Catholics and Protestants both strongly mobilized against the horrors of the military regime in Brazil, forging their religious beliefs with a fierce devotion to social justice.

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Click here to read an essay by Ralph Della Cava. This paper examines the Catholic Church’s interaction with Brazilian society from the military coup of 1964 through the years of repression and the long process of the abertura up to the inauguration of the New Republic in 1985. The author emphasizes the changing nature of the Church’s role in the abertura, and outlines the history of the “People’s Church” during this period, in particular the proliferation of the Comunidades Eclesiais de Base. The concluding section analyzes the turn to a conservative restoration within the Church in relation to the question of the durability of the CEBs.