Wallace Lara, a reporter for TV Globo, in an interview recorded on October 19, 2019, said that the Public Prosecutor's Office would have found that teaching, in the schools of heralds, is at odds with the guidelines of the MEC, because it is predominantly Religious. The Ep. Alex Brito replied that the colleges meet the determinations of the MEC, because they are only of Catholic inspiration. Parents, when they put their children in the educational institution, are aware of the Catholic formation that will be taught, and their children may eventually feel called upon later to enter the seminary.
Summary
The percentage of students from herald schools who end up being priests does not reach 2%, proof that they are not obliged to do so. Indeed, most students follow other careers, becoming liberal professionals, such as judges, judges, lawyers, doctors, etc.
The reporter claimed reports of students, according to which, when they were presented with the proposal of the Future and Life Project, they did not know that they would come to embrace the religious cause.
The Ep. Alex replied that "embracing the religious cause" is not the goal of the Future and Life Project, because its activities are cultural, musical, sports, etc. Thus, if the project leaders claimed that there is an intention in it to refer participants to "embrace the religious cause", they would be lying. There are more than fifty thousand minors who have benefited from the Future and Life Project: imagine if they were all priests!
Some of these young people, however, because they live in an environment of religious inspiration, may eventually manifest the desire to one day become priests. Your aspirations are respected, but it is explained to you that you first need to finish your studies and that when you are of age, you may choose to enter seminary.
The reporter sought to insist on the mixture between pedagogical proposal, intense religiosity and military discipline, asking if this did not make the Heralds very different from the other Catholic colleges, and the Heralds should warn the parents of this by inviting the participate in the college. To this, Fr. Alex had to explain again that it was very different phases. The Future and Life Project is limited to a period that encompasses the visit to the colleges that allow the performance of the Project, and the frequency to the youth center to participate in cultural activities; all this happens with the express permission of the parents. Then the Project closes.
If parents and young people have been interested, they are provided with catechesis courses. Some of these young people then feel interested in entering the school, which they can obtain, upon parental permission, but the number is already very low. Because of the long process, parents who give this license are aware that in some of their children the desire to become a priest may arise, as they have already had extensive contact with the institution. The same happens, for example, in military police schools: it is natural that some students then want to be military themselves, but they are not obliged to do so.
Returning to the charge, Wallace Lara said that prosecutors would have noticed the lack of a wider library, while former students reportedly stated that their training was limited to the works of Plinio, Lucilia and João Clá. The Ep. Alex replied that this is not real, because libraries – both from colleges and seminary – are as broad as possible. The seminar, for example, has more than 100,000 volumes… As for the life of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and Mons. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, it can be studied as that of any illustrious Brazilian. Being Mons. John the founder of the Heralds of the Gospel, it is natural that one knows his history.