His relationship with politics began in 1901 with the visit of Count von de Brule, on a mission from the Secretariat of the Interior of Ceará, to land he owned in Crato, in the town of Taboca, where there was knowledge of oil shale outcrops of economic importance.

Only in 1919, the then governor of Ceará, João Tomé de Saboia e Silva, would visit the outcrops and order the construction of galleries, who would later be named Mina Santa Rosa.

In 1921, the Federal Inspectorate of Works against Drought financed drilling in this land and in October 1922, the chemist, geologist and mineralogist Sylvio Froes Abreu, then aged nineteen,[1] reported that the bituminous shale contained potential for the production of lubricating oils and fuels.

On October 4, 1911, he and sixteen other political leaders from the region met in Juazeiro and signed a mutual cooperation agreement, as well as a commitment to support Governor Antônio Pinto Nogueira Accioli.

[9] On 13 December 2015, as part of the opening ceremonies of the Holy Year proclaimed by Pope Francis, the Bishop of Crato, Fernando Panico, declared the rehabilitation of Batista's status with the Catholic Church.

[10] On August 20, 2022, during a Mass held in Largo da Capela do Socorro, in Juazeiro do Norte, the bishop of the Diocese of Crato, Magnus Henrique Lopes [pt], announced that he had received a letter from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican body responsible for beatification and canonization processes, informing about the authorization of Pope Francis for the opening of the beatification process of Batista.