Messiahs, Miracle Workers and 'Catholic Duality' in Brazil

In: International social science journal: ISSJ, Band 29, Heft 2, S. 298-312

Abstract

A dichotomous pattern to analyze religion is often used by Brazilian sociologists, the most common being the distinction between "official" Catholicism & "popular" Catholicism. It also involves an idea of change: the older social order based on agriculture was gradually replaced by more advanced, complex Ur structures, & popular Catholicism tended to disappear, whereas the rather more intellectual & rational official Catholicism gained ground. Two cases of religious leaders are analyzed: (1) Pe. Cicero, in the Northeast, at the beginning of this century, & (2) Pe. Donizetti, in the State of Sa Paulo, in the latter half of this century. The attraction both exerted on the people, shows that the kind of faith that seems "popular" is not specific to the past, or to a particular region. A closer study of the two cases shows their incompatibility with the established dichotomy of "official" vs "popular" Catholicism, because the leaders were two priests, two officially recognized interpreters of Catholic doctrine. It then appears to render untenable the theory of a dichotomy between a more spiritual & urbanized official Catholicism, & a popular Catholicism involving superstitious Ru practices. AA.