Revolution and religion: The “radical” church in Brazil

Abstract

Since the mid-1960s increasing attention has been given, first in the media, and later by social scientists ? mainly sociologists of religion and political scientists ? to what are generally assumed to be radicalizing tendencies in the churches. This radicalization did not oc? cur, as many would have expected, in France, the country of the worker-priests, or in the much publicized Dutch Catholic Church. Instead socio-political conflicts happened exact? ly where the Christian churches had col? laborated with colonial powers or had later identified with a small post-independence upper class of haciendistas, or patrons ? that is, plantation owners ? in Latin America. And Latin America is the continent that until very recently has been seen (and by fundamentalist groups is still seen) as a mission field because of inconclusive "acculturation" of Western Christian models on the grass-roots level. The countries in which Christian radicalizing ten? dencies have crystallized since 1960 are Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, followed by Colombia (where priest-guerilla Camilo Torres was killed in 1966), Bolivia and most Meso American states. By 1972 these local ten? dencies had crystallized into a widely known, new "Liberation Theology," both international? ly recognized and academically accepted (even if reluctantly), although its initiators had en visioned it as a praxis. In April of that axial year, the first international Congress of Christians for Socialism took place in Santiago, Chile, and a mutually enthusiastic encounter with Salvador Allende Goossens occurred in the Palacio de la Moneda. All Latin American countries were represented; the Brazilians and the Bolivians, who were not in exile, appeared under false names. Of the 400 delegates, about 70% were priests (many of them worker-priests), nuns, and Protestant ministers, and 30% lay persons. Only a single bishop was present ? Don Sergio Mendes Arceo from Cuernavaca, Mexico; and the Chilean hierarchy clearly dis? tanced itself from the meeting, accusing it of re? ducing Christianity to class struggle [ 1 ]. But al? though the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Latin America did not sympathize with the open sub? scription of an important minority group among its priests to a Marxist strategy, and did not necessarily accept Liberation Theology as official doctrine, it has certainly been trans? formed. The hierarchy has, for example, on several occasions (since the early 1960s) found itself in conflict with the new rightist military governments, on both local and national levels. Since 1972 much has happened; many of those present in Santiago are dead, others are in prison or in exile. Correlatively, repressive and rightist military cadres in many Latin American countries have tried to eradicate any form of socialism. At the same time, significantly radical tendencies have become evident in Christian churches in Asia (especially in the Leo Alting von Geusau is an anthropologist and a theologian, and presently Associate Professor at The C.W. Post Center, Long Island University, New York.