Colette Catta
Born in 2nd of September 1921, at Nantes, France.
Colette, that is in Brazil since 1953, when she was in São Paulo, after got to know immigrants from the Brazilian northeast, decided to live in Pernambuco with her friends, especially in a poor and abandoned region. The region of the sugar cain production. She created a kindergarten and a nursery in Juçaral and adopted two children. She felt so touched by Juçaral’s people situation that decided to dedicate her life to create also community for the teenagers, to avoid them work with the sugar can production with their parents fot their whole life. At the first hand, she wanted, following the spirituality of Marcel Legaut, to help the people to be “standing people” (in the meaning of decent and strong people). To make it possible, following Legaut, it is necessary to “become what we are”, “devenir soir”, to get to know ourselves, to have faith in ourselves (different than having just hope in ourselves), have faith in the others, to seek the meaning of our life (To behave acording to your conscience, then finding the Path, that is Jesus from Nazareth, the perfect man, universal, that leads to the Father-God.
Marcel Legaut is not the only witness of the faith which has influenced Colette. Since 1970 she got to know Dom Helder Câmara, “irmão dos pobres e injustiçados” (brother of the poor and of the injusticed), Carlos de Beco, a belgian priest that was like a father for the people, a spiritual leader at the “difusion of the church and at the people convertion”, the priest Servat, that gave all his power to the A.C.R. - Animação dos Cristãos no Meio Rural (Animation of the Christians at the Rural Area), João Francisco, that started with our meetings, even during the time of the Brazilian dictatorship. These years were very hard, full of moral and physical pain, which constructed our character, increased our faith to become a “people that live”, not only an “alive people” (Marcel Legaut). Since then, more than 30 years has passed, that the Arca de Noé in Juçaral tries to follow these objectives; all the people that once has been into our community, say that they felt deeply touched buy this goal.
Interview made in 1999 by TV Globo about Colette Catta and the Comunidade Arca de Noé, in Juçaral - Cabo de Santo Agostinho/PE - Brazil.
(Portuguese)