Aid to the Church in Need: Peru: Creativity and Boldness in Evangelisation

Peru: Creativity and Boldness in Evangelisation

Posted by ACN News on 23/6/2009, 1:45 pm
Board Administrator

Creativity and Boldness in Evangelisation

By Francisca Prado

An interview with Moysés Louro de Azevedo Filho - Founder and Moderator General of Shalom

Pizzerías, libraries, snack bars, selling sandwiches and non-alcoholic drinks - these are just a few of the places where the members of the Shalom movement gather to evangelise and offer spiritual support to young people.

Shalom is a Catholic evangelisation centre which, having posed the question as to how to reach the hearts of those who are alienated from Christ and his Church, has adopted a modern approach, through music, sport, art and all the various modern media. “The most important thing is creativity and boldness; they are the key to evangelising with courage and attracting those who do not know or don’t want to know about Jesus. It is the most powerful response to secularisation”, says Moysés Louro, founder and Moderator General of Shalom.
The Most Holy Trinity is the inspiration for this Catholic Centre, which began in 1982 in Fortaleza, Brazil. Contemplation, unity and evangelisation are the three basic directives of this movement, which is based on the Gospel of St John, when Jesus, after his crucifixion and resurrection, appeared to the apostles who had gathered together and said to them, “Peace be with you” – or, in Aramaic, “Shalom”. Through this experience of the encounter with Christ in unity, coming from the Father and bestowing on them the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles lived the peace and love of the Most Holy Trinity and so were given the command to go out and evangelize and to seek out those who were lost. Moysés Louro explains that at that moment Thomas was not there and so the others went and found him and told him what had happened, but he refused to believe until he had put his hand in the wound of Christ. This is what the brothers of Shalom also do, since having had an experience of the Holy Spirit, they go out to proclaim the truth, ministering to the greatest poverty of all, namely spiritual poverty.
Given the response of the people, and especially of young people, and having obtained approval from the Holy See in the year 2000, the Shalom movement is now embarking on a major process of internationalisation and is currently represented in 15 different countries around the world, with possible new centres in 12 more.

Mr. Moysés Louro de Azevedo Filho (founder of the Catholic Community Shalom in Brazil) with Father Joaguin Alliende Father Joaquín Alliende, the president of Aid to the Church in Need

Nonetheless, this community has encountered various difficulties in the course of its development, both among young people and in the wider world. Moral relativism, indifference and the mentality of living for the present, an outlook that applies to happiness too, which is seen as something of the moment and not for a lifetime. The founder of the movement believes that this is why young people are looking for something more, the appeal of the infinite in the midst of their lives of drugs, alcohol excess and disordered sexual indulgence. “People are looking for God, and the biggest problem is our lack of courage in proclaiming Him”, Moysés adds. For the members of the Shalom community, these difficulties should not be regarded as an obstacle but rather as an opportunity, and that is why they have adopted a phrase of Pope John Paul II, who said “Young people are the future of the Church and of the world”, and following on from this they have had the idea of creating a centre to spread this work and give support to the missionaries.
Work has already begun on the construction of the general diaconate, thanks to the support of of the catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), and they have now managed to complete the administration block, but they still have to construct a building where they can house the families of the community, the priests and the consecrated members. “It is in this nucleus that the different states of life and the different sacraments can complement one another”, its founder explains, adding also that the charism of Father Werenfried (see below) is important and indeed fundamental for the Church of today, since it enables Catholics to live their faith and at the same time help the Church in need.
“Wherever we are, ACN is there too along with all its benefactors, who understand the need and urgency of today and support and sustain us, both spiritually and materially”, Moysés Louro concludes.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org