Divaldo Franco (1927 - 2025) - Divaldo Franco, a spiritual leader considered Chico Xavier's successor, dies

Died this Tuesday (13), at the age of 98, the medium Divaldo Franco, a religious leader who led philanthropic work for more than 70 years, was one of the main disseminators of the Spiritist doctrine in Brazil and was appointed as the successor of Chico Xavier (1910-2002).

He was the founder of Mansão do Caminho, an organization that welcomes children and adolescents in situations of social vulnerability in Bahia.

The cause of death was not disclosed. In recent years, he had been struggling with health problems, including bladder cancer diagnosed in November 2024.

Divaldo Pereira Franco was born in May 1927 in Feira de Santana (109 km from Salvador ), the youngest of a family of 12 siblings. He attended the Escola Normal and received his primary school teacher diploma in 1943, but did not practice the profession.

Two years later, he moved to Salvador and became an employee of the State Employee Pension and Assistance Institute, where he worked until he retired in 1980.

He was raised in a Catholic family and, according to statements he gave throughout his life, he began to see and hear spirits when he was still a child. Years later, in his youth, he discovered he was a medium and began to develop psychography (the ability to decipher messages passed on by spirits, according to the doctrine).

His career as a religious leader began in 1947, the year in which he founded, together with his friend Nilson de Souza Pereira (1924-2013), the Centro Espírita Caminho da Redenção, based in Salvador .

The space was the embryo for Mansão do Caminho, founded in 1952 to serve children and teenagers from poor families and which over time became one of the largest philanthropic institutions in the country.

Divaldo was one of the main disseminators of the Spiritist doctrine in Brazil and, therefore, was considered a kind of successor to Chico Xavier , one of the most important exponents of Spiritism.

Throughout his career, he held more than 12,000 conferences in around 2,000 Brazilian cities and visited more than 60 countries.

He wrote more than 200 books that he claimed were psychographed under the guidance of his guide, the spirit Joanna de Ângelis. His writings became a publishing success, selling more than seven million copies and being translated into several languages.

Joanna de Ângelis, the medium explained, was an ancient spirit, who had incarnated on Earth in notable personalities such as Saint Clare of Assisi, the Christian martyr Joana de Cusa and the abbess Joanna Angélica, who died in 1822 amid the conflicts that began the war for Independence in Bahia .

The first book, "Messe de Amor", was released in 1964 and brought together messages from Joanna de Ângelis that were allegedly psychographed. Also notable in the medium's work is the so-called Psychological Series, composed of sixteen books that establish bridges between the Spiritist Doctrine and schools of psychology.

In the social field, Divaldo Franco became famous for his work at Mansão do Caminho, which was initially conceived as an orphanage. Throughout his life, he adopted around 600 children who passed through the institution.

Mansão do Caminho occupies an area of ​​78 thousand square meters in the Pau da Lima neighborhood, on the outskirts of Salvador, and serves around 2,000 children and teenagers from low-income families every day.

The structure includes a daycare center, an elementary school, a high school, and a clinic for humanized births.

The organization also provides social assistance, offering assistance to more than 500 people in a state of social vulnerability, with serious illnesses, the elderly and pregnant women. It also manages the Dr. José Carneiro de Campos Health Center, a unit that performs exams and consultations in various medical specialties.

In recent years, he began to express his conservative political positions in lectures and videos. He was an enthusiast of the Lava Jato operation and supported Jair Bolsonaro ( PL ) for the Presidency of the Republic.

In 2023, the medium once again generated controversy in the spiritualist community when he defended the protesters who participated in the coup-like protests of January 8 and vandalized the headquarters of the three branches of government.

"We are seeing absurd laws and stupid arrests without trial. How can they grab people off the street, put them on a bus and take them to jail?" Divaldo asked in a video published at the time. The statements generated reactions from progressive sectors of spiritualism.

The religious leader had his story told in the film "Divaldo - O Mensageiro da Paz" , released in 2019, directed by Clovis Mello and starring Guilherme Lobo, Regiane Alves, Bruno Garcia and Marcos Veras.

In an interview with Folha at the time of the film's release, Divaldo said that he asked to remove dialogues from the film that made favorable references to spiritualism, which he considered unnecessary: ​​"For me, it is much more important to be an atheist citizen than a Christian without dignity," he stated.