Ronaldo Pereira da Silveira was born on August 30th, 1970, in Fortaleza, Brazil. He was a young man like any other, but with a great desire to change the world. He studied business administration and took care of his father’s company. Influenced by Marxist ideology, he became a communist until the day when, taken by his mother to a prayer meeting, he experienced Jesus Christ who revolutionized his life.
At age of 18, he decided to leave everything to offer his life and his youth to the evangelization of other young people, as a missionary of the Shalom Catholic Community.
Ronaldo always said: “I want to give my life, pour out my sweat and my blood for the sake of the Church and the young people.”
Sadly, this was fulfilled in a very concrete but unfortunate way on February 17th, 1995, when returning from a missionary trip he died in a car accident at the age of 24.
The co-founder of the Shalom Community, Emmir Nogueira, talks about the legacy that Ronaldo Pereira left to the Community:
Ronaldo, our dear brother, taught us a lot in the brief years that he lived among us, youth and Community. He taught us with his wisdom through words but above all, he marked us with his indelible teachings through his presence and attitudes. For many years, he was the coordinator of the Youth for Jesus Project and, even though he himself was a young man, he was able to have a broad and profound vision of the main challenges faced by young Catholics. He certainly experienced them in his impressive search for fidelity and holiness. Having passed away at the young age of twenty-four, Ronaldo did not have much time to write many things down, which is a shame and our loss. However, he preferred to live rather than write and he left us with living and always-present testimonies and recollections, which until this day, it is very common for us to think or say: ‘If Ronaldo was here, he would do it like this’.
During meals, he taught us many things through conversations (which he never avoided!), or in times of counselling (which he never refused!). One of these informal and ever-lasting teachings was his words of wisdom known as “violence of heart”. This violence that comes from Love and leads to Love was lived by him everyday, through such simple things as the penance of eating something he did not like, or by the smile always present on his face, even if the heart cried. It was noticed by many of us, with whom he shared this type of violence and purity. However, even though we noticed his violence of heart, we remained silent out of respect, risking only exchanges of gazes.
Because he lived violating his heart and dying for himself, Ronaldo was worthy of a martyrs’ death, in mission, in a moment that certainly, God who loves him, had to violate His own heart to have him by His side. Today, his life and his death guide us, with great joy, to a time made for love, courage, and resignation, for time is brief and heaven, well, heaven is soon.
Today, 24 years later, people from all over the world are touched by the life force of this young man who knew how to abandon himself totally in the hands of God.
Translation: Jhoanna Climacosa