Modernidade e Catolicismo: o episcopado de Dom José Medeiros Delgado no Ceará (1963-1973)

Abstract

In Brazil, the modernizing impact of the 1950s and 1960s and the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, has produced fears within the conservative sectors of Brazilian society, especially for the Catholic church. In these years, two perspectives of interpretation about those signs of modernity had been solidified and radicalized: one from liberal hue which argued that the Church should be open to new times; another, inherently conservative, was articulated in order to disqualifying efforts on update and insertion of the Church on problematic of Brazilian reality. The first stream, was named the "Catholic Left" for defending theses that could cause disruptions in the socioeconomic structure that kept the country in the list of underdeveloped nations and has its origin in movements led by bishops, priests and laity, especially from the Northeast, such as "Movement from Natal", the creation of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) and the "Basic Education Movement". At that historical moment, the Second Vatican Council, convened by Pope John XXIII, assumes before the Catholic Church a position of openness, dialogue with the world and challenge of an aggiornamento, inspiring new designs to Catholicism, corroborating, somehow, some actions already developed by pastoral from Church in Brazil, especially in the Northeast. The main scope of this thesis is to narrate the major social, political and pastoral issues that marked the passing of Don Jose de Medeiros Delgado by Archbishop of Fortaleza, between the 1960s and 1970s decades.