Ivone Csucsuly: 

“It is well worth helping disseminating the Spiritist message and the
word of Jesus” 

The presenter of television programme, “O Espiritismo Responde” (Spiritism Answers), talks about his work in the
dissemination of the Teachings

	Abigair Ivone Ferioli Csucsuly (photo), better known as Ivone Csucsuly, is a volunteer worker at the Associação Espírita de Maringá (AMEM) Spiritist Centre and presenter of the television programme, “O Espiritismo Responde” (Spiritism Answers), which first began to be broadcast 20 years ago. Born in a Spiritist family, she is a retired teacher in
the southern Brazilian city of Maringá. In this interview, she talks about her work helping disseminate Spiritism on TV:

Tell us a bit initially about Spiritism in Maringá and the Associação Espírita de Maringá. 

AMEM was founded in May 1962. It is the oldest Spiritist Group in the city. The Spiritist Movement in the city, in the west of Paraná state, began with a group of people who gathered to study the Teachings. They began meeting in a simple wooden house next to where AMEM is now. Shortly after they began doing charity work in the area, preparing soup for the poor and teaching Spiritism. Its example was followed by many others, who eventually founded other Spiritist Centres in the city. There are now six Spiritist Centres affiliated to the Spiritist Federation of Paraná in Maringá and they are all indebted to AMEM, which was a pioneer organisation in a time when there was still a lot of prejudice against Spiritism. 

How about the TV programme? How did it begin? 

I always thought that we should use all resources available to help disseminate Spiritism, which is can provide so much enlightenment and comfort to others. I had a radio programme with my husband, Lannes Bljevac Csucsuly and other workers and we had the idea to produce a TV programme. We decided to buy airtime and broadcast a Spiritist programme. That was in 1994. When he arrived at the TV station, he met an acquaintance who worked there and, despite not being a Spiritist, told him that there would be no problem. That man spoke to the TV station owner and two days later said that everything had been agreed. Not only that, but he had already paid for the first six months. Twenty years on we are still there and Lannes is the programme’s director. 

Did you always pre-record the programme? 

No, in the beginning it was 50 minutes’ long and it was live. But later the TV network, RTV, demanded that it was pre-recorded and that increased our costs. Our main problem in the beginning was to find enough Spiritists to be interviewed in the programme. And we have always have problems to find the resources to do the programme and buy equipment. Those are problems we still have. 

And what are the main achievements? 

The programme helped destroy many myths about Spiritism to the point that we believe that there are more non-Spiritists than Spiritists among our regular audience. We also believe that many people have benefitted individually from the stories and events mentioned in the programme. 

How do you select the themes to be discussed? 

The main aim is to disseminate the main principles of Spiritism. We tend to choose themes that our relevant to our times and that generate controversy and possible conflicts. Our programme is available on the following websites: www.tvmundomaiior.com.br and www.amemmaringa.com.br.  

Is there anything special that has happened in the programmed and you would like to share with our readers? 

I would like to say that the help and guidance from our Spiritual Benefactors is obvious. There were hard times when we thought: “What are we going to do now? We can’t stop now”. The solution would come from somewhere and we felt encouraged to carry on. The 20 years of the programme, “O Espiritismo Responde,” make it very clear to me that it is well worth helping disseminating the Spiritist message and the word of Jesus. Those who receive the message benefit, but no one gets gains more than those who are working in the dissemination of the Teachings and trying to live according to the principles of Spiritism.