Shalom Community receives pontifical recognition

Fortaleza, Brazil, Feb 9, 2007 / 13:05 pm

The Pontifical Council for the Laity announced recently the statutes and way of life of Brazil’s Shalom Catholic Community have received pontifical recognition as an international private association of the faithful for an “ad experimentum” period.

The founder of Shalom, Moises Laurel de Azevedo Filho, said, “We have received a grace today.  It’s not because of our own merits, but rather it is a gift from God. A grace received for the edification of the Church and in service to humanity and therefore, we want to offer it, to respond with our commitment, because the only reason a charism exists is to be in service of the edification of the Church,” he stated.
 
The Brazilian founder recalled that the history of Shalom has been “a road full of grace, but also of trials and purifications.”  “Today”, he said, “we are closing one circle and beginning a new one, a new time.”

The Shalom Community was founded in 1982 in Brazil in the city of Fortaleza.  It is made up of men and women from different states of life: priests, consecrated laity, married couples, all united in the sanctification of their lives, in poverty, chastity and obedience, each according to his own state in life.  They seek to live in contemplation, unity and evangelization, with the mission of explicitly proclaiming Christ, living and proclaiming His peace, the Shalom of peace, which is that of Jesus.
 
There are currently more than 2,000 members of the Shalom Community in 41 dioceses in Brazil and in 11 cities around the world.