Journalist Carlos Antônio de Barros (photo) was born in the Brazilian city of Campina Grande, in the state of Paraíba. He is 69 and is now retired, after owning his own businesses. He is married to Carmem Paiva de Barros and has four children, from her first marriage, as well as three grandchildren and one great grandchild.

He joined the Spiritist Movement in the 1970s when he lived in São Paulo and got involved in Spiritist journalism and media in 1980, after moving to João Pessoa, the capital of the state of Paraíba. He was the editor of several Brazilian Spiritist publications, including Jornal Espírita and Revista Internacional de Espiritismo. He is also the founder of ANESPB, the Paraíba Agency of Spiritist News, which, after 10 years, has become the CEI – Spiritist Information Center.

Carlos Antônio Barros is also the founder of digital platforms, like Kardec Ponto Com, and continues to encourage writers and artists who want to work in the Spiritist Movement. He is our guest this week.

Tell us first about your work in the Spiritist Movement and in particular your involvement with Spiritist media.

My involvement in Spiritism began when I lived in São Paulo between 1975 and 1980. That’s when I began attending a Spiritist Centre which was managed by the Gasparetto family, including Zíbia and her son, Antônio. I was suffering then from a very annoying form of Spiritual attachment. I went there for treatment and ended up staying for four years, working as a volunteer in social projects with poor communities and as a medium. I learned a lot with them. Once, in a private conversation with the late Zíbia, I was told that I would return to journalism. But this time I would work for the dissemination of Spiritism and would always defend the rights and praise the values of social minorities. My first experience with Spiritist media began in 1980, when I was already living in the capital of Paraíba state. I began publishing a newsletter for the João Pessoa Spiritist Book Club, which had been founded by my wife and some friends. They used to deliver the books in person once a month at various Spiritist Centres attended by the members.

As editor of CEI, the Spiritist News Central, you are in charge of many digital publications. What are the main differences between print and digital publications?

CEI was created to replace ANESPB. The production and distribution of its digital publications – Kardec Ponto Com (Kardec Dot Com), Kardec Já (Kardec Now), Gente Espírita (Spiritist People) and, now, Pensador (Thinker) – is done online and free of charge. The operational cost of editing and distributing the publications is very low. Print publications cost a lot more and that is one of the reasons why I think it’s only a matter of time before the publication of newspapers and magazines on paper ends.

Some people disagree with the editorial line of the publications you edit. They say your approach to some perspectives and even people is too critical. How do you react to that?

The editorial line of all digital publications edited by me is a plural and democratic one, respecting otherness and without any censorship to the freedom of expression. We obviously don’t accept any moral offenses to anyone. Spiritist journalism shouldn’t be like celebrity news, where everyone must be praised, as some do, to get pampered by oversensitive Spiritist readers. Some people choose that approach in order to get recognition from people who don’t really value their work.

How do Spiritists view politics? There is a clear detachment in the Spiritist Movement? Do you think that is part of an ideological process in the Movement?

Politics and Spiritism still don’t mix well. It is not because of an ideological, physiological or simplistic, black-and-white approach. I think that what has become clear for most Spiritists is that politics doesn’t agree with the true, elevated principles the Spiritism Movement recommends for its followers. One was created to divide the people in order to better manage private and public interests, which are more than often unscrupulous. Spiritism, on the other hand, was born with the aim of educating, guiding, clarifying and enlightening the conscience of incarnate human beings. Those using the name of Spiritism to create a political wing inside the Spiritist Movement are wasting their precious time. Spiritism doesn’t need politics as it’s practiced today. It is able to offer a better perspective of a better future to its follower and the social minorities without it.

An unavoidable issue: what are Spiritists saying about the Covid-19 pandemics?

The origin and the causes of this illness haven’t yet been investigated or properly clarified by the Chinese authorities. That has prompted speculation about China’s role and responsibility in this world epidemic chaos we are living. Religious Spiritists and mystical Spiritualists have divided the attention of their followers on social media with scary, catastrophic opinions. Scientists who are researching a vaccine say Covid-19 is a virus that has mutated from another virus of the same family (Sars-Cov-2). Anything else is simply a fallacy from “God’s representatives” in order to explain things in their own way.

Editor’s Note:

The interview above was originally published on edition 140 of Comunica Ação Espírita, the newsletter from ADE-PR, the Association of Disseminators of Spiritism in the state of Paraná, which on October 27^th celebrated the 25^th anniversary of its foundation.