Ronaldo Pereira: a life worth living!

Ronaldo Pereira da Silveira was born on August 30th, 1970, in Fortaleza city (Brazil). He was a young man like many others but who had a great desire to change the world. He was studying Business and was taking care of his father’s companies. He was much involved in the Marxist ideology and became a communist till the day his mother took him to a prayer meeting. There, he had a personal experience with Jesus Christ that revolutionized his life. 

At age 18, he decided to leave all behind and offer his life and his youth for the evangelization of other young people, by becoming a missionary at Shalom Catholic Community.

Ronaldo use to say: “I want to give my life, to shed every drop of my sweat and my blood for the love of the Church and to the youth”. This was fulfilled in a very concrete way on the 17th of February 1995, when he was returning from a missionary trip and died in a car accident at age 24.

“It was worthy! I am a witness of how Ronaldo’s life was worthy. It was worthy for the Church, for us, for me and for you. The value of a life is not measured by the years one have lived or by the things accomplished. To God, life has its utmost value when it is given for the sake of others. The Bible teaches us that the just man ‘though he dies before his time, will find rest. Length of days is not what makes age honourable, nor the number of years, but the true measure of life is wisdom, understanding this in grey hairs; is a spotless life of old age’ (Wisdom 4:7-9). True wisdom consists in giving our lives to Jesus, in seeking to lose it in order to gain it (Lk 9:24). It consists in not trying to save our own lives for ourselves, our own pleasure nor plans, but to lose our lives completely for the love of God and our brothers. This was the wisdom that Ronaldo had found. He also had a pure life that we all have witnessed.”                                                                  – Emmir Nogueira, Co-founder of Shalom Catholic Community

Up to this day, 20 years later, people from all around the world have been reached by the power of this young man’s life, he who knew how to put himself completely in God’s hands.

Shalom Catholic Community