The Current Political Path of an Ultra-Catholic Agent of Brazilian Christofacism Father Paulo Ricardo

Abstract

The article foregrounds Father Paulo Ricardo’s role in the political history of the present time and in the building of the political-religious guidelines that helped the shaping and mobilization of Jair Bolsonaro’s extreme rightwing project, from 2018’s candidacy to the presidency, but mainly in the face of time management of the Covid-19 pandemic. From the notion of Christofascism, as a “theology of authoritarian power,” one seeks to understand how the referred priest helps in intellectual production, hence sustaining the governmental summit mainly with the arrival of Covid-19 in the country. The article also seeks to use the notion of “trajectory” by Giovanni Levi to trace the last years of the priest’s religious activity, mainly from his productions on social media of political-religious appeal, when Father Paulo Ricardo directly feeds what we call Bolsonaro’s “Christofascism” with themes that help in the “war of the gods” promoted in this condition, in contempt for science and helping to feed this new type of authoritarianism experienced in contemporary Brazil.