The churches contribution to citizenship in Brazil.

• Author: von Sinner, Rudolf
• Position: Essay

To govern is to steer through a swampy area full of mines.

--Frei Betto (1)

Brazil underwent a long and arduous transition process from an authoritarian to a democratic regime in the latter half of the 20th century, as part of what Samuel Huntington has called the Third Wave of democracy (2) On 1 April 1964, the military assumed control of the country in what its leaders called a revolution, and by 1968 had installed a highly repressive regime. While Brazil passed through these leaden years, it witnessed an economic miracle, with growth rates exceeding 12 percent. (3) The oil crisis of 1973, however, abruptly halted this growth and eroded popular support for the regime. This set off a transition in 1974 that originated under strong government control, but was gradually taken over by civil society The churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church, have been among the main actors in this transition. (4) The Worker's Party under Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was founded in 1979 when previously only two parties had been allowed to organize, one for the government and one for the opposition, both with very limited power. In 1985, a civilian government returned to power, and at last, in 1989, the first post-regime direct presidential election was held. Democratic stability and political consolidation was achieved under Fernando Henrique Cardoso's presidency (1995-2002). Following Cardoso's term, enormous hopes were invested in da Silva's presidential election in late 2002. The public viewed the election of da Silva, a metal worker from the poor Northeast with little formal education, as an important symbol of increased representation for the non-elite majority in Brazil. However, events in 2005 showed that his government would not remain free of corruption. An opinion poll showed that 90 percent of the population does not trust politicians, which confirms a general tendency that was certainly reinforced by the year's events. (5) While the president was able to regain his prestige by 2006 when he was elected for a second term, the government's public image remained tainted.

CITIZENSHIP AND THE LACK OF TRUST

Indeed, one of the main difficulties of democracy in Brazil is the public's lack of trust in its effectiveness. (6) It is precisely in this regard that churches can make an important contribution. According

to data gathered for the World Economic Forum, "religious groups and churches" headed the list of institutions with "much" or at least "some" credibility among the population (65 percent) followed by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the armed forces and the media. Political institutions, like the police, the government and congress, in turn, have rates well below 50 percent. (7) Religious groups and especially churches can use this credibility to mediate between people and the state, as well as to reassure citizens of the fact that faith (pistis in Greek, which also means trust), and the faith community, can make them capable of risking trust and investing in convivencia (communal support and interaction). (8) This contribution was recognized by President da Silva in his address to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 17 February 2006:

The democracy and freedom achieved by the Brazilian people owe much to the participation and solidarity of the churches ... All of us here believe that spiritual strength is indispensable in order to foster indefatigable individual and collective militancy, in solidarity, for the common good. Minds, hearts and willing hands that share values of love and respect for others are certainly essential for building a kingdom of justice in this world of inequalities ... Friends, in many cases, it is the nationwide and grassroots presence of religious institutions that have enabled the state to provide social security benefits to the population through agreements and partnerships. Both by raising the awareness of the people and through organizing the gathering of data for social purposes, or even through financing government programs, religious institutions have played an irreplaceable role in this process of transformation in Brazil. And we are confident that this cooperation will become closer and closer. (9) Since the 1980s, citizenship has become a central concept for an effective, participatory democracy in Brazil. Following T.H. Marshall's famous triad, authors generally define citizenship as having civil, political and social rights. (10) For most authors, the concept further includes the real possibility of access to rights, the consciousness of one's duties and the extension of citizen participation in the social and political life of one's country. Effective citizen participation is becoming central, as is the political culture by which such participation is encouraged or hindered. (11) Thus, the concept of citizenship is embedded in a plurality of aspects, sectors and actors, touching on concepts such as the public sphere, civil society and democracy. (12)

What precisely is the contribution churches can make towards democracy and citizenship? In my perception, churches contribute mainly on three levels: 1) through direct debate with the government and its branches, 2) through participation in civil society and 3) by serving as schools for citizenship to foster democratic thinking and practice both in relation to the state and society, as well as to their own internal functioning. Evidently, all churches do not contribute equally on all three levels, as I shall attempt to demonstrate in the following sections.

CHURCHES IN THE CONTEXT OF SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION

Since colonial times, Brazil has been a predominantly Christian country. According to the 2000 census, the Roman Catholic Church continues to hold the majority of believers (73 percent), followed by the booming Pentecostal and Neopentecostal churches (10.4 percent). (13) Historic Protestant churches of immigrant or missionary origin make up 5 percent of the population, while Spiritists (1.4 percent), African Brazilian (0.3 percent) and other religions together constitute 3.3 percent. (14) The biggest shift in religious groups has been from Catholics to Pentecostals, a religious subgroup that nearly doubled from 1991 (5.6 percent) to 2000 (10.4 percent). In what follows, I shall look mainly at the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (Igreja Evangelica de Confissao Luterana no Brasil, IECLB) and the Assemblies of God (Assembldias de Deus, AD), which represent a large percentage of Brazilian Christians. The Roman Catholic Church was introduced when the Portuguese colonized Brazil in 1500. Today Brazil holds some 125 million Catholic believers. The IECLB, which was established in Brazil by German immigrants in 1824, counts roughly three quarters of a million people among its members. The AD, which began through the work of Swedish missionaries who had passed through the United States in 1911, includes approximately 8.4 million members.

The Roman Catholic Church

Within the Roman Catholic Church, the 1950s was a period of fostering social awareness and activity, resulting in a new generation of progressive leadership. The Catholic Action adopted the French-Belgian model of creating specific organizations for different sectors of society, especially youth organizations for high school students, workers and university students, among others. However, "by 1968, the most innovative Catholic experiment since the French worker-priests had forcibly come to a halt" as the Catholic Action was dismantled. (15) Even so, their heritage remained influential, as many liberation theologians and other church activists emerged from the Catholic Action and adopted its method of "see--judge--act," beginning with a social analysis of the context before proceeding to interpretation in the light of faith, to then turn to action. (16)

The Church Base Communities (Comunidades Eclesiais de Base, CEBs), created in the 1950s, are small groups of church members that gather regularly under lay leadership. (17) While CEBs were originally created to address the notorious shortage of priests and to better reach members religiously and socially, they gradually evolved into politically "conscientized" groups (following Paulo Freire's concept of a pedagogy of the oppressed) and began reading the Bible with eyes open to the context, while also taking action by mobilizing pressure on local authorities for clean water, sewage, education, health services and the like, mainly at the periphery of great urban centers, but also in rural areas. (18)

The Roman Catholic Church, albeit no longer an established church since the First Republic of 1889, continued to understand itself as the religion of the Brazilians and sought to pursue its project of maintaining hegemony against atheist and Pentecostal threats. Initially, the church welcomed the military's revolution as it re-established order and combated communism. The church remained relatively passive, observing what it expected to be a short-lived military government which would soon give power back to democratically elected representatives.

However, when the church itself began to feel the repression from 1968 onwards, even moderate bishops...