A repercussão da questão social nos documentos magistrais da Igreja Católica ao longo do século XX e os jesuítas

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the history of the Jesuit Order in Brazil, with emphasis on the impact of the magisterial documents about the social question, inside the Jesuit Order between the years 1960 and 1982. Our analysis refers to the social action that the Jesuits developed in Brazil after the Second Vatican Council, the XXXI and XXXII General Congregations of the Jesuit Order and the election of Superior General Pedro Arrupe. Our goal is to analyse how the Jesuits reacted to the Church magisterial documents on social apostolate and how these documents influenced the change in the Jesuits’ attitude. To do so, it will be necessary to identify the attitude that Superior General Pedro Arrupe adopted to guide the Society of Jesus regarding this subject, based on his letter to Latin-American Jesuits, called Marxist Analysis. In this study, we shall use as sources documents from the Society of Jesus itself – its decrees and the Acts of the General Congregations --, pontifical documents on the Social Question in the Catholic Church, articles and communicates from ecclesiastical magazines in Brazi. Such as the Jesuit publication Perspectiva Teológica, and the Franciscan magazine Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira (REB). Finally, historical and bibliographical research on the action of the Catholic Church in Brazil in the XX century, and on the political question of Brazil in those years. In doing so, we shall verify a change throughout the XX century in the discourse of the Catholic Church on the social question, which allowed the approximation between Catholicism and some modern philosophies, such as Marxism. This generated a pastoral shift inside the entire Church, in the catholic movements in Brazil and in religious orders, such as the Jesuits.