The Social Catholicism and its rural action in the second middle off the XX century in Brasil

Abstract

In the second half of the twentieth century, Brazil underwent profound social transformations in rural areas. The problem of the lack of access to land ownership, experienced by millions of Brazilians, has gradually become a much debated topic among various sectors of society. Among them, the Catholic Church, which was concerned with the course the discussion was taking and with the intention of anticipating the revolution, convened in September 1950, the First Ruralist Week held in the city of Campanha (MG). During the ensuing years the debate over agrarian reform was gaining more and more space within its hierarchical body. In 1951 was published the collective pastoral signed by 113 bishops. In 1952 the archbishops, bishops and prelates from the Valley of the São Francisco gathered in Aracaju. In September 1954, the Second General Assembly of the CNBB launched the first document on the theme: The Church and Agrarian Reform. In 1956, the Northeastern bishops met in the city of Campina Grande (PB) and, in 1959, in the capital of Rio Grande do Norte. Beginning in 1960, the bishops' meetings began to be called by the CNBB itself. In December 1960, the meeting of the archbishops and bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of São Paulo took place. In 1960, Professor Plínio de Oliveira, together with Bishop Castro Mayer, Bishop of Campos (RJ) and Bishop Geraldo Proença Sigaud, Bishop of Diamantina (MG) opposed the agrarian reform proposal being prepared by the CNBB. In July 1961, it was also the bishops of the Rio Doce Valley, in the state of Minas Gerais. In October 1961, the CNBB president, Dom Jaime Câmara, called the CNBB Central Commission to reflect on the publication of the encyclical Mater et Magister. On April 30, 1963, the Central Commission of the CNBB was again motivated by the publication of the second encyclical of John XXIII, Pacem in Terris. The research will follow the chronological order of the events that occurred between the years of 1950 and 1964 and will be made na analysis of the ecclesial documents and bibliographies on the subject.