Heard this a few days ago from a story on Júlio Lancellotti, a Brazilian priest and activist:

Lancellotti has worked among São Paulo’s street people for 40 years. Yet if you suggest he actually helps them, you get a prickly reply.

“I don’t help anyone,” he says. “I live with them. I share what I can with them.”

For Lancellotti, this is about faith and about pushing back against intolerance and injustice.

“Society has to find a better way of living together.”

It’s since stuck with me. He spoke so much about the ideals of communal living, mutual aid, classlessness with just a few sentences.

  • seahorse
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    3 years ago

    I heard this story on NPR as well. And of course, some far right asswipes say he’s a communist. Just some guy trying to help the most vulnerable and they have to make it political.

    • southerntofu
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 years ago

      Disclaimer: i didn’t read the article

      I believe you’re missing the point, that the priest does not help people from a privileged/comfortable position (charity) but rather lives and struggles with communities (solidarity). This is eminently political and sounds a lot like communist/anarchist approach to mutual aid.