On March 4, 1949, journalist, radio broadcaster and poet Alziro Zarur (1914-1979) pioneered in the medium of radio with the program Hour of Good Will. In those days, the Brazilian social activist already defended the cause of Ecumenism without frontiers and the brotherhood of men and women regardless of their beliefs, as he was the great proclaimer of Total Ecumenism in the world, a thesis he upheld from childhood when he launched his Crusade of Brotherly Religions, a forethought of inter-religious relationships. 

From the microphones of Radio Globo, in Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil, came messages of comfort to the sick of body and Soul carried on words of Faith, Hope and Solidarity. Created in the golden period of radio in Brazil, the Hour of Good Will program surprised the radio industry of the time and soon reached national repercussion, consolidating one of the tasks that the founder of radio in Brazil, Roquete Pinto (1884-1954), envisioned for the media: its social function. 

One of the main peculiarities noticed by millions of faithful listeners of the program was the fact that Christmas carols were continuously played in the background regardless of the day of the year, having as foundation the solidary spirit of the Permanent Christmas of Jesus, for "the hunger of people is a daily occurrence”, as Zarur used to say during his broadcastings.

LBV’s first steps were at ABI

It was in the Board of Directors’ office at the Brazilian Press Association (ABI), in the months of October, November and December 1949 that journalist Alziro Zarur conducted the preparatory meetings for the future appearance of the Legion of Good Will, an Organization that soon after its foundation - on the following January 1st, on the World Day of Peace - took its first steps replete of freedom and universalism, ideals that have inspired the House of the Journalist. The first public meeting of the Legion of Good Will headed by Zarur, on January 7, 1950, took place exactly in ABI’s Council Hall and was supported by its partners, directors and the President of the House at the time, famous journalist Herbert Moses (1884-1972).

Currently, the LBV is presided by the also radio broadcaster, journalist, writer and composer José de Paiva Netto, and is considered one of the largest Third Sector organizations in the field of education and promotion of human and social issues. It has consolidated itself in Brazil and in the world as an example of serious and efficient care towards the needs of all of those who live in situations of social risk.

The early days of the LBV, by Chico Anysio 

Clayton Ferreira

In those bygone days in 1950, the legionnaire cause was already meriting the support of personalities from different social segments such as, for instance, acclaimed comedian Chico Anysio. In an interview to the TV show Brasil Democrático, of Rede Mundial de Televisão (World Television Network), the comedian commented the following: "I am also a part of the very select group of people to whom Alziro Zarur spoke about the Legion of Good Will for the first time. At the time I was a radio-actor at Mayrink Veiga, and had already left Guanabara. Our radio-theater director was Zarur. On that day we had to rehearse the day’s chapter of the radio novel; it must have been around six thirty when he arrived, saying that he had received a divine message. He was shaking all over and was very nervous, unable to conduct the rehearsing. So, Urbano Lóis took over the task. And we all understood Zarur (...). From then on he was a transformed person. So I was the first to know this. He dropped everything. He was no longer the director of radio plays. He made a radio program called Hour of Good Will, aired at six in the evening. (...)He created the Legion of Good Will (1/1/1950). It was Zarur’s Soup, the Soup of the Poor. After that, the beggars of Rio de Janeiro were no longer hungry, because the soup he distributed satisfied the hunger of all. I know of the seriousness of this act, it was never a means to earn money, or to lead anybody on. I make donations to the LBV, I have done so repeatedly. (...)”.

On that occasion, Chico was also interviewed by the Super Good Will Radio Network and made it a point to highlight the work of the Organization’s leader: "(...) Paiva Netto is an important person because he faithfully kept to the dictates of Zarur, who was a very serious man. So is Paiva Netto, without hurting anyone, without shocking or injuring anyone. The Legion of Good Will grew amazingly with Paiva Netto, it’s unbelievable, it has spread throughout the world! He was brilliant and lent a great deal of visibility to the Organization. Their work with the elderly and with children, with everything for that matter! I support the LBV whenever I can because I think the work they do is a very important one”. 

A work that encourages the world

The Legion of Good Will works in partnership with the diverse sectors of society (governments, socially and environmentally responsible companies, international organisms, schools, community associations and other civil society organizations), in a way that opportunities may be provided so that every citizen may collaborate towards the progress of his/her community and, consequently, of his/her nation.

UN Photo/Mark Garten

Since 1994, the LBV has been working in partnership with the United Nations (UN), being associated with the Department of Public Information (DPI). In 1999, it became the first organization of the Brazilian civil society to obtain general consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and in 2000, it became part of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), in Vienna, Austria.

One of the most important global challenges signed in 2000, during the Millennium Summit, known as the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), brought together 191 member countries for the definition of a set of goals to be achieved by 2015 to improve the quality of life of Humanity and seek the sustainability of our globe. The LBV has broadly supported this worldwide campaign by means of its social and educational actions during these 60 years and by the articulation of other social actors, promoting meetings and disseminating information in dozens of cities in Brazil, Latin America and Europe.

From such activities, the Solidary Society Network was created and has contributed regionally towards greater actions for sustainable and integrated development with the multistakeholders.

In addition to the role of mobilizing civil society around the Millennium Development Goals, since 2006 the LBV serves at UN headquarters, in New York, as founder member of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, a committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO). The objective is to contribute to an open and practical debate about the importance of Spirituality in global development, a cause defended by the Legion of Good Will since its origins, in the decade of 1940. Hence, several seminars and events in the UN headquarters have attracted the attention of world authorities to this matter of great value.

The Super Good Will Radio Network (Super RBV, in Portuguese), a pioneering radio station that was created in Brazil, has expanded its programming to include some of the countries where the Legion of Good Will has autonomous bases. The programs broadcast in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Portugal and Uruguay are for maintaining dialogue on day-to-day issues from the viewpoint of Ecumenical Spirituality*. 

In Portugal, the LBV broadcasts the program “Portugal is a passion!”. It offers messages of comfort and encourages listeners to face up to the problems of daily life through the ecumenical study of the Gospel-Apocalypse of Jesus. This program is transmitted on different radio stations in the country; why don’t you also tune into it? It goes on the air in: 

Oporto
Every day from 11 p.m. until midnight on Sanjoanense Regional Radio, 88.1 FM 

Coimbra 
Every day from 7 a.m. until 8 a.m. on Centro Regional Radio, 96.2 FM and from 3 p.m. until 4 p.m. on Clube da Pampilhosa Radio, 92.6 FM 

Lisbon
Every day from 11 p.m. until midnight on Horizonte Radio, 92.8 FM 

In Latin American countries the program “Total Ecumenism – The Power of Accomplishing Faith” also deals with daily matters, the objective being to promote reflection that leads to the spiritual development of individuals. The studies include texts from the Holy Bible and the Brotherly Doctrine of the Religion of God, the Ecumenical Religion of Brazil and the world. The prayer and prayer chain are the culminating point of the program. With regard to the program, listener Gladis Cáceres, from Capiatá, Asuncion/Paraguay, made her comment:

“I listen to the program every day. I like it a lot; it does me good. I pray for my loved ones, including those who are no longer here (who have passed on to the Spiritual World). I’ve learned a lot. I learned how to cheer myself up when I’m a little down and sad. I become happy. I see people with other eyes, as human beings... because we often expect too much of others. And with the LBVI’ve learned that first of all we have to be an example and then wait for others to pay attention to us and be good to us. We can’t expect to get something we don’t give. I learned this from you, on the radio. And I’m happy. Every day I listen to it from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m. No one can come in here (to distract her), not even the dog (laughter). So, I thank you very much; may you long continue! Because if at least one life is saved per day that’s good. Thank you very much.”

You can feel this emotion too!
The program “Total Ecumenism – The Power of Accomplishing Faith” is also transmitted in your country. Check out below the radio stations and broadcast times. You can also listen to it by accessing www.lbv.org.ar:

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA 
On Mondays and Fridays, at 10 a.m., and on Tuesdays, at 11 a.m. on Dakota FM, 104.7

ASUNCION, PARAGUAY
From Monday to Friday, at 8 a.m. on Ysapy FM, 90.7

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
From Monday to Friday, at 7 a.m. on Constelación Radio, FM 100.5

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY
From Monday to Friday, at 5:30 a.m. on Continental de Pando Radio, AM 1460 khz.

Version: Rob Dinham
Revision: Silvana Bosso

On September 1, 1992 the 24-hour programing of the Super Good Will Radio Network (Super RBV, in Portuguese) began in Brazil. The broadcasting station, which has the characteristic of taking spiritual comfort to people’s homes, traditionally transmits an ecumenical prayer by the hour, right after a prayer chain that mobilizes listeners to pray for those in need. The moment considered to be a champion in terms of audience is the study of the Gospel-Apocalypse of Jesus led by radio broadcaster and writer Paiva Netto, an author who has sold 4.7 million books on the subject, presented in the fraternal perspective of the Religion of God, the Ecumenical Religion of Brazil and the world.

- Read more about the international programing of the Super RBV

62 years ago: the start
In the very beginning of the Legion of Good Will (LBV) the radio program Hora da Boa Vontade [Hour of Good Will] was created, on March 4, 1949. It was transmitted by Globo Radio, an important vehicle in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and presented by the late founder of the LBV, radio broadcaster, journalist, and poet, Alziro Zarur (1914-1979). This program innovated radio broadcasting and at the same time consolidated one of the tasks that the founder of this means of communication in Brazil, Roquete Pinto (1884-1954), had in mind: its social function.

The Hour of Good Will surprised radio broadcasters at the time and soon had a major national repercussion. One of the great curiosities highlighted by the program’s thousands of listeners was the fact of hearing Christmas music at different times of the year. The purpose of this was to expand the spirit of solidarity and altruism associated with Jesus’s Christmas, thus, making it Permanent. As Zarur used to exclaim during his radio broadcasts: “people’s hunger is daily”, and he called on everybody to embrace the cause with the call: "Hail to the Legion of Good Will’s Permanent Christmas!."

Read more about it in Hour of Good Will — The seed of the LBV hits the 64-year mark.

Beginning in the 1950s with the printed media, the LBV has over the years also invested in other disclosure vehicles for its social communication initiatives. Paiva Netto, the successor of Alziro Zarur, has continued expanding into television and the virtual media, propagating the LBV’s socio-educational activities and the ecumenical doctrine of the Religion of Brotherly Love.

Content that makes people feel Good
The programing of the Super Good Will Radio Network has as guideline Ecumenical Spirituality*. Current topics relating to culture, sports, health, science, education, religion, and others are present throughout its program schedule. In addition to providing information, it contributes to offering individuals paths that are more solidarity-based and more humane for living in society. The Super Good Will Radio Network devotes special moments to children and young people, with specific programs directed to this group of audience.

Super Good Will Network in the world

The Communication 100% Jesus has spread its message and is now reaching homes in many countries. Many of these new listeners tune in for the first time to the signal of the Super Good Will Radio Network through the portal www.boavontade.com and are soon sending in messages, through letters or e-mail, to report on the quality of the reception and how good they feel in becoming listeners. In Europe, Timo Reiniluoto and Mika Makelainen, from Helsinki, Finland’s capital, are among those who wrote in just to say what they felt when they tuned in to the Communication of Goodwill. Likewise, Jussi Suokas, who lives with his family in Joensuu, capital of a province in the East of Finland, and Tore B Vik, from the city of Mysen, in Norway, are some examples of this positive repercussion.

Click here to read the testimonials of how listeners of the Super Good Will Radio Network had their lives changed from the moment they started listening to the radio station. 

____________________________________

* Ecumenical Spirituality — This ideal of the Legion of Good Will is present in all its socio-educational actions, since it is understood as “the cradle of the most generous values that come from the Soul, the home of emotions and of reason illuminated by intuition, the environment that encompasses everything that transcends the common field of matter and is derived from the sublimated human feeling, such as Truth, Mercy, Morality, Ethics, Honesty and Brotherly Love.” A passage taken from the book É Urgente Reeducar! [It is Urgent to Re-educate!], which is the fundament of the LBV’s educational proposal, written by educator Paiva Netto, the author of various best-sellers who has sold more than 4.7 million books in Brazil and abroad.

 

Boa Vontade Portal

In a pioneering attitude—even at the very beginning of the implementation of the Internet in Brazil—Paiva Netto inaugurated in August 1996, the LBV’s website on the Internet (initially available in Portuguese and English). In the following year (February 1997), the program of the Super Good Will Radio Network was aired. On November 7, 2002, the President of the LBV launched the Boa Vontade Portal with a content committed to promote fraternal citizenship. Articles, reporting and interviews with photos, audio and video are among the homepage’s highlights. Currently, the Portal of Ecumenical Spirituality offers content in 11 languages (Arabic, German, Chinese, English, Spanish, Esperanto, French, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese and Russian).

Good Will magazine

Arquivo BV

To produce a publication capable of propagating Ecumenical Spirituality, that is permeated in the most diverse fields of human activity – this is one of the purposes of the GOOD WILL magazine since its early days: its first issue was published in May 1956. Therefore, quality printed communication has been one of the hallmarks of the LBV for a long time. 

Initially, the publication was edited at the LBV’s first head office, in a small room of a building located at Rua do Acre, 47, 9th floor, downtown Rio de Janeiro/RJ (Brazil). At that time, around 1950, it was printed by Bloch Publishing House.

In a pioneer way, the inaugural issue carried in its cover the image of Jesus, the Ecumenical Christ, and offered readers an innovative editorial line which highlighted the fraternal values of respect and harmony among religions as well as different nations and cultures.

For decades, readers have found themes of general interest in the Good Will magazine. Interviews, reporting, news and relevant articles form the content and share a permanent quest for the personal, ethical and spiritual growth of its readers, always under the light of Ecumenical Solidarity.

The educator Paiva Netto named his pedagogic proposal under two nomenclatures directed at distinct age groups. The importance of employing two terminologies is justified by the building of intellectual knowledge bonded to values and feelings according to peculiar needs, aspirations and possibilities with special care towards each age group.

PEDAGOGY OF AFFECTION

Pedagogy of Affection will be referenced to when we speak of the activities conducted with children until the age of 10, considering the shocking impact of current reality in which aggressiveness (in the form of body/sexual and emotional violence) has taken its high toll of victims. It is appropriate to emphasize that feelings must accompany the intellectual development of the little ones so that care and affection are not restricted only to the good treatment received within their families, but rather permeate all the environments of their lives, including the school environment where children of this age group are so vulnerable in their infant universe.

Regarding the work directed at the little ones, the educator Paiva Netto states that: "(...) The affection that inspires our Pedagogy, taken at its supine meaning, aside from being a sentiment of high Spirits, is a political strategy equally understood in its most exalted nature in tune with Social Justice, as a survival strategy for the individual, peoples and nations. Human Beings—therefore the citizens themselves, among which are the hopeful youth—are much more than a bag of bones, tissue, nerves and blood. They love and suffer. They dream, desire, build, become frustrated and against all odds, forge ahead... They deserve, beyond mere laws, respect, so that these never constitute obscure privileges and may be carried out for the benefit of all.(...)”

ECUMENICAL CITIZEN PEDAGOGY 

The Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy is applied in the education of adolescents, youngsters and adults, encompassing Basic Education and the social and educational programs conducted by the Legion of Good Will (LBV). It bets on the overall educational upbringing of students, regarding them as biopsychosocial Spirits. It is based on values born of Universal Love to prepare citizens to live the Ecumenical Citizenship in the full practice of a Solidary Society, having as its icon the immortal teachings given to us by the Ecumenical Christ, in His New Commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you”. 

Revista Boa Vontade — Desenvolvimento Sustentável

Paiva Netto conceptualizes: "(...) Therefore, our tool to build the Ecumenical Citizen (religious or not) is something which we cannot afford to do without: a Universalist spirit whose implement is Solidarity, enlightening minds and feelings. We live in a single and vast dwelling, the Earth. If we do not walk towards understanding, where shall we live then, if the madness of selfishness and greed are not removed from our path on this Planet in these new times of globalization? A worldwide society: satisfactions or maladies in the same proportion. It’s simply a matter of mathematics. (...)”

VIDEO: Feeling with the Brain and thinking with the Heart

 

 

The Legion of Good Will was always concerned about promoting quality education that "forms both Brain and Heart", as defined by educator Paiva Netto, who proposed the pedagogical method. With the Pedagogy of Affection and the Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy, we believe that the possibilities for the development of a student begin with him/herself. Therefore, we need to see beyond the intellect.

Trasnlation: Robert Rajabally
Revision: Raquel Bertolin