Marco
Milani
The disincarnation of Divaldo Pereira Franco, which took place on May
13, 2025, marks a historical milestone for the Brazilian and global Spiritist
movement. More than the conclusion of a remarkable personal journey, we are
witnessing the end of an era characterized by mediums whose public prominence
and longevity granted Spiritism a unique visibility and respectability, though
not without doctrinal tensions and interpretive challenges.
Divaldo was, without a doubt, one of the great names of Spiritism in
the 20th and early 21st centuries. His social work through the Mansão do
Caminho, his tireless activity as a speaker and promoter of Spiritist thought,
and the extensive mediumistic output attributed to various Spirits, most notably
the figure of Joanna de Ângelis, placed him in a position of moral and
intellectual leadership before multitudes. For over seven decades, he was a
constant presence on platforms, at congresses, on radio and television
broadcasts, and more recently, on digital platforms, spreading messages of
spirituality, ethics, and consolation.
However, the significance of his disincarnation goes beyond his
personal figure. It symbolically closes a cycle of the Spiritist movement
marked by charismatic personalities, mediums whose prominence approached
institutional stature and who became interpretive references of the Doctrine,
often occupying in the collective imagination a place that, as Allan Kardec
warned, should never replace reason and the universality of the Spirits'
teachings. This was the cycle of individuals such as Chico Xavier, Yvonne do
Amaral Pereira, Suely Caldas Schubert, and now Divaldo Franco, representatives
of a generation that shaped the spiritual imagination of millions, with all the
virtues and ambiguities such influence entails. All of them, though fallible
like any human being, contributed decisively to the dissemination of Spiritism
according to their capacities and limitations.
Divaldo’s passing calls for a sincere exercise of gratitude and
recognition for his unwavering dedication to the cause of good, for his
dignified public stance, and for his concrete and transformative philanthropic
action.
In the face of the end of an era of great mediums, Spiritism bears the
responsibility of reclaiming its original vocation: that of being a
spiritualist philosophy based on reason, observation, and the collective and
methodical examination of mediumistic communications obtained everywhere and by
anonymous individuals. It is time for the Spiritist movement to revalue
Kardec’s work not as an object of worship but as an evolving philosophical
project that demands serious study, open debate, and a commitment to coherence
between form and content. Perhaps the era of great charismatic figures is
giving way to the era of lucid collectivity, of Spiritist research committed to
universality, and of moral education grounded in enlightenment, not in the
authority of isolated individuals.
Divaldo’s return to the spiritual realm, with all the serenity that
will undoubtedly accompany a Spirit so devoted to doing good, leaves a legacy
that must be respected, but not fossilized. The true tribute we can offer him
is not in sanctifying him, but in understanding that his journey, with both
merits and limitations, belongs to a chapter of Spiritism that fulfilled its
role and now yields to new challenges. The maturity of the movement will be
measured by its ability to honor its figures without canonizing them, to
embrace the emotion of a farewell without straying from critical reason.
May the next period be marked, as proposed by Kardec, by reason united
with morality, centered on the education of the Spirit as a continuous process
of inner emancipation. In the meantime, we bid farewell to dear Divaldo,
wishing him an excellent return to the Spiritual Homeland.
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