Murilo Oliveira
Brazil, December 29, 2023.
Saint John the Baptist was certainly a Messianic Jew, and for no other reason do I use the Magen David symbolism with the Cross at its center. Something that does not exclude another. People say that Our Lady of Sion raised girls and boys to speak to the Jewish people. Even though when I was inspired to write this article I wanted to remember Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re’s 90th birthday.
I do not see myself in contradiction with the unusual nature of my symbolism with Roman Apostolic Catholicism. I only expose it very occasionally so far, as many assume it is from a “New Christian” devotion that could be hidden. And in fact, like my surnames, Jambeiro de Oliveira, which are native to Brazil, I have no doubt that I appear to be a “New Christian”. As with the rest, Portuguese merchants in Rio de Janeiro said that my Mother, surnamed Coelho de Oliveira, or “animal and tree” appears to be “New Christian” just as “Coelho” would be a corruption of “Cohen”, Jewish Priests.
The point is that it is quite difficult for me at the moment to speak to the Jewish people beyond what I usually do here, and they are a friendly and dear people to me. It was said the other day among loved ones, Judaism is not a nationality, but a creed.
And as a nationality, I have some apparent divergences throughout the course of my considerations since the first hours of Brazil’s last Federal Government. I saw very dear Jewish friends become strident in defense of the previous President of the Republic, even going to services called Evangelicals in Brazil, which did not prove to be appropriate for the beautiful Jewish tradition in Brazil.
Today, what we see is that policies that are not very successful, such as arming the Brazilian population, have generated incredible problems for a country with an immense social abyss. Understand, there are two different types of people who acquire weapons, those for their personal defense, and those who make a living out of them. When the first ones, who acquire them for personal defense, need money, they sell their weapons to the next ones, who use these weapons as a means of living in Brazil. I repeat, in Brazil guns are a low and uncomfortable way of life, and not guarantees of security as we try to think.
So, less than criticizing the nationality of my Jewish brothers here, I firmly believe in their right to have it in peace. That’s the point! I believe in Israel’s right to exist in peace and in a solid and united way. When I light my candles for my deepest belief in Messianic Judaism without ceasing to be a born Brazilian New Christian, Roman Apostolic Catholic, I do not deny under any circumstances their right to have their National State consolidated. And I focus on Brazilian issues.
I ask for a long life for my Cardinals, as I remember here the birthday of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re on the occasion of his 90th birthday, and I affirm the importance of extraterritoriality among all of us, of the most diverse faiths. The State of Israel seems to me to be the result of such a great trauma, that even today we need to meditate on it, and how sometimes there is no longer any way to live with a complete inversion of values, which certainly exists in the figure of the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, concentration camps where two states were intended.
Talking about the 1967 two-state solution must also be assumed by countries like Brazil, which always argues in this sense, as part of the failure of the representativeness of the United Nations, or one of its utopias. To which I can only say that, I always have a lot of joy with all the Arab and Palestinian people, one of the most beautiful cultures present in Brazil, they are my deep favorite in the way they love us in return in Brazil, and not infrequently, in Brazil, Jews are very often married to Arabs here, as strange as it may or may not seem. This is what I can attest, there is a happy place here in that sense. If not, because of the many birthdays that we will have to celebrate with the political inaccuracies committed in record time in Brazil’s recent period.
@CoexistenceLaw
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