulo.

DADA: Your role in the Catholic Church is a bit unusual. You trained as a priest, but decided not to take the vows and have instead remained as a friar, a monk. What is your perspective about your role?

 FREI BETTO: I think that my role is to help people awaken to a holisitic spirituality that does not separate the body from the spirit, a kind of political spirituality. I also like to work with cultural groups and to write. What about you? Are you celibate or can you marry?

Frei Betto is a one of the major voices for social justice in Latin America. A Dominican friar from Brazil, he has been a political prisoner and lived as an activist with the poorest of the poor. He is the author of 34 books, some of which have become bestsellers in Brazil and other countries of South America. He has been chosen Intellectual of the Year by the Brazilian Writers Union and won the national literary Jabuti Award. This dialogue with Dada Maheshananda, a yoga monk, was held in the Dominican Seminary in Sao Paulo.

DADA: Your role in the Catholic Church is a bit unusual. You trained as a priest, but decided not to take the vows and have instead remained as a friar, a monk. What is your perspective about your role?

 FREI BETTO: I think that my role is to help people awaken to a holisitic spirituality that does not separate the body from the spirit, a kind of political spirituality. I also like to wo

Jesus Christ, Revolutionary

Frei Betto: Now, I’d like to hear your views on somebody else, somebody much more important, much more universal, and also much more discussed and much more loved than the pope. What are your views on Jesus Christ the person?

Fidel Castro: Well, I’ve already told you the story of my education and my contacts with religion, with the church. Jesus Christ was one of the most familiar names to me, practically ever since I can remember — at home, at school, and throughout my childhood and adolescence. Since then, in my revolutionary life — even though, as I told you, I never really acquired reli­gious faith — all my efforts, my attention, and my life have been devoted to the development of a political faith, which l reached through my own convictions. I couldn’t really develop a religious concept on my own, but I did develop political and revolutionary convictions in that way, and I never saw any contradiction in the political and revolutionary sphere between the ideas I upheld and the idea of that symbol, that extraordinary figure that had been so familiar to me ever since I could remember. Rather, I concen­trated on the revolutionary aspects of Christian doctrine and Christ’s think­ing. Throughout the years, I have had several opportunities to express the coherence that exists between Christian and revolutionary thought.

“I’ve cited many examples; sometimes I’ve used Christ’s words: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” I’ve heard various people, including a priest, say that Christ wasn’t referring to the small needle we know now, because it’s impossible for a camel to go through the eye of that kind of needle. Rather, it meant something else; it had to be interpreted differently.

Frei Betto: Some biblical scholars take, it to mean the narrow corners in Jerusalem, P

In total, there are 79 books published in Brazil. One of them was selected through popular vote to guide a discussion panel: Red Tone of Green. On Wednesday (11), the words of the Dominican friar, journalist and writer Frei Betto attracted attention at the last edition of 2024 of the Reading Club, an event held by the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center (CCBB) in Rio de Janeiro. Although it is a novel, the story told in the chosen work has as its backdrop the drama experienced by the Waimiri Atroari indigenous people during the military dictatorship.

Launched in 2022, Red Tone of Green addresses events from the 1970s that Frei Betto only learned about decades later. Although he was engaged in the fight against the dictatorship, little did he know at the time of the horrors that the Amazon Rainforest was witnessing. In an interview with Agency Brazil, he says that today he considers that the indigenous people were the most affected by the violence undertaken during the military government.

Held every Monday and Wednesday of the month, the Reading Club has free admission, with tickets purchased in advance at the box office. According to Suzana Vargas, the initiative's mediator and curator, the invitation accepted by Frei Betto for the last meeting of the year gave the public the opportunity to “reflect on how literature is capable of elevating our existential and civic consciousness to another level, which is often occupied by purely material concerns.”

CCBB-RJ Book Club with Frei Betto. Photo:  Alexandre Brum/Book Club CCBB-RJ

In the interview given to Agency Brazil before the meeting, Frei Betto goes through multiple topics. He gives details about Red Tone of Green and provokes reflections on the military period and on the challenges in the current world. It also shares information about the work it develops in Cuba, focused on promoting food sovereignty, and draws a

Description

The biography includes a preface by Cuban Commander Fidel Castro Frei Betto's roles as a revolutionary Christian, popular educator, social movement articulator, and journalist/writer provide insight into the political and religious history not only of Brazil, but of Cuba and former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. His lifepath is one of engagement with the revolutionary struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship in favor of social transformation. His arrest in 1969 for coordinating the safe departure of political militants from Brazil, and his concern to eliminate hunger and suffering from the poorer classes, were strong credentials as he promoted dialogue between political bodies, the religious establishment and the population at large. Strongly influenced by the propositions of Liberation Theology, a defining thread of its activities was to seek an understanding, an accommodation, between Christianity and socialism. Frei Betto's biography is an invitation to understand five decades of a personal pursuit of revolutionary ideals through the prism of religious tolerance and the pursuit of socialism. The Portuguese edition was a finalist in the biography section of Jabuti the prestigious national literary prize granted by the Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL).

About the Author

Evanize Martins Sydow, author of the biography of Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns and curator of the exhibition “Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, 95 Years.” Dr Sydow also coordinates a project on solidarity networks during military dictatorships in Latin America (Caritas Brasileira). Américo Oscar Guichard Freire is associate professor and researcher at the Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil (CPDOC) of the Getulio Vargas Foundation.