catholic student movements in latin america cuba and brazil, 1920s to 1960s

7/27/2019 CATHOLIC STUDENT MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA CUBA AND BRAZIL, 1920s TO 1960s

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FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Miami, Florida

CATHOLIC STUDENT MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA

CUBA AND BRAZIL, 1920s TO 1960s

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSPHY

in

HISTORY

by

Joseph Holbrook

SLIDE 1


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Origin of the project SLIDE 2-My research interest evolved over time through the influence of several FIU

professors. My original interest was how religion affects society, in particular, how did

Catholicism contribute to the formation of a political culture over the long term in Latin

America? I wrote my masters thesis on the influence of religious monopoly and pluralism on

democracy in Colombia and Brazil respectively. I attempted to analyze the influence of

Catholicism on Brazilian and Colombian political cultures and its contribution to democracy.

SLIDE 3 -When I started in the history department, working with Dr. Sherry Johnson as

her teaching assistant influenced my interest in Cuba. I began to do research on the political role

of Catholicism in Cuba and Brazil during the early Cold War, leading up to the Cuban Missile

Crisis and the Brazilian military dictatorship. It so happened that there were momentous

developments within Catholicism during that same period of time, with the ascension of new

innovative pope, Pope John XXIII (1958), and the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) at his

initiative, which formed a type of theological and social revolution (Andrew Greeley) within

global Catholicism. The 1960s seemed to me to be a revolutionary decade in Cuba, in

Catholicism, and in Brazil, a type of reactionary revolution in reverse with the military

overthrow of 1964. I wanted to explore the interrelationships between political Catholicism in

both countries and the upheaval and change within Catholicism itself.

SLIDE 4 -In the spring of 2008 I took a course on the history of modern Spain with Dr.

Aurora Morcillo, which got me thinking about the European influences on Catholicism in Cuba

and Brazil. A further course in Ethnohistory with Dr. Dennis Wiedman was held at the

Wolfsonian on Miami Beach and gave me access to primary sources from Italy and Spain in the

1930s. Another history course in the f all of 2008 on the History of Youth and Childhood

further narrowed my interest to youth movements within Catholicism. The 1920s and 1930s in


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Europe witnessed the rise of a generational consciousness and a period of intense ideological

mobilization. The Catholic Church was heavily involved in the attempt to recruit young people

(working class and university youth) to its own religious ideology. I began to look at the

European ideological roots of Catholic university youth under the umbrella of the lay

organization, Catholic Action.

SLIDE 5-I discovered (with help from Ana Maria Bidegain) that there were two forms of

Catholic Action university youth; general Catholic Action originating in Italy and encouraged by

Pope Pius XII, and specialized Catholic Action originating in working class Belgium in the

1920s. Each form of Catholic Action developed in very different circumstances and wasstructured quite differently and for different ends. In my opening chapters, I study the difference

in geo-political position of general Catholic Action which was forced to contend with Fascism,

and specialized Catholic Action which developed in industrialized societies with liberal

pluralistic political cultures with its main competitor being communist and socialist youth.

SLIDE 6 -As I developed an interest in the European ideological roots of the Catholic

youth movements in Brazil and Cuba, it was a short step from there to an underlying emphasis

on the transnational diffusion of ideology. From the beginning of my dissertation process, I

pondered how to incorporate our departments in terest in Atlantic Civilization into my

dissertation . I found numerous transnational institutional, ideological and theological links

from Italy to Spain and from both to Cuba. There was also a clear pattern of diffusion of the

Franco-Belgian specialized Catholic Action from Belgium to France to Quebec to Brazil.

Although I feel very inadequate to carry out a transnational comparative analysis of this sort, I

did my best to trace the linkages of the two types of Catholic Action from the Old World to the


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New World with some basic analysis of the influences and effects of their varying kinds of

ideology.

Literature ReviewSLIDE 7 -I know this was an ambitious undertaking and would have undoubtedly benefited

from a narrowing of focus for the sake of clarity and precision. Nevertheless, it was something I

was passionate about and therefore, in my mind, worth the extra work to become familiar with

the extensive literature on religion and politics (Bidegain, Levine, Vsquez, Lwey), sociology

of religion and secularization (Weber, Gramsci, Bellah, Berger, Casanova, Martin) as well as the

histories of each of the countries involved: Quebec, Italy, Spain (Morcillo) and France, ( SLIDE 8 -

CUBA-) and most particularly, Cuba (Louis Perez, Jr., Sherry Johnson, John Kirk, Marcos Antonio

Ramos, Luis Martnez-Ferndez, Jason Yaremko, Manuel Fernnez Santalices, and Teresa

Fernndez Soneira) most of whose works I became familiar with in Dr. Sherry Johnsons

research seminar on Cuba in 2006.

SLIDE 9 - BRAZILWith the literature on Brazil I was a bit at a disadvantage because of the

lack of a Brazilianist in the history department, especially one who was familiar with the rich

literature on politics and religion in Brazil. Dr. Timothy Power, in the political science

department, introduced me to the national literature on modern Brazil while I was in LACC

before he moved to the University of Oxford. Dr. Ana Maria Bidegain stepped into the gap and

introduced me to the abundant literature on religion and politics in Brazil as well as to key

people who I was able to interview for my masters thesis and whose work I later turned to for

information on the Catholic student movement in Brazil. These included Luiz Alberto Gomes de

Souza, Jose Oscar Beozzo, both of whom I met personally and interviewed, and who have

written excellent histories of the JUC, the Brazilian student movement. Other sources on Brazil


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included Scott Mainwarring, Thomas Bruneau, Kenneth Serbin, Andrew Chesnut, Christian

Smith, Michael Loewy, and Manuel A. Vsquez.

TheorySLIDE 10 - There were also a number of theoretical themes that I wished to address in my

dissertation that required extensive reading of back ground literature. On the analysis of

ideology, used Karl Mannnheim and Gramsci who wrote extensively on ideology. Also useful

were Geertz, David Minar, John Thompson and Douglas Kellner. An understanding of the

difference between ideology and simple religious faith was central to the themes studied in my

dissertation.

SLIDE 11 - I drew upon various concepts from Antonio Gramsci and Max Weber for my

initial theory of religion and social change. However, I often felt frustrated by a certain

theoretical ambiguity in my project and ended up taking a bit of a grounded theory approach

by accumulating large amounts of data and trying to make sense of it from several theoretical

perspectives. From Gramsci, I drew the idea of a gradual process of consciousness-raising

through formation in critical awareness , or what he called the war of maneuver. He believed

that social change could be brought about through an incremental process of recruiting, training

and mobilizing members of the working classes to think and act critically on their social position

and circumstances, thereby becoming what he called organic intellectuals. This process was

remarkably similar to the recruitment and formation process of specialized Catholic Action,

which resulted in the formation of Catholic militants who were taught to apply a process of

critical discernment to their circumstances and to act as change agents.

Max Weber applies the categories of social class and status to religion and demonstrates

that religion most often reflects the same social divisions as is found in society. Those of the


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upper classes, the cultural and political elite, or the dominant government bureaucracy will find

recourse to religion as a form of legitimation for their social privilege. The marginalized

underclasses may turn to what Weber calls a religion of salvation which assigns to them a

special calling or gives them hope for an overturn of the current status quo and a better future in

the kingdom of God. In some cases, a religion of salvation has the potential to inspire revolution,

as was the case of the German peasants at the time of the Reformation.

SLIDE 12 - A third theoretical theme that developed as I worked on my dissertation was the

concept of a concrete historical ideal which was articulated by Jacques Maritain, a French

Catholic philosopher in the first half of the twentieth century. Maritain proposed a concretehistorical ideal which represented a historically achievable ideal. This was not a perfect abstract

utopia, but had obvious limitations and imperfections. The concrete historical ideal must be

capable of existing in a given historical climate . Maritains idea was that t his would create a

possibility to envision and prepare for a better future for society while bypassing the pitfalls of

doctrinaire utopianism. Maritains idea of the concrete historical ideal had a significant influence

upon several generations of Catholic lay activists.

SLIDE 13 - At the very end of my dissertation writing process I stumbled upon an essay by

a Jesuit political philosopher, John A. Coleman that drew together these various theoretical

threads into a coherent theory of religious social movements and societal change. Coleman

proposes that the belief in the incarnation causes a paradox in Christianity that forces it to try to

adapt to the world in order to change it into a concrete historical idea (i.e. the kingdom of God)

but keeps it from adapting to the point that it loses its prophetic role of ethical critique of the

world. In other words, the church must be in the world but must never become of the world.

Without going into how Colemans theory applies other world historical cases such as those


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studies by Ernst Troelstch of the Medieval Church and the Reformation, Coleman proposes that

the church can have a world transformative mission if it fulfills thr ee essential conditions.

SLIDE 13 1) First, there must be an underlying and irresolvable tension between a

compelling vision for an ideal social order based on mutuality, community and justice (what

Weber calls acosmic love, or an ethic of brotherliness), and the need to accommodate such a

vision to the mundane world as it exists. Such a religious movement must not take flight from the

world, nor can it fully accommodate itself with the world. It must be fully in the world but stand

in prophetic opposition to it as it points to a potential higher order of society (in traditional

Christian thinking this is represented as the kingdom of God on earth). 1SLIDE 13 2) Second, in order for a church-based movement to have a transformative

effect on society, the laity must be effectively mobilized into a high level of commitment to view

the world and their work as an arena of highest priority for religious action. The laity must be

solidly convinced to act decisively and consistently to promote religious values within the

secular spheres of society. The clergy can make moral declarations to society and the political

sphere, but only the laity can effectively be change agents in the secular sphere. They are the

ones who go to work every day, go the university to study and only they actually live in the

profane realm and interact with it five or six days a week. The religious hierarchy must elicit this

commitment from the laity and empower them to carry out their worldly vocation without

overriding or limiting their autonomy. SLIDE 13 3) This leads to the third and final condition

which is for the effective and sustained mobilization of lay energies around practical action to

influence the social order by infusing religious values into the "secular realm in the attempt to

move the existing social order towards a concrete historical ideal. 2 Such a transformative

1 Coleman, Strategic Theology, 39.2 Ibid., 39.


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mission is to be carried out by the influence of the laity in secular spheres of society at the grass-

roots level. This social transformation is accomplished through the incarnational and prophetic

action of highly committed lay people in their respective secular venues of work, community and

social class.3

Historical sources and archivesSLIDE 14 - By far my greatest source of primary data regarding Catholic Action in both

Brazil and Cuba was Ana Maria Bidegains personal collection SLIDE 15 - She graciously allowed

me to peruse her extensive archives containing personal and organizational correspondence,

SLIDE 16 - flyers, organizational journals, reports, updates, SLIDE 17 - bulletins and newsletters.

Her extensive collection was organized by country and by organization SLIDE 18 -, allowing me to

concentrate on Brazil, Cuba and the various transnational centers of Pax Romana in Swizterland

and Jeunesse Catolique Etudiant International in Paris. I thanked God for my undergraduate

minor in French, and the FLAS studies in Portuguese, which, in addition to Spanish, allowed me

to read the primary documents and translate them where needed.

SLIDE 19 - A Tinker grant and the FIU DEA allowed me to travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil,

where I had access to forty hours of recorded interviews with former members of the Brazilian

Catholic student movement, at the Centro de Documentao e Informao Cientfica at the

Pontifical Catholic University de So Paulo. I also had opportunities to personally interview

several former Catholic militants in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro who had written their own

histories of the student movement, Jose Oscar Beozzo, and Luiz Alberto Gomez de Souza. I must


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mention that was able to contact them thanks to introductions by Ana Maria Bidegain during my

masters thesis research.

SLIDE 20 - In 2010, Dr. Sherry Johnson and I traveled to Havana thanks to a Cuban

Research Institute travel grant, SLIDE 21- where I was access and photographed nearly a thousand

documents relating to Catholic Action in the Archbishoprics library archives SLIDE 22-. I must

thank Dr. Johnson for making possible both the travel grant, and the introductions to key people

and institutions in Cuba for my research. I was only able to scratch the surface SLIDE 23, 24, 25,

26, 27- while I was there, and I hope to return to further examine the archives in the Archbishopric

as well as the Franciscan and Dominican archives.

SLIDE 28- Also in 2010, I spent several weeks in the Latin American Center of the

University of Florida going through microfilm of Brazilian newspapers. UF has the best

collection of Brazilian newspapers and periodicals within driving distance of South Florida.

Again, Dr. Johnson facilitated introductions and graciously allowed Debbie and I to stay in her

home in Citra while we were there.

SLIDE 29- I was also awarded a one month fellowship by the Cuban Heritage Center at

Richter Library of the University of Miami in May 2012. SLIDE 29-1a I was able to read a number

of rare books and journals, in particular, the Franciscan journal La Quincena , SLIDE 29-1b as well

as to review many of their online video interviews with Cuban exiles. They were extremely

gracious when Debbie died during the fellowship and allowed me to finish my research after my

return.

SLIDE 30- Another extremely useful resource was the digital copies of the Vatican

newspaper Osservatore Romano which is available on CDs on the fifth floor (sound and visual

media) of Green Library. A fellow graduate student, Antoniette di Pietro, helped me get enough


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basic Italian to be able to sort through the headlines looking for appropriate articles. I also

benefited from a semester course on Ethnohistory in the Wolfsonian archives.

Findings and/or contribution to knowledge SLIDE 31- Although there have been many national studies of Catholic Action, and a few

of the specialized form of the Catholic university movements, as far as I know, there has never

been a comparative study of the Catholic university movements emanating from the two

different streams of Catholic Action: the general Roman form and the specialized Franco-

Belgian forms of Catholic Action. At the same time, most of the studies of either form of

Catholic Action use the nation-state as their unit of analysis. SLIDE 32- In my dissertation, I not

only compare these above mentioned forms of Catholic Action, I carry out my analysis

transnationally, and trace the ideological diffusion from the European sources through nexus

points such as Quebec and Spain to their Latin American end points in Brazil and Cuba. I also

attempt to place their respective histories in the geo-political contexts of the Cold War, the

Cuban Revolution, the Brazilian military dictatorship and the Second Vatican Council.

CONCLUSIONSLIDE 32- Ernst Troelstch, in his comprehensive and painstaking two volume study, The

social teaching of the Christian churches (1912) outlines two moments in history when

Christianity made a substantial and formative ethical impact on Western Society, the medieval

period and the Reformation. Several modern scholars have referred to Troelstchs study to

suggest that Catholic Action youth in its various branches and manifestations nearly achieved a

third case of ethical influence on Western Society in the twentieth century. By the end of the

forty year period of this study, C.A. was involved in over 70 countries, and had influenced tens


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of thousands of young people in two generations (more likely hundreds of thousands but reliable

figures have are difficult to compile). That it ultimately did not may be attributed to two factors;

1) interference from the church hierarchy in the attempt to reign in the autonomy of Catholic lay

activists (Italy in the 1930s, Brazil and Spain in the mid-1960s); and 2) the tendency of Catholic

Action militant youth to become over politicized and to lose their religious or spiritual anchor

(Brazil and poss ibly Cuba in the 1960s). According to Colemans theory, one of the prerequisites

for a church movement to exercise a world transforming influence is to maintain the

uncomfortable tension between a spiritual or religious ethical perspective and a militantly activist

involvement in the social and political spheres. If either pole is removed or diluted, the churchmovement loses its ability to be effective in its transformational mission.

catholic student movements in latin america cuba and brazil, 1920s to 1960s

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