catholic student movements 1920s-1960s

7/27/2019 Catholic Student Movements 1920s-1960s

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CATHOLIC STUDENTMOVEMENTS INLATIN AMERICA

CUBA AND BRAZIL1920s TO 1960sJoseph Holbrook


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Origins of the Project General Research Question

Religion and Society

Catholicism and Political Culture

Masters Thesis in LACC

Religious monopoly and pluralism on democracyin Colombia and Brazil


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2006 - History Dr. Sherry Johnson and interest in

Cuba Research seminar/Catholicism in Cuba

1960s, a revolutionary decade

A new pope, the Cuba Revolution The Second Vatican Coucil (1962-1965)

The Brazilian Military Dictatorship


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Two types ofCatholic Action

Italian general Catholic Action

Diocesa based, gender driven and controlled

by the Bishops Focused on piety and liturgy

Franco-Belgian specialized C.A.

Sodalities based on social class Controlled by student-laypeople

Focused on social activism


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Ideological Influences The Catholic Atlantic

Transnational diffusion.

GCA: Italy Spain Cuba. SCA: Belgium France Quebec

Brazil Liberation Theology? Theological trends within Catholicism:

Nouvelle Theologie vs

traditional scholasticism


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Literature Review Religion and Politics

B idegain , Lev ine, Vsquez, and Lowey

Sociology of Religion (& Secularization) Gramsc i, Weber, Bellah, Berger, Casano va

and Mart in

National Histories Spain (Morc i l lo Payne)

Italy , France, Quebec


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Cuba 2006 - Research Seminar on Cuba

Louis Perez, Jr ., Sherry Johnson

Protestantism: Marcos Anton io Ramos,Lu is Mar tnez-Ferndez, Jason Yaremko

Catholicism: Manuel Fernnez Santal ices ,

and Teresa Fernndez Soneira) 2006 John Kirk, Leo Falcon(masters thesis)


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Brazil No Brazilianists in History

Dr. Timothy PowerVictor Uribe

Dr. Ana Maria Bidegain - Lu iz A lbertoGomes de Souza, Jose Oscar Beozzo.

Other sources: Sco tt Mainw arr ing , Thomas

Bruneau, Kenneth Serbin, And rew

Chesnu t, Christ ian Smith , Michael Loewy ,

and Manuel A . Vsquez.


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Theory Ideology

Morci l lo, Ricouer, Mannnheim , Gramsci .

Also Geertz, Minar, Thompson and Kellner.(Slavoj iek just at the end)

Theoretical ambiguity = grounded theory

approach by accumulating large amounts

of data and trying to make sense of it from

several theoretical perspectives.


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Gramcsci & Weber Gramsci:

conscientization,

war of maneuver, organic intellectuals.

Weber:

religion of salvation vs. religion of adaptation to the world.

Social class and status.


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Jacques Maritain The Concrete Historical Ideal

Not abstract Utopia

capable of existing in a given historicalclimate. This would create a possibility for a

philosophy of culture to envision and prepare

for future temporal realizations while

bypassing a utopian phase.~ Coleman


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John A. Coleman Draws together Weber and Maritain into

a coherent theory of church

movements and social change1. Dynamic tension with society

2. Highly committed and activist laity

3. A consistent pastoral strategy toempower the laity in their transformatioal

mission


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Sources and Archives Dr. Bidegains personal collection


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Sources and Archives Ana Maria Bidegains personal

collection

Organized by nation: Brazil and

Cuba

Orgaized by organization:

JECI and

Pax Romana


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Personal and organizational

correspondence


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Flyers, bulletins, journals, updates and

newsletters, conference reports


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PUC de So Paulo The FIU DEA and a

Tinker travel grant

made it possible for

me to go totranscribe and

translate forty

hours of interviewswith former student

militants in Brazil.


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AchivosdelAcebispado

Thanks to a CRI travel grant. Havana December 2009

Dr. Sherry John son

Ju l io Capo

Joseph Holbrook

Keith Manuel


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Catholic Action files

25 folders.

Examined 6.

Docs: from1944-1966

658 digital

photos.


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Letters

Official

Correspondence

of

Archbishop

Manuel Arteaga


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Newsletters:

Catholic

Action

Youth


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Young

Christian

Workers


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J.F.A.C.C.

Official organ of

Juventud

Femenina de

Accin CatlicaCubana

Srta. America

Penichet, Ed.


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CabellerosCatlicos de

Cuba

1960


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LAC at U.F. in Gainesville

Also in 2010, I spent several weeks in the

Latin American Center of the University of

Florida going through microfilm of Brazilian

newspapers.

Dr. Johnson facilitated introductions and

graciously allowed Debbie and I to stay in

her home in Citra while we were there.


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2011 - A semester course on Ethnohistory

in the Wolfsonian archives

2012 - Cuban Heritage Collection at U. M.in May

Franciscan journal La Quincena, -


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online video interviews with Cuban exiles.

Note: They were extremely graciou s when Debbie

died dur ing the fel lowship and allowed me to f in ish

my research after my return.

Vatican newspaperOsservatore Romano

in Green Library

Thanks to Antoniette di Pietro, for basic Italian


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Findings/contributionto knowledge

Comparative study of two distinct

Catholic university movements within

Catholic Action: General Italian form

Specialized Franco-Belgian forms of Catholic

Action.

And two different nations: Brazil, Cuba


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Findings/contributionto knowledge

Transnational Linkages

Ideological diffusion from the Europe to

Brazil and Cuba. Geo-political contexts:

The Cold War,

Cuban Revolution, Brazilian military dictatorship

Second Vatican Council.


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CONCLUSIONS Ernst Troelstch, The social teach ing of

the Christ ian churches(1912)

Two moments in history whenChristianity made a substantial and

formative ethical impact on Western

Society: 1) the medieval period

2) the Reformation


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CONCLUSIONS Some modern scholars have referred to

Troelstchs study to suggest that

Cathol ic Ac t ion youth in i ts var iousbranches and manifestat ion s near ly

achieved a third case of ethical

inf luence on Western Soc iety in thetwent ieth centu ry.


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CONCLUSIONS By the 1960s, Catholic Action was

active in over 70 nations.

In Brazil, the Catholic Action studentmovement took over the national

student union and was advising the

President, Joao Goulart. Catholic Action came very close to

making a significant and lasting ethical

impact on Catholic civilizations.


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CONCLUSIONS That it ultimately did not may be

attributed to two factors;

1) Interference from the churchhierarchy (Italy, 1930s; Brazil and

Spain, mid-1960s);

2) Over politicization and consequentloss of sacred dimension (Brazil and

Cuba).

catholic student movements 1920s-1960s

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