OFFICIAL NAME
Comunidade Católica Shalom
ALSO KNOWN AS
Shalom Catholic Community
ESTABLISHED
1982
HISTORY
The Shalom Catholic Community was founded in Fortaleza, Brazil, on 9 July 1982. Moysés Louro de Azevedo Filho and other young university students, with the encouragement of the then Archbishop of Fortaleza, Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider OFM, opened the first Shalom Catholic Centre of Evangelization: a cafe, a place that could attract young people, especially those who did not go to church. The young people prepared and served sandwiches, and they started conversations with visitors that often culminated in the adjoining chapel for prayer.
Two years earlier, on 9 July 1980, the Founder of the Shalom Catholic Community had the opportunity to meet Saint John Paul II at the opening Mass of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Fortaleza. That day he gave the Holy Father a letter in which he expressed his intention to dedicate his life to the evangelization of young people and those who are distant from Jesus Christ and the Church. It was during this Eucharistic Celebration that the charism of the Community unfolded for the founder.
The first experiences of community life began in 1983. Young people being evangelized then began to join the prayer groups that were being formed. Many of them served more actively and so became part of the first official group. This was the foundation of what would be called the Covenant Community.
In 1985, before the altar of the Lord, Moysés and four other young people made their promises as the first members of the Life Community. The following year, the co-founder Maria Emmir Nogueira joined the Life Community. She had been present from the beginning, contributing to their understanding of what was being revealed as God’s will. Prayer groups were multiplying and works of evangelization, faith formation and
human development were intensified. New vocations arose and bishops started to ask for new Shalom houses to be opened in their dioceses.
In 1998 the Community obtained canonical recognition from the Archbishop of Fortaleza, Cardinal Claudio Hummes.
On 22 February 2007, the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed recognition of the Shalom Catholic Community as an international association of the faithful.
IDENTITY
The experience of the Risen Christ who suffered on the Cross is the foundation of the Shalom vocation. The members of the community, in their diverse forms of life, feel united by the call to be disciples and ministers of peace, on a journey of contemplation, unity and evangelization, marked by spousal love for Jesus Christ and an experience of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The faith formation of the members, based on a personal encounter with the Lord, is nourished by the study of the Word of God and the magisterium of the Church, by prayer, by participation in the liturgy and the sacraments, by fellowship and missionary life, by filial love for Our Lady and union with the Lord. Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Teresa of Avila are patron saints of the community who inspire various aspects of its spirituality.
ORGANISATION
The vocation to the Shalom Catholic Community can be lived out in two complementary dimensions: the Life Community and the Covenant Community, both made up of men and women with different life choices.
The Life Community is the heart of the Shalom Community. Its members embrace a call of total dedication to prayer, fellowship and service in the “Vineyard of the Lord”.
The members of the Covenant Community, on the other hand, receive the call to offer their lives to Christ in the midst of family and professional activities, taking on the commitment to live them according to the spirit proper to this charism.
WORKS
The entire work of evangelization and its results make up what we call the Shalom Work. As it started with young people, the Community devotes special attention to welcoming them and to the apostolate of youth. Animated by its characteristic “spiritual youthfulness” and with the central role given to young people, it carries out various activities of evangelization and promotion of human dignity. As disciples and ministers of the abundance of peace that Jesus came to bring to the world, the members of the Shalom Community strive to be instruments of God’s consolation and compassion for those who suffer from a shortage of spiritual and material nourishment. Through proclamation of the Kingdom, service and communion of goods, they follow Jesus who was poor and who loves and shows special care for the poor.
From their experience of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and in the spirit of the new evangelization, the Community sets up and animates prayer groups and centres of evangelization, faith formation, spirituality, education, art, communication and human development.
PUBLICATIONS
Spirituality and Faith Formation books, music CDs, daily liturgy, ebooks, Faith Formation courses. Website: livrariashalom.org and www.institutoparresia.org
WEBSITE
HEADQUARTERS
Comunidade Católica Shalom
Diaconia Geral Shalom, CE-040, Km 16
Lot. Novo Aquiraz, Aquiraz - CE - 61700-000, Brazil
Phone number: [+55] 85 98125 6141
Email: shalom@comshalom.org
