From: nmuller@ems.cdc.com (Nelson Muller)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.brazil
Subject: Re: Interview with Dom Pedro Casaldaliga
Date: 11 Nov 92 15:29:31 GMT
Reply-To: MAKE_ADDRESS(USER,ems.cdc.com)
Organization: Empros Systems International, a division of CDC


|> 
|> By the way, something else...
|> --<Nelson Muller> writes:
|> >I think the Church has no business interfering in political and power
|> >strugle in Brazil or any other country in which the constitution clearly
|> >indicates a total separation between state and Church.  The Church's
|> 
|> Nelson, you are right that the church, as a religious institution should
|>                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^
|> not interfere on the processes of directing a society, but things are not
|> so simple. In a democratic society not only the citizens but also institutions
|> (democratic or not) participate on the political processes of a society (you
|> know what lobying is ...). In fact many of our actions have a political
|> component, whether we are aware of it or not. The Theology of Liberation
|> recognizes man as not only a spiritual entity but also as a physical entity.
|> This means that the processes related to the physical entities of man should
|> not be ignored by the church. People must have also food, education, work
|> and a happy life; not only promisses of a living in a paradise when they die.
|> Now you probably understand how controversial this can be if the whole population
|> of a christian, Catholic nation, like Brazil would, with the help of the church,
|> develop consciousness about the political processes in which they are involved.
|> The abstract spiritual statement of "to share the bread with your brother"
|> has deeper consequences if it would be generalized to more concrete physical
|> contexts in the brazilian society.
|> This can be considered as an utopical assumption, but I'm sure the consequences
|> would be very, very big for Brazil.

I agree in part with you that all institutions participate on the political
process.  What worries me is that double standards are used by the Catholic
Church.  From a religious point of view the Church has the capability of
modifying peoples behavior and attitude.  The Church talk a lot about bringing
food, education and work to the more impoverished ones so that they can live
a life with dignity.  There may be several charitable organizations sponsored
by the Church with that goal.  However, the Church's policies on a more political
sense - what I mean with that in Brazil is the Church's influence in Brasilia -
is totally different.  The Church needs the poor for its own survival.  Those make
up their members and those are the ones that go to church for spiritual
relief.  Maintaining a large number of ignorant (not scholarly educated) people
going to church is one of the Church's main goal.  You know as much as I do
that more educated people will question the Church's position on several
issues, including divorce, abortion and its overall role in modern society.
The Church keep telling church goers that they are sinners and should come
to church more often to "pay off" for their sin.  The more people go the more
influential the Church gets and the more the Church wants to maintain the
current status quo, up to a point in which the Church becomes a
political instituiton on its own.  Now look, the Church is a state on its own,
and the Church's political influence in Brazil is an interference in
brazilian internal affairs by an external country.  By looking at the Church's
role throughout the world, specially Latin America, we see clearly that the
Vatican becomes one of the most powerful states in the United Nations with
a lot more than one single vote.

|> 
|> 
|> Once more,lets see the clear differences between affecting power directly and
|> participating democratically on the ideological and political processes of a society.
|> As an instrument for a true democracy, the church cannot be excluded of the political
|> processes the brazilian society must go through to give a better life to its people.
|> 
|> Tchau, Abracos,
|> 
|> A. Macchi III

regards,

Nelson