History of the Catholic Church in Brazil

The republican government of the 1890s implemented a greater emphasis on the separation of church and state but the 20th century saw a flourishing of membership due to mass immigration.

Although the first church buildings were made with materials at hand, the construction of more opulent edifices soon followed, with decorative tiles and even some stone were imported.

During Brazil's first export boom of cane sugar in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Portuguese settlements grew and the churches were a locus of local pride.

The action of the Jesuits saved many natives from slavery but also disturbed their ancestral way of life and inadvertently helped spread infectious diseases against which the aborigines had no natural defenses.

Slave labor and trade were essential for the economy of Brazil and other American colonies, and the Jesuits usually did not object the enslavement of African peoples.

In 1782, the Marquis of Pombal instituted a series of reforms in Portugal and its overseas possessions, which included the Suppression of the Society of Jesus as well as the expulsion of other missionaries.

Pombal was an advocate of monarchical power over the church, often known as regalism, and state autonomy from the papacy, or Gallicanism (after the model in France).

[6] The Catholic hierarchy supported the 1822 independence of Brazil, but were opposed to a republican form of government, a model followed by most of the former Spanish American colonies.

The transition to independence in Brazil was made easier and less divisive than in Spanish America, since a member of the royal Braganza family became the Brazilian monarch.

Tolerance of other faiths was established in the official document with the right to public and private exercise beliefs, but non-Catholic places of worship could not have the appearance of a church.

[9] Since the Portuguese crown had exercised the power of patronage of vacant ecclesiastical posts of the Catholic church, the Brazilian monarch did as well.

A conflict in the early 1870s between the church and the Emperor about the place of Freemasons, known as the Religious Issue, was responsible for a substantial weakening in the Empire's political stability.

Every religious body was at liberty to worship according to its own rites, while each individual could live according to his belief, and unite in societies with others, and build churches if he chose.

[1] Also during this time, the church advocated and succeeded in making Our Lady of Aparecida the patron saint of Brazil in 1929, thus securing the country as a pilgrimage location.

[1] The weakness and small size of the Catholic Church following the establishment of the republic meant, in practice, a paucity of priests for the country's huge population, religious competition from other religions, especially mainline Protestant churches but also nascent Pentecostal Protestantism, as well as secularization of Brazilian society and the rise of secular or atheist political movements.

After World War II, there were additional non-Catholic groups in Brazil, including the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Four Square Gospel.

Still, a few bishops and numerous priests, particularly in the poorer regions, strongly criticized the military government's economic policies and human rights record.

During the violence following the coup, several priests were murdered, and one bishop was kidnapped and beaten which added further concern over the government's human rights violations.

Ecclesiastical Base Communities (CEBs), small groups of believers who focused on linking grassroots religious and secular change, spread throughout the countryside.

[17] Adding onto their difficulty in establishing strong communities was a lack of support from Pope John Paul II due to his suspicions of communist-based ideology.

In the 20th century, such controversial issues as theological liberalism and the question of the mixing of Catholic ritual with rites from other sources continued to provoke much discussion within the church.

[1] The Catholic Church also advocates to raise awareness for social issues like drug abuse, racial discrimination, and childhood homelessness.

[19] The Catholic Church's struggles to connect with poor populations in Brazil is partially a result of conservative leadership under Pope John Paul II.

One such group is the Sisterhood of Our Lady of the Good Death (Irmandade de Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte) who celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.