Integralism and the Brazilian Catholic Church

Author(s): Margaret Todaro Williams

Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review , Aug., 1974, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Aug.,
1974), pp. 431-452
Published by: Duke University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2512932

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 Integralism and the Brazilian
Catholic Church

MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS'*

M I OST SCHOLARS HAVE APPROACHED THE SUBJECT of Bra-

zilian Integralism either comparatively-as a hybrid

of Continental Fascism-or ideologically-as Brazil's
first right-wing, radical movement. Generally, however, neither ap-
proach has emphasized its intellectual and spiritual affinity to the
Brazilian Catholic Church of the 1930s or noted the nature of its po-
litical connection with the Church. The more dramatic aspects of
Integralism, such as its violence and its fascist trappings (green shirts,
salutes, goose-stepping marches), have obscured the fact that Integral-
ism often acted, although implicitly, as a political arm of the Catholic
Church. It is the contention of this essay that attention to the symbi-
otic relationship obtaining between the Integralist movement and the
Catholic Church between 1932 and 1937 sheds light on some
frequently disregarded characteristics of Brazilian fascism and the
nature of "political Catholicism" in this period. The Integralists'
philosophical dependence on Catholic doctrine and the significant
sphere of influence it offered the Church coincided with the Church's
search for means to aggrandize its power in the state within the con-
text of an elitist political strategy.
The fact that the Brazilian Catholic Church of the 1930s pursued
a multi-pronged approach to political power, utilizing diversified groups
and tactics to attain its ends, has dimmed historians' awareness of the
Church-Integralist accord. Such a shotgun approach to power was
developed by Sebastiao Cardinal Leme, authoritative leader of the
Church from 1928 until his death in 1942. Leme long had perceived the
Church as an institution beleaguered by the growth of competitive
value systems and by the position of inferiority imposed on it by the
Constitution of 1891.1 His choice of an essentially elitist political

* The author is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern

California.
1. Leme had expressed these views as early as 1916 in an aggressive and
polemical pastoral greeting to his new archdiocese of Olinda. See A carta pastorl

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 432 HAHR AUGUST MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS

strategy to reverse these conditions can be understood within the his-

torical context of ecclesiastical priorities springing from the Church's
problems of survival in the First Republic.
Disestablishment in 1889 had legislated the virtual isolation of the
Church from the public realm. The Constitution of 1891 further crip-
pled it by denying state financial aid to the Church. After separation,
however, the institutionally weak Church rapidly developed close ties
to Rome. By the 1920S, buttressed by the importation of foreign priests
and monies, the Church had become a well-run institution anxious to
regain its legal and formal preeminence in the nation. Assuming the
inherent Catholicity of the Brazilian people, it turned its attention to
the formation of efficient units to aid in increasing Church influence
upon a hostile or, at best, indifferent state.
Interest conflict or, better, its perception served as the midwife of
Church associability. Thus, as Archbishop-Coadjutor of Rio de Janeiro
(1921-1928), Dom Leme encouraged the formation of spearhead
groups to galvanize lay support for the defense of the Church. In 1921
he supported the polemical Catholic journalist, Jackson de Figueiredo,
in the creation of the Centro Dom Vital, a lay organization dedicated
to mobilizing and politicizing Catholic intellectuals. In 1922, Leme
himself founded the Catholic Confederation, the prototype of what
later would become Brazilian Catholic Action. It aimed at the for-
mation of militant laymen, "leaders and condottieri" to "regiment
forces for battle" under the "single command" of the hierarchy.2
The 1930-1937 period, however, marked the most directly political
phase of the Church's history in Brazil until its more recent re-politici-
zation, along other lines, in the last fifteen years. With the overthrow of
the First Republic by the rebel forces of Getilio Vargas in 1930, Leme
saw the opportunity to re-engage the Church in political life. The
Revolution of 1930 unexpectedly and profoundly broke down old
principles of political stability. Frequently in times of political crisis
or portentous change, a national church will become funded with a
large reserve of traditional loyalty. These conditions in Brazil now set
the stage for coalitional arrangements between the Church and politi-
cal groups, direct appeals to mass emotion, and direct hierarchical
interventions in the political realm.
Capitalizing on the initial instability of the Vargas regime to

de Sua Eminencia Sr. Cardeal Dom Leme, quando arcebispo de Olinda saudando
os seus diocesanos (Petropolis, 1938), pp. 2-7.
2. "Actas das sess6es da Confederagdo Cath6lica do Rio de Janero-Sessao
inaugural," Rio de Janeiro, Feb. 4, 1923. In Colligagao Catolica Brasileira head-
quarters, Rio de Janeiro.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 433

maximize Church influence in the new government, Dom Leme or-

ganized two massive, popular demonstrations of support for the Church
in 1931. He thus impressed upon the regime the extent of the latent
power of Catholic sentiments. Through direct bargaining and personal-
ized quid pro quo relations throughout the decade, Lemne pressed home
the advantage, obtaining from the government guarantees of religious
instruction in public schools and the maintenance of the divorce pro-
hibition.3
Rather than depend entirely on Vargas's goodwill toward the
Church, Leme continued to rely heavily on the tactic of associative
plurality, the creation or support of alternative associations purporting
to serve the Church's general interests and to represent the same clien-
tele.4 In 1932 he created a nationwide political pressure group to aid
in the election of politicians sworn to protect Church political princi-
ples. This group, the Catholic Electoral League (Liga Eleitoral Cato-
lica, or LEC), screened all political candidates and parties, thus meet-
ing Leme's prescription for nonpartisan activity. LEC recruited power-
ful allies for the Church at the Constituent Assembly (1933-1934),
where it successfully defended Catholic political postulates. In 1935
he created Brazilian Catholic Action (Aqao Cato'lica Brasileira, or
ACB) and molded it to Italian corporative lines. Its primary task in-
volved the formation of a Catholic elite, an "organized apostolate. . .
closely knit and well-structured" to penetrate various environments and
classes in Brazil with the Church's social message.5
One other form of activism lay open to concerned Catholics in the
1930s. Although Cardinal Leme consistently opposed the formation of
a Catholic Party as contravening the "supra-partisan" spirit of the
Church, throughout the decade he encouraged Catholic support of the
Brazilian Integralist movement (Aqdo Integralista Brasileira, or AIB).
Careful never to ally the Church formally to Integralism, the Brazilian
hierarchy's cordiality toward the movement nonetheless served notice of
its "supra-partisan" approval. As a result, large numbers of Brazil's
Catholic intellectuals, militant laymen, priests, and bishops worked
actively in the movement, often holding high political offices.
3. Irma Maria Regina do Santo Rosario (Laurita Pessoa Gabaglia), 0 cardeal
Leme (Rio de Janeiro, 1962), p. 289.
4. Philippe C. Schmitter stresses the differences between plurality and pluralism
in Interest Conflict and Political Change in Brazil (Stanford, Calif., 1971),
pp. 12-13. The former refers simply to the availability of alternative associations,
The latter refers to national patterns of political conflict among many autonomous
groups.
5. Sebastigo Cardeal Leme, "Prefacio," Estatutos provis6rios para as organi-
zaQdes fundamentals da Agdo Catolica na arquidiocese do Rio de Janeiro (Rio
de Janeiro, 1935), p. 13.

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434 HAHR AUGUST I MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS
Catholics in other Latin American nations made similar ideologic
choices in the 1930S. Social and economic inequities related to an
exaggerated notion of individual liberty had fostered their disen-
chantment with liberal democracy. Yet the Latin Catholic intelligentsia
also rejected the Marxist doctrine of class struggle. Their search for a
"third way," an effort not yet sufficiently investigated or appreciated,
often led them to espouse modified versions of European fascism. All
of them looked with interest to Mussolini's accommodation with the
Church in the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The Juventud Conservadora y
la Falange Nacional, forerunner of the Chilean Christian Democratic
Party, adopted a corporatist ideology and certain fascist trappings
(uniforms, paramilitary organization), while repudiating the statism of
Mussolini. Catholic intellectuals in Argentina supported the ideas
of the right-wing ideologue, Father Julio Meinvielle, and the corporate
state of General Uriburu. Similar trends in Uruguay and Peru reflected
the concern of Catholic leaders, both with seeking alternative political
models and with defending traditional and hierarchical Church val-
ues.6
Only in Brazil, however, did a major fascist party develop. It
differed significantly from what the political sociologist, Seymour Mar-
tin Lipset, has described as classic fascist movements of the political
center.7 Like these, Integralism opposed liberalism and socialism and
appealed to threatened middle classes. Unlike these, Integralism strik-
ingly exhibited characteristics particular to extremist ideologies of the
political right: conservatism, traditionalism, opposition to revolu-
tion, emphasis on the preservation (not destruction) of national insti-
tutions, and strong ties to Catholicism.
The AIB and the Church were drawn to each other by both ideo-
logical and practical considerations. In the realm of political ideology,
a spontaneous and natural affiliation developed between the Church
and Integralism. The overriding single issue involved in Brazilian
church history in the 1930S pertained to the distribution of power.
Leme sought to regain power for the Church in order to use it for a
"higher purpose," that is, the creation and aggrandizement of a stable,
Christian order. Since the supernatural institution required the state
as the instrument through which to work out its inner imperative,
Church elites naturally preferred to operate in a state that shared its
ultimate political vision. AIB designs for a corporatist Integral State,
6. Michael Fleet, "Ideological Tendencies within Chilean Christian Democracy,"
Diss. UCLA 1971, pp. 359-361; Frederick B. Pike, "South America's Multifaceted
Catholicism: Glimpses of Twentieth-Century Argentina, Chile and Peru," in
The Church and Social Change in Latin America, ed. Henry A. Landsberger
(Notre Dame, Ind., 1970), pp. 57-60.
7. Seymour M. Lipset, Political Man (New York, 1963), pp. 128-129.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 435

which "would become the supervisor, the maintainer of equilibrium ...

the creator of social rhythms,"8 seemed perfectly in accord with the
political ideology of the Church's "revitalization movement" based on
order, hierarchy, obedience to authority, and national unity.9
In the realm of political action, each institution successfully used
the other to further shared and discrete political ends. Thus, Integral-
ism borrowed freely from the language and liturgy of Catholicism to
lend an aura of legitimacy to its actions. The Church, lacking a wide-
spread following within its own, elitist-oriented associations, tacitly
relied on the Integralist organizational grid and mass membership to
disseminate Catholic political messages. Each organization sought to
increase its bargaining power vis-a-vis the Vargas regime through
shows of strength assisted by the informal alliance. And, in terms of
clientele, the unofficial Church-Integralist accord notified the Brazilian
middle sectors, the pillar both of orthodox Catholicism and of Integral-
ism, that its interest in avoiding proletarian upheaval was being de-
fended.
Since other works already have elucidated the meaning of Integral-
ism in terms of national political alternatives open in the 1930s,10 this
essay will assess Integralism within the special confines of its meaning
and relationship to Brazilian Catholicism. Its purposes are three: to
explicate the compatibility between Church and Integralist doctrines;
to indicate the strength of Church-Integralist political ties; and, to
examine the minority opposition to these ties within the Church sys-
tem.

Brazilian Integralist Action, a quasi-fascist movement founded in

1932 by the modernist writer Plinio Salgado, purported to be "the
repercussion of Catholicism on the political plane."'' Heralding itself
as the sociopolitical projection of Catholic doctrine, Integralism justified
its own existence on spiritual, and even supernatural, grounds. The
Integral State would "orient and lead the Nation in conformity with the
laws of Jesus Christ."12
Plfnio Salgado, Supreme Chief of AIB, reflected Brazil's growing

8. Plinio Salgado, 0 Integralismo na vida brasileira, 2nd ed. (Rio de Janeiro,

1958), p. 33.
g. Jackson de Figueiredo first elaborated the ideology of the "revitalization
movement" in his works: Do nacionalismo na horn presente (Rio de Janeiro, 1921);
A reacado do bom senso: contra o demagogismo e a anarchia (Rio, 1922); Litera-
tura reacciondria (Rio, 1924); and, A coluna de fogo (Rio, 1925).
lo. The best examples are Robert M. Levine's The Vargas Regime: The Critical
Years, 1934-1938 (New York, 1970); and Thomas Skidmore, Politics in Brazil,
1930-1964: An Experiment in Democracy (New York, 1967).
11. My interview with Plinio Salgado, Brasilia, Apr. 12, 1968.
12. Sacerdos (pseudonym), 0 home integral (filosofia political de PlinTo
Salgado), (Rio de Janiero, 1957), p. 67.

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436 HAHI AUGUST MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS

nationalism. The nation's liberation from external cultural and economic

models had concerned him for at least a decade before the founding of
AIB. After the Semana de Arte Moderna in 1922, the taciturn novelist
emerged as a leader of the Verde-amarelismo movement, a form of
literary nationalism. Throughout the 1920s he sought to encourage the
literary utilization of Brazilian themes and to update the Indianism of
Jose de Alencar and Gongalves Diaz. For the latter purpose, he taught
himself the Tupi Indian dialect.13
The philosophical writings of Farias Brito and the political tracts
of Jackson de Figueiredo greatly influenced Salgado's political forma-
tion. Farias Brito had emphasized the need for a "moral regeneration"
of the nation. Jackson, himself influenced by Farias Brito, had elabo-
rated an authoritarian conception of the state, one tempered by his own
profound Catholicism and by the "moderating power" he envisioned for
the Catholic Church. Taking his orientation from them, Salgado later
would claim: "My nationalism is full of God."14
After a brief and disillusioning term in legislative office, Salgado
journeyed to Italy in 1930 and there met Benito Mussolini. The Italian
visit marked a turning point in his life. On his return to Brazil, Salgado
began to develop his Integralist ideology, a "brazilianization" and a
"Catholicization" of Italian Fascism. His ideological emphasis on the
spiritual and on subordination of the material realm to the ideal seemed
to Catholic intellectuals to differentiate Integralism adequately from
German Nazism and Italian Fascism. No one, moreover, could chal-
lenge Salgado's religious probity and motivation: "I raised myself for
Christ. For Christ I want a great Brazil. For Christ I teach the doctrine
of human solidarity and social harmony. I fight for Christ. I call to you
for Christ. I battle for Cluist."'15
In 1932, Salgado's newly formed Integralist Movement issued its own
birth announcement, the "October Manifesto." Opening with a strong
declaration of the Integralist premise that "God directs the destinies of
Peoples," the Manifesto seemed directly to importune Church col-
laboration in the building of a brave new world. Farias Brito's ideas
on the origin and finality of the human being and Jackson's ideas on the
necessity for the restoration of authority shone throughout the docu-

13. Levine provides informative biographical sketches of Salgado and Gustavo

Barroso. For information on other AIB leaders refer to Alarico Silveira, Enciclope'dia
Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, 1958).
14. A Ofensiva, March 9, 1936, p. 1. Salgado frequently equated nationalism
and Catholicism. See, for example, his "Carta de Natal' in 0 Integralismo perante
a nWao, 3rd ed., ed. Plinio Salgado (Rio de Janiero, 1955), p. 51.
15. Plinio Salgado, "Cristo e o Estado Integral," in 0 Integralismo perante.
p. 100.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 437

ment. Underlying the Manifesto's variegated propositions was a call for

the "organic unity" of the nation, the integration of the individual in
family, municipality, state, nation, and universe through corporativ-
ism."6
The corporatist ideals of the Integralists derived from medieval
Catholic doctrine. Corporativism stressed the hierarchical and har-
monious structure of distinct social groups, all linked vertically to
governing authorities. The latter, in turn, had a special asymmetrical
responsibility for the well-being of those below them. The Integralists
viewed the highest social authorities, Church and State, as possessing
the right and duty to intervene in intergroup conflicts for the sake of
social peace.
It is unlikely that the Integralist notion of the corporate state would
have resonated so strongly within the Brazilian Catholic elite had it
not corresponded to the underlying pattern of the Church's view of
society. Throughout its history in Brazil, the Catholic Church had en-
visioned the administration of social justice and welfare as a hierarchi-
cal function, paternalistically administered within a stratified society.
The Integralist corporate system now appealed to the hierarchy as a
means of perpetuating its mode of action and of achieving its social
ends within a stable and compatible political structure. The avowedly
anti-revolutionary Church of the 1930s looked with favor on the Inte-
gralist notion of corporate association as a channel not for the aggres-
sive expression of collective interest, but rather as a conduit for
paternalistic largess and supervision.
Corporativism, moreover, had been recommended to world Cath-
olics by successive popes since Leo XIII. Pius X and Benedict XV advo-
cated national corporate organization to effect the pacific collaboration
of classes and the repression of socialist intents. Pius XI's Quadragesimo
Anno considered the corporate association of classes the best means to
combat the evils of individualism.17 Thus, Brazil's hierarchy found
ample justification to support its enthusiasm for the Integralist pro-
posal.
Like Charles Maurras's Action Franqaise and Antonio Sardinha's
Integralismo Lusitano, AIB exploited a growing middle-class impa-
tience with liberal constitutionalism. Although the Integralists pro-
posed to abolish the party system and end universal suffrage, this did
not concern unduly the Catholic intelligentsia. Like other members of
the Brazilian middle class in the 1930s, Catholic intellectuals regarded

36. "Manifesto de outubro de 1932," A Ofensiva, Oct. 36, 1932, pp. 2-3.
17. Padre Leopoldo Aires, "0 corporativismo e as encyclicas sociaes," A
Ofensiva, Oct. 31, 1937, p. 3.

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 438 HAHR I AUGUST I MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS
the political parties as bankrupt and the franchise as meaningless in a
woefully illiterate nation. Yet they could not accept a class perspective
that threatened to exclude them and their church from a future modern
world of proletarian struggle and progress. Integralism appeared to
them as the solution to the capitalist-communist dilemma and the con-
ceptual shallowness of Brazilian parties. They hearkened to the words
of AIB theorist Gustavo Barroso: "Against the false mystique of
democracy and against the false mystique of communism, Integralism
erects the true mystique of the Great Moral Principles which always
have guided civilized men."'18
There seemed, moreover, to exist a one-to-one relationship between
the real and imagined enemies of Brazilian Catholicism and those of
Integralism. Both A Ofensiva (principal newspaper of AIB) and A
Ordem (principal journal of the Catholic laity) inveighed against the
four bad fruit of the French Revolution: liberalism, capitalism, social-
ism, and communism. Catholic writers for A Ordem, including the
literary critic Alceu Amoroso Lima, the poet Tasso da Silveira, Padre
Arlindo Vieira, S.J., and Padre Saboia de Medeiros, S.J., also published
frequently in A Ofensiva, Panorama, and other Integralist papers. A
remarkable similarity of apocalyptic rhetoric and political tenor linked
the two publications.
Both sides fired off their heaviest salvos against communism.
Throughout the 1930S A Ordem carried frequent articles devoted to
demonstrating the perils of the "communist menace" in general, and
the Alianga Nacional Libertadora, in particular. Its fear of the Alianga,
a united front of left-wing parties and groups, prompted the Brazilian
episcopacy to issue its "Pastoral Letter and Commandment on Athe-
istic Communism." Not above the saying of a sooth or two, the bishops
warned their faithful that a failure to adhere to religious doctrines and
strict discipline would lead inevitably to the "innundation and destruc-
tion" of the nation through a communist coup. "The threat is general.
Everyone, old and young, rich and poor, educated and ignorant, lay and
religious, will inexorably and equally share their bitter portion of pain,
despair, misery, suffering! Nothing will be respected, neither in the
moral order nor in the material order."'19
The Integralists profited from the Church's fear of communism.
They intercepted and published alleged Comintern directives urging
the Communist Party of Brazil to exterminate Integralism. They waged

i8. Gustavo Barroso, Espirito do seculo XX (Rio de Janiero, 1936), p. 14.

19. Episcopado Brasileiro, Carta pastoral e mandamento do Episcopado Bra-
sileiro sore o comunismo ateu (Rio de Janeiro, 1937), p. 5.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 439

a strenuous anti-communist publicity campaign a

continual harassment of left-wing radicals in the
activities lent credence to the growing Catholic as
ance on Integralism was a sine qua non of nationa
leaders came to publicly concur with Plinio Salgado's declaration:
"There is only one thing impermeable to the Soviet-Integralism!"20
In addition to the common enemy note, AIB struck responsive
chords among the Church elite through its emphasis on authority and
discipline. Disturbed by the political chaos of the 192oS and by real
or imagined threats of revolution, the Catholic intelligentsia viewed the
pre-World War II Fascist movements of Europe as reasonable experi-
ments in national discipline.
There was one point where Integralism differed from these move-
ments. European Fascism tended to absolutize the national interest and
systematically to subordinate the individual to the whole (state, na-
tion, or race). Most European Fascist theoreticians considered the
state to have ends and purposes independent of the individuals com-
posing it. Individuals existed only insofar as they were in the state
and subordinate to it.2' The Integralist view of man's relation to the
state differed significantly. Man's dignity and essential rights preceded
society. In no way were they dependent upon social authority, nor
could any higher purpose be invoked against them. Indeed, Integralism
claimed to ". . . base the whole structure of its ideological edifice on
the human person, creature of God anterior and superior to the State."22
Although later writers have neglected this important aspect of Integral-
ist thought, the Brazilian Catholic elite of the decade viewed the
movement's consistently avowed guarantees of the rights and intangi-
bility of the human person as sufficiently firm to override and restrain
its authoritarian potential, Thus, its generally favorable attitude toward

20. Plinjo Salgado, quoted in A Palavra, Dec. 14, 1946, p. 4.

2L. Eugen Weber, Varieties of Fascism (New York, 1964), pp. 21-23.
22. Alcebiades Delamare, "Aos mogos universitarios," A Ofensiva, May 9, 1937,
p.. The "Manifesto de outubro," the "Diretrizes integralistas," and the "Manual
do integralista," important ideological statements of Integralism collected in Gus-
tavo Barroso, 0 que o integralista deve saber (Rio de Janeiro, 1935), all proclaim
the Integralist belief in the intangibility of the human person. It may be argued
that such declarations merely reflect AIB's propaganda interests in wooing the
Catholic contingent. One must distinguish, however, between doctrine and rhetoric.
Party leaders seemed confident they could uphold certain spiritual values without
falling victim to the excesses of fascism. They incorporated these values into the
body of Integralist thought. To be sure, it is probable that most members recruited
in this period were more impressed by the party's visible attributes and messianic
rhetoric than by theoretical niceties. It is nonetheless significant that Integralista
thought itself remained non-fascist in this important regard.

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440 HAHR I AUGUST I MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS
Integralism required far less strenuous and contrived philosophical
justification than the support of Fascism demanded of its European
counterpart.
Above all, Integralism appealed to Catholic intellectuals who hoped
for the "spiritual revolution" it promised. The Integralists sought no
mere political revolt, the transference of power from one group to
another. Rather, they sought to occasion "an internal revolution in
each person, a transformation of everyone's way of thinking, [the
inculcation of] firm attitudes, zeal for public issues, love of Country
and Family, and faith in God."23 This goal, the creation of a "new
order" in Brazil through the reform of men's consciences, long had
fascinated Catholic leaders. The Centro Dom Vital had claimed this
as its goal since 1922. The Church hierarchy reiterated the theme
throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Regeneration of the nation through
the psychological transformation of its citizens formed the leitmotiv
of the political writings of Alceu Amoroso Lima, President of the
Centro Dom Vital and the undisputed spokesman of the laity. In
Politica (1932), he expressed the belief, which came to form an in-
tegral part of the working philosophy of politicized Catholics, that:
"In order to modify the government of a people, it is necessary to
act upon its [the people's] soul, its intelligence, its ideals."24 Since
Integralist political doctrine, like Catholic political doctrine, deduced
the propositions of national salvation from formal eternal principles
of finality and the properties of matter and authority, Dr. Amoroso
Lima praised the movement and the "high historical services rendered
by fascism to our civilization."25
More than forty years after the separation of Church and State in
Brazil, reunion was a prima facie impossibility. Integralist doctrine
proposed, however, to install in Brazil a regime based on a concordat
with Rome and to facilitate Church-State relations based on a strict
and necessary cooperation. Through the education of the masses in
AIB cultural training centers, the Integralists hoped to bring forth an
Integral State, ". . . which comes from Christ, is inspired in Christ,
acts for Christ, and goes toward Christ."26 No alienation between the
things of God and the things of man would exist, since both Church

23. Jose Venceslau Junior, 0 Integralismo ao alcance de todos (Rio de Janeiro,

1.935), p. 67.
24. Alceu Amoroso Lima, Politica (Rio de Janeiro, 1932), p. i68.
25. Alceu Amoroso Lima, "Igreja e Estado: Catolicismo e Fascismo-II,"
A Ordem (Aug. 1931), 71.
26. Salgado, "Cristo e o Estado Integral," in 0 Integralismo perante ....
pp. 99-100.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 441

and State would serve the same master. Integralism, in short, inter-
posed itself as co-custodian of the nation's core values.
In retrospect, it seems odd that the Church did not feel threatened
by Integralist impingements on religious territory. With a few excep-
tions, members of the Church elite (lay leaders and bishops) over-
looked potential usurpations of Church functions and ignored references
to the spiritual potency of the temporal movement, as, for example,
in the following statements of Plmio Salgado: "Outside of Integralism
there is no salvation"; "Against the mystique of bolshevism, there is
only the mystique of Integralism"; "Integralism appears as the only
force capable . . . of sheltering man."27
Yet even the most cursory survey of Integralist documents reveals
a singular confusion of its spiritual and temporal missions. The Chefe
Supremo himself seemed unclear on this issue and hoped to lead
Brazil not only to political rejuvenation but also to a happy super-
natural end.
Although the corpus of Integralist doctrine frequently posited the
"instrumentality of the temporal," that is, the attainment of eternal
goals through the temporal means at the disposition of AIB, and pre-
empted nonmaterial redemptive functions hitherto claimed only by
the Church, the Church's support remained undiminished. Salgado
and other Integralist theoreticians grounded Integralist ideology in
Catholic doctrine, thereby gaining the sympathies of Churchmen and
imparting to the movement a legitimacy and a respectability that it
otherwise would not have attained.

The Church and the Integralist movement not only shared a com-
mon doctrinal affinity but cooperated politically to a hitherto unsus-
pected degree. Integralist activities profited from the renewed interest
of the Church in the political realm. The most dynamic elements of
Brazilian Catholicism supplied the movement with vigorous assistance.
Although Integralism adopted a non-confessional membership policy,
close association with Catholic groups and leaders characterized the
movement from its inception.
Laymen favored Integralism precisely because of (and not in spite
of) its aggressive activism. This made it the only political party "which
can really correspond to the palpitating and heroic idealism of strong
and impatient youths."28 Moreover, within the constellation of national
political forces in the 1930s, only AIB made: ". . . cooperation with

27. Salgado, "Em face do diluvio," A Palavra, Dec. 4, 1936, p. 2.

28. Alceu Amoroso Lima, "Catolicismo e Integralismo-III," A Ordem (Feb.
1935), 83.

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442 HAHI I AUGUST I MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS
the Church and acceptance of its principles the substance of a program.
Government and Opposition not only lack a correct program and
persist in a spirit of 'democratic liberalism,' but also do not officially
make of cooperation with the Church in the social sphere the object
of political doctrine, but rather only a method of action."29
Alceu Amoroso Lima, known throughout Brazil as the lay spokes-
man of the Cardinal, deemed Integralism a "heroic" movement, one
which inspired a dedication and sacrifice equalled only by the com-
munists. Whatever its defects, declared this Church leader, Integralism
had accomplished what Vargas and the tenentes had attempted in
vain, that is, to provide the nation with a unified, concrete movement
around an ideal. Amoroso Lima urged Centro Dom Vital and Catholic
Action members to enlist in the movement, which he assessed as
"perfectly compatible not only with Catholic social doctrine, but
also with the effective practice of Catholicism ."30
The political position of the Centro Dom Vital veered so close to
that of the Integralists that laymen often confused the two. Steeped
in the conservative, introspective tradition transmitted through Jackson
de Figueiredo, Catholic intellectuals of the Centro responded as warmly
to Salgado's appeals to morality, tradition, and order as they reacted
coolly to leftist promises of social upheaval. In their search for candi-
dates to run for political office after 1934, AIB tapped this respected
scholarly group most frequently. Consequently, distinguished Centro
members, including the historians Helio Viana and Americo Lacombe,
the poets Santiago Dantas and Augusto Federico Schmidt, the lawyer
Antonio Galloti, the philosophy professor Thiers Martins Moreira, and
the journalist Lourival Fontes became candidates of the Integralist
Party. These, and other renowned Catholic laymen, also figured in
high places within the ranks of the Party. Officers of the Centro Dom
Vital, including Vice-President Hamilton Nogueira and the philosopher
Jonatas Serrano, actively participated in Integralist functions.
Between 1932 and 1937 green-shirted youths regularly attended the
Friday night sessions of the Centro and made the yearly November 4th
commemorative pilgrimage to the grave of Jackson de Figueiredo.
Amoroso Lima prevailed upon Plinio Salgado, in the name of the
Centro Dom Vital, to tone down the doctrine of total obedience to
the Supreme Chief at the Integralists' annual Congress in 1935. This

29. Lima, "A Igreja e o momento politico," A Ordem (July, 1935), 32. Italics
in the original.
30. Lima, "Catolicismo e Integralismo-I," A Ordem (Jan. 1935), 412.
Amoroso Lima elaborated: his reasons for believing in Integralism in Indicacdes
politicas (Rio de Janeiro, 1932). .

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 443

represented an important step toward cementing the bonds of the

Church-Integralist alliance.31
Although Cardinal Leme refused to align the Church to AIB in a
formal way, members of the Church hierarchy felt no compunctions
about cooperating with the movement on an individual basis. During
the 1932-1937 period more than twenty bishops and archbishops issued
public statements supportive of Integralism. One of the more active
Integralist bishops, Dom Jose Alves of Niteroi, expressed their position
after a mass commemorating the anniversary of AIB in 1935:

The Church listens to the cries of your [Integralist] youth and

desires only that the green flame that you light on the votive fire
of the Homeland may illumine, like a Christian beacon, the open
road toward a better future for Brazil.
As a Chief of the Church, I do not, I must not live under
your flag. But I salute it with respect today and ask God that
He enlighten and strengthen the men faithful to the Sigma, as
perfect knights of Brazilian Christianity.32

Priests not bound by hierarchical rank felt even fewer constraints

on their political activities. Despite the strictures of their orders' regu-
lations regarding political participation, many Jesuits, Salesians, Mar-
ists, Capuchins, and Benedictines formally and publicly joined the
Party. The illustrious Padre Leonel Franca, S.J., Cardinal Leme's in-
termediary in negotiations with the Vargas government, frequently
advised high Integralist commissions.33 Jesuit colegios were strongholds
of Integralism. The Colegio Anchieta of Friburgo, for example, held
frequent conferences on the spiritual value of Integralism. Padre Ar-
lindo Vieira, S.J., and Padre Bannwarth, S.J., both of Rio's renowned
Colegio Santo Ignacio, pointed with pride to the official "Plinian Move-
ment' at the school, an honor guard of the most disciplined boys.

31. My interview with H. Sobral Pinto, Rio de Janeiro, April 25, 1968. Josaphat
Linhares, 0 Integralismo a luz da doutrina social cato'lica (Fortaleza, 1933),
explains Catholic qualms over the obedience required of Integralists toward their
Chief.
32. Dom Jose Pereira Alves, "Alocugao aos Integralistas" in Palavras de Fe,
2nd ed. (Rio de Janeiro, 1948), p. 78. "Sigma" refers to the Greek letter,
mathematical sign of the Integral, which the Integralists adopted as their symbol.
0 Integralismo perante . . . , ed. Plinio Salgado, pp. 103-106, contains the state-
ments of the Brazilian bishops in favor of Integralism.
33. In an interview at the Catholic Pontifical University in Rio on April 24,
1968, Padre Leme Lopes, S.J. said that before making their attack on the gov-
ernmental palace of Getu'lio Vargas on May lo, 1938, Integralist leaders sought
Franca's advice. The attempted coup was carried out against Padre Franca's
urgent counsel. For details of the attempted overthrow, see Glauco Carneiro,
Historia das revolupies brasileiras (Rio de Janeiro, 1965), II, pp. 437-457.

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444 HAHR AUGUST MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS

Bannwarth rated the "Integralist years" of the school as its "best years
-serious, religious, exigent, severe."34
During the "best years" of the Colegio, one instructor, Padre Coelho,
began to store guns in the school's gymnasium in a burst of Integralist
zeal.35 Jesuit priests performed the sacraments of baptism and marriage
in strict accordance with Integralist protocol and ritual. At the Col6gio
Santo Ignacio, they baptized infants under the flag of the Sigma. Be-
trothed couples wore their Integralist medals during religious wedding
ceremonies.
The Jesuits specialized, too, in spiritual retreats for Integralists at
their house in Gavea. Padre Franca and Padre Bannwarth organized
a special retreat in 1935 for Plinio Salgado and Gustavo Barroso. Lay
groups associated with the Society of Jesus, such as the Marian Con-
gregations, received blanket invitations from Salgado to all of the
National Conventions of the Integralist Party.36
Various nuclei of the Salesian order also propagated an intense
Integralist line. In Niter6i, for example, Salesian cole'gios and profes-
sional schools disseminated Integralist readings to all their students.
Similarly, an Integralist fever swept the Benedictines, partially due to
the extensive German influence within the order. Benedictine monks,
closely associated with the Catholic University Youth movement (A9do
Universita'ria Cat6lica, or AUC) urged AUC's cooperation with the
youth of AIB in ferreting out "red" professors and students at the
university.37
Although many secular priests joined AIB, held office within the
Party, and even represented their states as Integralist deputies, by all
accounts the most famous of these was Padre Helder Camara. Father
Helder, who liked to call himself "a simple green-shirted priest from
Cear4," fancied himself a soldier both of the Lord and of Plinio.8
With Jehova Mota, Father Helder led AIB forces in the Northeast

34. My interview with Padre Bannwarth, S. J., Rio de Janeiro, May 7, 1968.
Bannwarth was rector of the Colegio Santo Ignacio and Director of the Congre-
gag6es Marianas in the 1930S.
35. My interview with Gustavo Corgdo, Rio de Janeiro, Apr. 22, 1968.
Corgao, lay leader of the Church in the 1940S and President of the Centro Dom
Vital in the early 1950s, opposed Salgado's bid for the presidency of the nation
in 1955. However, I consider this information reliable since it was repeated in an
interview I had with Dom Lourengo Prado of the Mosteiro Sdo Bento in Rio de
Janeiro, May 3, 1968. The Benedictines of Rio had been closely associated with
the Integralists.
36. Interviews, Bannlwarth and Corgdo; an Integralist pamphlet, Protocolos e
rituals (Rio de Janiero, 1937), pp. 45-49, minutely details procedures regarding
dress and ceremony at "Integralist" weddings and baptisms.
37. My interview with Dom Lourengo Prado.
38. Padre Helder Camara, "0 Integralismo em face do Catolicismo" in En-
ciclopddia do Integralismo, 2nd. ed. (Rio de Janeiro, 1958), III, p. 74.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 445

from 1932 to 1934. In 1934, at the invitation of Plinio Salgado, he

transferred to Rio to become Salgado's personal secretary and con-
fidential aide. As in Ceara, he continued to lead Integralist meetings
and even marches. In A Ofensiva, and elsewhere, he wrote vociferous
defenses of the Integralist cause. Speeches, rallies, party conventions
were his daily bread. Despite Cardinal Leme's objections to his relent-
less Integralist activism in the diocese of Rio, Father Helder refused
to stop. Despite two personal confrontations with Dom Leme, the
young priest from Fortaleza became the national secretary-general of
AIB.39
Hundreds of less-celebrated local priests contributed their efforts to
the Integralist cause. Gofredo da Silva Telles, a serious and dedicated
Integralist youth in the 1930s, traveled with his brother into the interior
of the state of Sdo Paulo to "preach" integralism and to "win converts."
In the little town of Tambau, he recalls, the local priest, Father Doni-
zetti, arranged for them to use the movie theater as a speaking place
and cajoled his parishioners to attend their talks. Through similar ad-
vances of priestly generosity, Integralist "preachers" obtained both
forums and audiences and established their centers throughout the
interior of Brazil.40
In addition to its intellectual appeals to the Catholic elite, In-
tegralism wooed rank-and-file Catholic militants on yet another level.
By steeping their popular rhetoric in quasi-religious allusions, over-
tones, and nuances, the Integralists identified their brand of political
messianism with religious messianism in the minds of many Catholics.
A tone of chiliastic militancy, frequently adopted in Integralist propa-
ganda, borrowed unabashedly from the apocalyptic pronouncements of
Catholic extremists. Integralist "army of youth," "soldiers of Christ,"
and "Judgment Day" precepts closely paralleled similar Catholic doc-
trines. The Integralist motto-"God, Homeland, Family"-was known
as the "sacred trilogy" and Salgado as the "prophet." Integralism de-
fined its members as "The soldiers which the Holy Gospel announced
for the definitive fight which is going to separate the decrepit, vice-
ridden world from the new, integral, united world that will vibrate
with heroism, without the anarchy that the anti-Christs preach."41
The Integralist, moreover, like the Catholic, held a position "superior

39. Otto Engel, a Catholic journalist and former confidante of Dom Helder,
narrates the two encounters in considerable detail in his unpublished manuscript,
"Helder Camara: urn profeta?", Rio de Janiero, 1968, pp. 29-33. Another view
of Dom Helder's relationship to AIB is found in Jose de Broucker, Dom Helder
Cdmara, la violence d'un pacifique (Paris, 1969).
40. My interview with Gofredo da Silva Teles, Sdo Paulo, May 2o, 1968.
41. Custodio de Viveiros, 0 sonho do filosofo integralista (Rio de Janeiro,
1935), p. 96.

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446 HAMR J AUGUST MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS

to others." When the good Integralist died, he was "not to be con-

sidered excluded, but rather transferred" to the "militia of the Other
Worldl."2
Any group with political pretensions will attempt to associate its
ideology with a mystique. The Integralists consciously associated their
ideologic propaganda with the mystique of Catholicism. Mystiques
also generate rituals and Integralism spawned a whole host of religious
(baptisms, weddings, burials) as well nonreligious ceremonials. Mili-
tant Catholics comprehended the mysticism and ritual of the Integral-
ists, which resembled their own in so many ways. In both language
and "liturgy," Integralism profitably cultivated a "missionary approach"
similar to the traditional conversion approach of Catholicism,
The Brazilian hierarchy closed its eyes to popular political distor-
tions of its religious doctrines. The bishops ignored abuses of the
clerical office through the "preaching" of Integralism from hundreds
of pulpits. The Integralists' apparent devotion to Catholicism, their
spiritual retreats, community masses, and Christian social action ap-
peased episcopal qualms. After the attempted overthrow of the gov-
ernment in 1935 by left-wing radicals, the Church's carping at
communism precluded the possibility of any collision between Catho-
licism and Integralism-even if it still regarded outright collusion as
untenable.

Claiming unto itself spiritual, cultural, political, and economic func-

tions, AIB's proposed sphere of activities was "integral" if nothing else.
Because of this, there existed always a potential rivalry between In-
tegralism and Catholicism , not only in the domains of education and
morality, but also in the realm of social mystique. Yet, on the whole,
the Church maintained the most cordial of relationships with the
movement from its birth in -1932 until its demise in December, 1937.
Recognizing the coincidence of Church and Integralist political
goals, Salgado had appealed to Cardinal Leme as early as February
1933 for .... a gesture of encouragement and approval, which might
assure the Catholic conscience of the nation of the purity and cleanli-
ness -of our perfectly Christian ideas, and which might give us the
sympathy and support of the Brazilian Episcopate in the -enormous task
of erecting, on indestructible foundations, under the powerful influx of
revealed truths, the edifice of a New Country."48

42. Gustavo Barroso, "Manual Integralista," r0 que o integrali-sa deve saber,

P. 93.
43. Plio Salgado, Ulysses Paranhas, and J.B. de Castro Rodrigues to Cardeal
Leme, !Feb. i8, 1933. In private collection of Dom Jayme de Barros Gamara,
Rio de Janeiro (cited hereinafter -as Sumare).

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 447

Dom Leme's warm but cautious private reply to Salgado's request

established the official position to which the Church would adhere.
While expressing satisfaction with Integralist political aims, Leme in-
voked the political neutrality of Catholic Action to steer clear of
formal ties to the movement: "One must not forget, however, that
'Catholic Action' insists on remaining outside and above all and any
tendency of a partisan nature. While, nonetheless, recognizing the
nobility of the objectives of a particular political movement, 'Catholic
Action' does not want to involve the Church in responsibilities for
preferences, programs, methods, and attitudes of a purely partisan
order."44
The invocation of the Church's position "outside and above" politics
demonstrated the importance Leme attached to the development of the
Catholic Action movement, his spiritual army to combat modern mate-
rialism. Leme further justified the Church's nonpartisan stance on the
grounds that spiritual action, superior to political action in both aims
and methods, deserved the priority of Catholics. Perhaps more im-
portantly, however, any partisan commitment on the part of the Church
threatened to jeopardize the delicate ongoing negotiations between
the Cardinal's emissaries and the Vargas government. These involved
a variety of issues, not the least important of which were federal sub-
sidies to Catholic schools, hospitals, and seminaries.
Although Dom Leme refused to involve the national Church in the
very kind of commitment he encouraged individual Catholics to make,
he counted on the AIB and on the Catholic Electoral League to secure
a position of political security for the institution as a whole. His con-
fidence in AIB and LEC, neither of which formally involved the hier-
archy, accounted for his reluctance to form a Catholic Party in Brazil.
With two nationwide, highly organized, and skillfully run political
organizations unofficially working in behalf of episcopal goals, the
Church had little reason to accept the responsibilities of a partisan
commitment. Certainly, however, after 1935 the Cardinal relied in-
creasingly on the Integralist movement to achieve the Church's polit-
ical aims: to fight the modern threats of liberalism and communism
and to win support for Church goals within the state. The passage of
a new electoral law in 1935 impeded the effective functioning of LEC.
With the emasculation of the League and the soaring prestige of In-
tegralism after the abortive left-wing coup that same year, AIB's
influence with the hierarchy rose.
This is not to say that Leme's policy of close cooperation with

44. Cardeal Leme to Plinio Salgado, Ulysses Paranhas, and J.B. de Castro
Rodrigues, undated, Sumare.

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448 HAMR AUGUST j MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS

Integralism won total acceptance among the Brazilian episcopacy.

Although Levine notes that "a deliberate muffling of Church debates on
Integralism has obscured the identities of those involved" in the oppo-
sition,45 two confidential, in-house, Church documents illumine the
nature of the controversy. At the same time, the documents also serve
to substantiate a claim of this essay: that the Church-Integralist
alliance represented no casual relationship but rather a calculated
part of Leme's overall strategy to win political influence for the Church.
One bishop in particular, Dom Gastdo Liberal Pinto of Sdo Carlos
in the state of Sdo Paulo, strenuously opposed the tacit Church-
Integralist alliance. Dom Gastdo for several years waged almost single-
handedly a fuming, sputtering, blustering anti-Integralist campaign
within the Church organization. He drew his lines of battle precisely
about the issue of Integralism's potential usurpation of Church func-
tions, a matter otherwise ignored by his colleagues. Dom Gastdo's
offensive culminated in August, 1937, with the confidential circulation
among the nation's archbishops of his "Brief Observations on the Or-
thodoxy of Integralist Doctrine." In it, he charged that Integralism
denied the redemptive nature of the Church and substituted itself as
the movement of salvation. "Integralism puts its doctrines forward as
the only salvation of society and of the Church at the present moment.
It advocates its own methods before those preached by the Popes,
recommending that preference be given its processes rather than those
of Catholic Action."46 The bishop of Sdo Carlos bristled at A Ofensiva's
one-time categorization of Catholic Action as an "extemporaneous, un-
productive, inoffensive weapon, of no use whatever in the face of
Russian cannibalism."47 In various ways, Dom Gastdo's message warned
fellow bishops of the inherent authoritarianism of the movement.
The Church hierarchy responded coolly to his warnings. Cardinal
Leme's confidential statement on the "Brief Observations" gave short
shrift to the bishop's arguments. With presidential elections scheduled
for January, 1938, Leme judged its publication imprudent, unnecessary,
and disadvantageous to the Church: ". . . the issue is one of poor
opportunity. We [the Church] are in full political effervescence.
Competitive parties will exploit avidly all the words and attitudes of
any group with some social responsibility, playing the one off against
the other. Therefore, any 'doctrinal' condemnation on the part of an

45. Levine, The Vargas Regime . . . , p. 92.

46. Dom Gastdo Liberal Pinto, "Breves observag6es sobre a ortodoxia da
doutrina integralista perante a Igreja Cat6lica," Sdo Carlos, Aug. 26, 1937 (mimeo-
graphed), p. 1, Sumare.
47. Ibid., p. 2, quoting A Ofensiva, July 25, 1937.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 449

ecclesiastical authority immediately would be open to unpleasant in-

terpretations."48 The Cardinal stood fast in his insistence on the
"supra-partisan" position of the Church.
It is important to note, however, that Dom Leme objected to the
"Brief Observations" primarily because he disagreed with them. Leme
argued that Dom Gastdo erred in deriving his conclusions from the
opinions of random, individual Integralists, rather than from a sys-
tematic examination of the "official, programatic, explicit declarations
of the Party." Leme's own conclusions diametrically opposed Dom
Gastdo's. He counselled Catholics to remember:
"a ) That in its program of social reforms, Integralism closely follows
the whole Catholic doctrinal orientation. Its recently published 'Na-
tional Letter on Labor' is a resume of Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum
and Pius Ml's Quadragesimo Anno.
"b) That one of its aspirations, rich in practical consequences, is
'to cement Brazilian morality in religious sentiments, the basis of
honesty and social discipline' (Salgado, 0 que e o integralismo, p. 133).
"c) That it presently constitutes one of the social forces best or-
ganized to defend God, nation, and family against atheistic commu-
nism, which, to use Pius XI's phrase, constitutes 'the most serious
threat' to Christian civilization.
"d) That lately Integralism has been combatted vehemently by
communism, masonry, and all the anti-Christian forces of social dis-
solution. Their attitudes say a lot and cannot be forgotten."49
The upshot of Leme's minute and judicious examination of the
"Brief Observations" was a peremptory refusal to allow its publication.
The Cardinal's seven-page report systematically refuted the bishop's
accusations and concluded with a rousing exoneration of Integralism's
doctrines and leaders. Leme's statement essentially constituted both an
apologia for Integralism and a conscious effort to palliate the prob-
lematic areas between Integralism and Catholicism.
Between 1932 and the creation of the Estado Novo in November
1937 the Church's support of Integralism remained constant. Although
aware of the dangers inherent in the aut Integralism aut nihil attitude
of the Party, in doctrines such as unquestioned obedience to the Su-
preme Chief, and in the anti-semitism of some Integralist leaders, the

48. Typed draft of Cardinal Leme's confidential statement regarding Pinto's

"Breves observag6es. . .," undated, p. i, Sumare. The Cardinal's statement dates
from sometime between August 26, 1937 and November lo, 1937, i.e., between
receipt of Pinto's essay and the cancellation of presidential elections by Vargas.
Although the Cardinal's draft is typed, corrections, deletions, and insertions are in
his hand.
49. Ibid., pp. 6-7.

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450 MM I AUGUST I MARGARET TODAlRO WILLIAMS
Church overlooked these. Salgado's presidential campaign in 1937 had
recruited many new members for the Integralists and generated the
hope that AIB might soon have a hand on the governmental reins.
As long as this remained a possibility, the Church continued to treat
the movement with benevolence.
The Church's enthusiasm for Integralism resulted partially from its
own ambitious political projections, which it believed a victorious
AIB would further. Integralism had promised to "assure the Catholic
Church, within the principle of freedom of worship, the position of
preeminence which is its due in virtue of its labors in the development
of Brazilian civilization."50 Churchmen, then, pinned their hopes on a
sort of dualist system in which Integralists would rule the political
roost and the Church the religious and moral. The Church elite an-
ticipated an Integral State that would shore up the threatened position
of the contemporary Church and maintain a state based on compatible
hierarchical values. So strong remained their belief that a victory for
Brazilian Integralism was a victory for Brazilian Catholicism that
Amoroso Lima admonished in 1936: "If the Government closes In-
tegralism it will commit a grave injustice.... Whatever may be the
excesses of its language or the occasional appearances of its methods
of action to conquer power, it works in defense of the great ideas and
institutions which formed Brazilian politics, maintained its moral unity,
[and] Christianized its soul. It will lead [Brazil] to a socially pacific
and just future. "51
As late as November, 1937, that is, shortly before the creation of
the Estado Novo and the abolition of AIB, the Church still strongly
favored the proposed Integralist political system and reaffirmed an
alignment that many of its champions would prefer today to forget.
Dr. Alceu and Dom Helder, for example, now find embarrassing their
own Integralist connections in the 1930s. They gloss over the Church's
past association with AIB. This version propagates the false notion
that ties between AIB and the Church were inconsequential and ter-
minated by the mid-30s. Cardinal Leme's confidential report of 1937
contradicts such arguments. Both the tone and the content of Leme's
conclusions establish that these were not ad hoc decisions, but rather
the outcome of longheld beliefs and pragmatic policy.

On December 2, 1937, Get,6lio Vargas banned political parties from

50. Pinto, "Breves observago6es. . .," p. 3, quoting Article X of the "Programa de

Agdo de AIB."
51. Alceu Amoroso Lima, quoted in "O que Tristao de Atayde chefe do
laicato cat6lico brasileiro pensa a respeito do Integralismo," in 0 Integralismo
perante a nado, 3rd ed., ed. Salgado, p. 69.

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INTEGRALISM AND THE BRAZILIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 451

his newly created Estado Novo dictatorship, thus dealing a deathblow

to Integralism. For a short time, relations between the Church and the
Vargas government cooled, a situation produced by episcopal unhappi-
ness at the suppression of the movement. Vargas soothed the Church
in one area by decreeing a law granting civil recognition to religious
wedding ceremonies.52 In fact, however, once it became apparent that
the Integralist bid for power had failed, this gesture of appeasement
was not necessary.
Integralism had offered the Church a vital ideological role in its
scheme of things. It had proposed to sow the seeds of corporate order
and authority in the nation and invited the Church to reap the harvest.
It had promised to guarantee the Catholicism of the nation and to
eliminate secular threats to the faith through the imposition of a
strong (and Christian) state. By 1938 Vargas had given the Church
all that and more, thus converting the institution from the potentially
aggressive promoter of Catholic demands that it represented in the
early 1930S into protector of already acquired special government in-
terests. The failure of the Integralists to attain a position of power
in the Estado Novo came as a surprise both to Church and to AIB
leaders. It left Dom Leme with one option: to continue maximizing
Church influence in the state by increasing linkages to the government
apparatus through which Vargas ruled.
The Church's quick adjustment to the elimination of its Integralist
ally signalled more than acceptance of a political fait accompli. It
testified to the success of Vargas's policy of "preemptive cooptation"
with regard to the Church: that is, his deliberate support and sponsor-
ship of Church goals to disrupt potentially dangerous alliances and
forestall the emergence of broad-based, representative Church asso-
ciations.53
On the other hand, by putting Church cooptability into high relief,
it further pointed to the failure of Leme's elitist political strategy.
Although a Pastoral Letter decrying the political impotence of the
nation's Catholic majority had launched Leme's career in 1916, during
his cardinalate he eschewed grass roots mobilization of the laity, pre-
ferring to work instead through trusted friends and the formation of
small bands of loyal associates.
Neither the Centro Dom Vital nor Catholic Action generated more
than a lukewarm response in the Brazilian environment. The Centro
tended to assume a sect-like character due to the select intellectual

52. Levine, p. 178.

53. Schmitter, in Interest Conflict and Political . . ., pp. 112-115, elaborates on
Vargas's policy of "preemptive cooptation."

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452 HAHR AUGUST I MARGARET TODARO WILLIAMS
composition of its membership and its often sterile, academic concerns.
Catholic Action limited its appeal, even in orthodox middle-class
circles, by its strict hierarchical organization that precluded decision-
making other than at the top. Similarly, the Catholic Electoral League,
ostensibly a lay activity, suffered from a complete (though covert)
subordination to hierarchical directives.
Thus, the only part of Leme's political strategy that had allowed
for the release of popular political energies was his encouragement of
Catholic participation in the Integralist movement. This action, satisfied
the Church's ideological interest in defending hierarchical values
through a corporate political organization. At the same time, it left
unchanged the Church's inner conservatism, which prohibited any
meaningful sharing of decision-making with the laity in the context
of the Church organization. When Integralism disappeared from the
political scene, however, the Church was left, after an unusual decade
of political activity, in a position of dependency on the government
similar to that which had prevailed before the advent of the First
Republic.

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