A brief history of Correio Espírita, that continues its brilliant journey

Saulo de Tarso Ferreira Netto (photo), from the Brazilian town of Recreio, in the state of Minas Gerais, lives in Niterói, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, where he works as an accountant and forensic expert. He is the president and editor of Correio Espírita, a successful Spiritist publication. Two years ago, it went exclusively digital, as he explains in the following interview:

When and how did you become a Spiritist?

It was in Niterói around 1989, when my father took me to the UNEM Spiritist Centre (União Espírita de Niterói) for the first time. I joined their youth group, which at the time you could attend until the age of 24. I made great friends there and developed a particular affection for that Spiritist Centre. 

Please give us a brief history of Correio Espírita.

It’s a long story, which began with A4 paper and 50 copies. After a while I left UNEM and began attending a different Spiritist Centre, also in Niterói, called CEPEAK (Centro de Estudos e Pesquisas Espíritas Allan Kardec). That was around 1996. Soon after joining them, I created their newsletter. I initially printed 50 copies on A4 paper. That led me to eventually publishing CEPEAK’s newspaper, which was distributed free of charge locally and to other Spiritist organisations. But I could feel “Spiritist pressure” and could hear an internal voice, which kept telling me: “This publication needs to grow, it needs to grow.” In other words, I needed to go beyond the circle of Spiritist Centres and make it available to the wider public. After 5 years publishing the CEPEAK newspaper, with 12 pages in tabloid format and 5,000 copies, I moved on to Correio Espírita. Its first edition went out on December 3rd, 2004, with 10 pages in Standard format. It was published every two months until 2006, when it became a monthly publication with 12 pages. Before we went digital two years ago, we were printing 15,000 copies and each edition had 20 pages. At some stage, the newspaper was being distributed to hundreds of cities in 9 Brazilian states. My volunteer work in Spiritism is now focused solely on my role as founder and president of the Correio Espírita Cultural Centre, which is the newspaper's legal entity. 

What is your assessment of Correio Espírita in its new, digital-only phase?

Even before the coronavirus pandemic we were struggling to distribute copies of the paper in other states. We were forced to change distributors and it wasn’t working as we wanted. The pandemic led to a sharp decline in sales and we eventually decided to migrate to the online format. We haven’t yet recovered the number of subscriptions we had in the previous paper format. But, on the other hand, people are now able to access the content from wherever they are and whenever they want, through their mobile, tablet, laptop or PC. And, of course, we haven’t compromised our high standards and continue to provide high quality material that strictly follows the principles of Spiritism. 

How can people contact you and the newspaper?

There are many ways to contact us and those access our site will find the details there, but here it is:

Newspaper website - Correio Espírita

twitter.com/correioespirita

instagran.com/correioespirita/
facebook.com/correioespirita/
Phone: + 55 (21) 2721-2505

We have an open channel with our readers through our social media as well as our email address.

What are your best memories from the days when the newspaper was still being printed?

I have so many memories, which won’t fade away with time. I can mention three of them. I would start with our first edition, which featured an article about the 4th World Spiritist Congress in Paris. Our headline was: Spiritist Congress is marked by xenoglossy that mentions Kardec and Napoleon. In the same issue, we published a report on a public talk that the eminent writer and Correio Espírita columnist, Dr Jorge Andréa dos Santos, gave during the ceremony that marked the paper’s launch. That was a very special afternoon. And I would also mention an article published in our third issue, in March 2005, by Gerson Monteiro, entitled: “I hugged a materialised Chico Xavier.” In relative terms, it was one of the biggest newspaper sales. But a curious event happened during a journalistic report we did on one of Brazil’s and the world’s oldest Spiritist Centre, in Carmo Neto street, in the old Rio de Janeiro city Centre. I was there myself, with a journalist, Marcelo José. Their old guest books had the names of renowned Spiritists, such as Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes, Alcindo Guanabara, Dias da Cruz, Marshall Hermes da Fonseca and others. An old clock there began working after more than 20 years. And we also found an ancient copy of the Bible. For some reason, we weren’t able to take pictures of it. Initially, the photographer kept making mistakes. Then we got another photographer and nothing. We then changed batteries in the camera, but nothing seemed to work. Everyone there was intrigued by what was going on. Eventually, I took the copy of the Bible home and only then I was able to scan it. The image was used in our report about that Spiritist Centre in the second edition of the paper, published in 2005.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

You, dear reader, don’t leave it to tomorrow to begin helping disseminate Spiritism. Don’t wait till you are able to carry out your inner reform. There’s always someone out there in need, waiting for a message of faith and hope. Work hard, pray and trust in Jesus.