São Benedito no banco dos réus: alianças e conflitos no catolicismo em Bragança (PA), no século XX

Abstract

The search for control of the physical, financial and cultural heritage of the extinct Brotherhood of the Glorious Saint Benedict of Bragança by the Catholic Church, represented by the Prelature of Guamá, resulted in a complex weft of social relations, alliances and tensions in the Bragança’s city, Northeastern Pará, in the second half of the 20th century, especially between the 1960s and 1980s. These sides complemented each other in environments of the traditional Festivity of the Glorious Saint Benedict and rivaled in many others, involving social subjects that entangled plots and disagreements, which culminated in a lawsuit moved by the Catholic Church for the repossession of the material patrimony of the Brotherhood of Saint Benedict and for the control of cultural practices of the so-called Cycle of Saint Benedict, its festival and its symbolism. In this work, the re-reading of this struggle scenario, its subjects (in particular, lay people and clerics) and their actions, in addition to the recognition of the social and cultural environment experienced at the time, with the analysis of documentary sources belonging to the Reintegration of Possession Process (from 1969 to 1988), from the register books of the Prelature of Guamá (1947 to 1988), newspapers and periodicals from the city of Bragança (with deference to Caeté’s Journal), texts, studies, books and other sources at its core of these quarrels its main theme. Among some problems, the questioning of what reasons led the Catholic Church, having already guaranteed its management of religious services related to devotion to Saint Benedict, to resort to Justice to reintegrate itself into the permanent possession of the brotherhood's assets, due to the registration of this religious association as a society (or civil entity) in 1947. Such tensions were shadowed by a cultural environment associated with the festivities of Saint Benedict, in a variety of dates and events that take place annually in Bragança in the month of December. These questions demanded the use of the theoretical and methodological contribution of Social History and Cultural History, among so many contributions and readings, to understand these subjects, reread the facts and analyze the context in which these disputes were built, experienced and partially completed, which they still remained alive in the memory and marked the history of part of the local population in the 20th century.