Frei Betto
{{Short description|Brazilian writer}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = The Reverend
| name = Frei Betto
| honorific_suffix = OP
| image = Frei Betto 25385.jpeg
| birth_name = Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1944|08|25|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = {{hlist | Dominican friar | priest | writer}}
| website = {{official URL}}
}}
Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo {{post-nominals|post-noms=OP}} (born 1944), better known as Frei Betto,{{Cite web|url=http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=qw1107406261460B216|title=In the Land of Pele, Legal Names are Dropped|accessdate=2008-02-06|date=2005-02-03|author=Harold Olmos|work=IOL}} is a Brazilian writer, political activist, philosopher, liberation theologian, and Dominican friar.
Life
Frei Betto was born on 25 August 1944 in Belo Horizonte. At the age of 20, when he was a student of journalism, he entered the Dominican Order. He was later imprisoned for four years by the military dictatorship which ruled Brazil for smuggling people out of the country. His incarceration was part of an ongoing series of attacks by the government on activist members of the Catholic Church.{{cite book | title=The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil, 1964–1985| last=Skidmore| first=Thomas E.| year=1990| publisher=Oxford University Press US| isbn=0-19-506316-3| page=355}} These events are depicted in the 2006 biographical drama film Baptism of Blood, based on the book of the same name by Frei Betto. Brazilian actor Daniel de Oliveira portrays Frei Betto in the film.
In addition to work on eliminating hunger in Brazil,{{Cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E3DD1539F933A05750C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|title=Brazil's War on Hunger Off to a Slow Start|accessdate=2008-02-06|date=2003-03-30|author=Larry Rohter|work=The New York Times}} Frei Betto is involved in various aspects of Brazil's politics. He worked for the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,{{Cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807E7D7133BF93BA35753C1A9649C8B63|title=Man in the News; Workingman President, Maybe - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva|accessdate=2008-02-06|date=2002-10-08|author=Larry Rohter|work=The New York Times}} for whom he was considered a spiritual advisor{{Cite web|url=http://www.eldiariony.com/noticias/detail.aspx?especialid=§ion=20&desc=Nuestros%20Pa%C3%ADses&id=1496323&fecha=|title=Brasil: Lejos del Radicalismo, Lula cerca de la Reeleccion|accessdate=2008-02-06|date=2006-09-24|author=Harold Olmos|work=El Diario/La Prensa}}{{Dead link|date=February 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and mentor.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/24/AR2006092400261.html|title=Brazil's Silva Likely to Win Re-Election|accessdate=2008-02-06|date=2006-09-24|author=Harold Olmos|newspaper=The Washington Post}}
As a liberation theologian,McGovern, Arthur F. 1989. Liberation Theology and Its Critics: Toward an Assessment. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. Frei Betto has been involved in various international efforts in order to support an understanding between Marxism and Christianity. During the 1980s, he visited Havana and held frequent and lengthy interviews with Fidel Castro, the result of such talks being a book, Fidel and Religion, where Castro exposed his views on Christianity, something that raised protest among conservatives but is also said to have improved relations between Castro's government and the Cuban Catholic Church.{{Cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE3D81F31F936A35751C0A96F948260|title=Brazil's Cardinal's Praise of Castro Stirs Protest|accessdate=2008-02-06|date=1989-02-05|author=Alan Riding|work=The New York Times}}{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960496,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101029195900/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960496,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 October 2010|title=Castro Looks at Christianity|accessdate=2008-02-06|date=1985-12-30|author=Richard N. Ostling|author-link=Richard N. Ostling|magazine=Time}}
During Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika, Frei Betto was also involved in various efforts aimed at an understanding between leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, such efforts being described in the form of a travelogue published by him in 1993 in Portuguese, Lost Paradise, which the author dedicates to a certain Theophilus ("God's friend"), apparently the same as the mysterious addressee of the Gospel of Luke, which should be understood as a symbol of all Christians.Marcelo Thimoteo da Costa, "Um Éden no Leste? A União Soviética Segundo Frei Betto". Alceu, v.10, n.19, July/December 2009, pages 205/218
Honors
Frei Betto was selected by UNESCO as the 2013 recipient of its International José Martí Prize. The reason given by Irina Bokova, its Director General, was "his exceptional contribution to building a universal culture of peace, social justice and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean". The prize was awarded on 28 January in Havana, Cuba, at the Third International Conference on World Balance, being held to mark the 160th anniversary of José Martí's birth.{{cite web|url= http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/dominican_friar_frei_betto_to_receive_2013_unescojose_marti_prize/|title=Dominican friar "Frei Betto" to receive 2013 UNESCO/José Martí Prize|work=UNESCO Media Services|date=11 January 2013}}
References
{{commons category}}
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Betto}}
Category:People from Belo Horizonte
Category:Liberation theologians
Category:Brazilian Christian socialists
Category:20th-century Brazilian Roman Catholic priests
Category:Brazilian spiritual writers
Category:Brazilian torture victims
Category:21st-century Brazilian Roman Catholic priests