The Position of the União do Vegetal in relation to politics and governments

| December 5^th, 2019

The Beneficent Spiritist Center União do Vegetal was created on July 22^nd, 1961 by Mestre José Gabriel da Costa with the objective of working for the human being in the sense of development of their moral, intellectual and spiritual virtues, without distinction of color, sex, political ideology, religious creed or nationality.

To achieve this goal, the Mestre instituted Light, Peace and Love as the symbol of our religious society with the purpose of making this symbol reach people’s hearts.

Throughout the 58 years of the União do Vegetal’s existence, this thought of the Mestre is slowly being brought to reality with the growth of the UDV. Today, we are in 11 countries, bringing together more than 21,000 members of 60 different nationalities.

Light, Peace, and Love is the symbol of human fraternity. For this symbol to truly dwell in people’s hearts and minds, a work is needed requiring love, patience, comprehension, and the ability to understand different ways of thinking – all of which form the basis of human evolution.

This is the way that Mestre Gabriel taught, and in this way we continue to practice and teach, following his example and overcoming the challenges that differing political opinions present in these times of transition that we live in. If there is peace and justice in the world, there will certainly be prosperity and more unity among the people of every country and also between the nations.

Therefore, the União do Vegetal is a non-partisan, non-profit society. It is not associated with any government, political party or ideology. The UDV welcomes all who seek it, without distinction and without discrimination of any kind.

In this sense, the UDV brings together members from all ideological and political affiliations, who together seek to learn about fraternal coexistence, tolerance, respect, friendship, the strengthening of the family and union among people – fundamental values ​​of our religion. In this way, UDV members are free to exercise their political, partisan and ideological preferences, with these choices being the personal responsibility of each member.

It is worth mentioning that all the leaders of the União do Vegetal perform voluntary work within the Center, without any type of financial remuneration.

For a UDV leader, good conduct, honesty, ethics, morals, and a good family life are prerequisites for occupying a position of leadership within our institution, and our leaders remain in their positions for as long as their practice reflects these principles.

Any attitude that deviates from these principles will be carefully examined by the UDV Leadership in order to apply the law of the Center in a just and impartial way, unlike what commonly occurs in the society in which we live; where we often see accusations being made without concrete evidence and without proof. We know that the Law recognizes the guarantee of the human being to be considered innocent until proven otherwise. In other words, we must be careful and responsible not to make pre-judgments.

In this way, we will be following what our Mestre taught when he stated that “we may be censured by all, but we cannot censure anyone; we may have enemies, but we cannot be anyone’s enemy; we may be offended by all, but we cannot offend anyone; we may even be judged by all, but we cannot judge anyone. ”

These words represent the essence of the União do Vegetal. The true, Divine Justice is always present, and presents itself not when people want it, but when it is needed, giving each one their fair share. It is in Justice that we are inspired, knowing that justice is only possible when love is also present. It is also always important to remember that governments, parties, people, all of these will one day pass and cease to exist. But Light, Peace and Love are eternal. And the more we cultivate these noble qualities in ourselves, the greater will be our ability to contribute so that, one day, peace and justice becomes the system that governs society, as Mestre Gabriel has indicated to us. This is the path we should follow.

Fraternally,

Paulo Afonso Amato Condé
General Representative Mestre of the Beneficent Spiritist Center União do Vegetal.

>> See also this text published on the Blog in 2018: The Position of the União do Vegetal in the current political moment. 

**Translated by Blog translation team