Evangelizar é Preciso Fortaleza 2026: Padre Reginaldo Manzotti Leads 19th Edition as Blood Donation Day D Set for Oct 30

They call him the priest who gathers crowds — and next Saturday he will try to gather one of the largest of his career. Padre Reginaldo Manzotti leads the 19th edition of Evangelizar é Preciso Fortaleza on October 31, 2026, from noon, at the Aterro da Praia de Iracema, under the theme "Inabalável — Com fé, a tempestade vai passar" (Unshakable — With faith, the storm will pass).

The eve of the gathering carries its own mission. On Friday, October 30, Manzotti joins the Centro de Hematologia e Hemoterapia do Ceará (Hemoce) to mobilize the population for the Dia D de Doação de Sangue — the blood donation Day D — in Fortaleza. Faith, the organizers say, is measured not only in songs sung on the beachfront but in blood given at the hemocenter.

Caravans are already forming. Local media in Ceará report groups traveling from across the state and the Northeast, with hotels and guesthouses in the capital filling up and Catholic families offering solidarity lodging. The official announcement frames the Day D as the spiritual doorway to the festival: solidarity, too, is a way of evangelizing.

When Is Evangelizar é Preciso Fortaleza 2026?

The XIX (19th) edition takes place on Saturday, October 31, 2026, starting at 12h (noon), at the Aterro da Praia de Iracema in Fortaleza, Brazil. The blood donation Day D happens the day before — Friday, October 30 — in partnership with Hemoce. Both dates are confirmed by the Associação Evangelizar É Preciso, the organization Manzotti founded.

The program, according to Ceará press coverage, includes Holy Mass, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, moments of prayer, praise, music and devotion to Jesus of the Holy Wounds — with Manzotti preaching and performing. Entry is free; organizers encourage attendees to bring one kilogram of non-perishable food for the needy. The event is organized by the Associação Evangelizar É Preciso with support from Sistema Jangadeiro and the Archdiocese of Fortaleza.

This is a gathering with deep roots: Fortaleza first recieved the Evangelizar é Preciso event in October 2007, and across 19 editions it has become one of Brazil's largest public gatherings of faith. In 2011, the fourth Fortaleza edition drew more than 1.4 million faithful.

What Is the Blood Donation Day D (Dia D)?

The Day D is a coordinated blood donation drive run with Hemoce, Ceará's state hematology and hemotherapy center. The 2026 edition is set for October 30 — the Friday before the festival — inviting the faithful and the general public to give a few minutes of their day to patients who depend on transfusions.

The partnership between Manzotti's movement and Hemoce is a long-standing one. Local Ceará coverage of the 2025 campaign described it as the 12th consecutive year of the alliance, with a week-long awareness campaign culminating in a Day D across all Hemoce units — the Fortaleza headquarters, the Praça das Flores and Shopping Iguatemi Bosque collection points, and the interior units in Sobral, Iguatu, Crato, Quixadá and Juazeiro do Norte. That same tradition now carries into the 2026 edition.

Manzotti's own words set the tone for this year's drive:

"Doar sangue é um gesto de amor concreto e de cuidado com o próximo. É uma forma simples de ajudar quem mais precisa e de colocar em prática aquilo que Jesus nos ensina: amar e servir."

"Neste Dia D, quero convidar todos a abrirem o coração e estenderem o braço em solidariedade. Cada doação pode fazer a diferença na vida de alguém."

(In English: "On this Day D, I invite everyone to open their hearts and extend their arm in solidarity. Each donation can make a difference in someone's life.")

Who Is Padre Reginaldo Manzotti?

Reginaldo Manzotti, born in 1969 in Paraná, is a Catholic priest and singer ordained in 1995, now parish priest of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Curitiba. He coordinates the Associação Evangelizar É Preciso, which counts thousands of members across Brazil, and his media ministry — including TV Evangelizar — reaches homes nationwide around the clock.

His events are famous for scale and for one consistent rule: there is no cost to participate. The priest asks only for the collaboration of all — historically, a kilogram of food for the needy. That same spirit animates the Fortaleza gathering, where faith and social action share the stage, much like the compassion-driven outreach of America's campus revivals or the beach baptisms of Movement San Diego.

The christain conviction behind the blood drive is the oldest kind of evangelization: love made visible. A single donation can help up to four patients, Hemoce notes — in transfusions, surgeries, cancer treatment, neonatal care and emergencies across Ceará's 184 municipalities.

Why Fortaleza's Gathering Keeps Growing

Nineteen editions in, the formula is unchanged: one beachfront, one priest, one message — and a city that keeps answering. The 2026 theme, "Unshakable," speaks to a country weathering storms of every kind. The caravans rolling toward Fortaleza this week suggest the faithful have already decided what unshakable looks like: showing up.

The story echoes other national prayer movements on the continent, like Clama Brasil's call to national prayer, and the quieter Catholic renewals such as the Gen Z Catholic revival and Bishop Stephen Wang's ordination story. But Fortaleza's edition adds something distinctively its own: a blood drive as an act of worship.

On Friday, sleeves roll up. On Saturday, voices rise. Somewhere between the donation chair and the beachfront stage, Manzotti's movement will make its case that evangelizing was never only about words.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.