Copyright by Travis K. Knoll 2015 The Thesis Committee for Travis K. Knoll Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Of Order and Liberty: Catholic Intellectuals in Argentina and Brazil, 1930-1980 APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: Virginia Garrard Burnett Matthew Butler “Of Order and Liberty: Catholic Intellectuals in Argentina and Brazil, 1930-1980” By: Travis K. Knoll, B.A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2015 Dedication To the Church and its diverse followers, who always seeing through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12) strive imperfectly toward the Truth inscribed on all men’s hearts (Ro. 2:15). Acknowledgements Special thanks to my first and second reader for “drinking from the water hose” that was my thesis. A thanks to Jonathan Brown for improving my writing style throughout graduate school. A special thanks to professor Eliana Regina de Freitas Dutra for her invaluable methodological feedback and for introducing me to Connected Histories. To all Brazilian professors who have influenced my research, including Maria Ligia Coelho Prado and Gabriela Pellegrino Soares. A thanks to John French for his book recommendations in the final stage of the project. A special thanks to the Sacramentino fathers, including Pe. Márcio Pachecco and Pe. Denilson Mariano da Silva for opening the O Lutador archives to me. A special thanks to Suelen Rodrigues Gomes, the librarian of PUC-Minas who helped me find the microfilm for O Diário for her endless conversation To the Long family for their generous travel and fellowship support without which this project would not have been possible. A special thanks to Carina Schuster and Silvano Benito Moya for their support in Argentina as well as Miguel Candia for his bibliographical expertise in the Córdoba library. A special thanks to María de los Ángeles Lasa and her father Carlos Daniel Lasa. A special thanks as well to Aye Posse and her family for their direction to key archives. A special thanks to Austin and Jacquelyn Choate for their support during this project. v Abstract “Of Order and Liberty: Catholic Intellectuals in Argentina and Brazil, 1930-1980” By: Travis K. Knoll, M.A The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 SUPERVISOR: Virginia Garrard Burnett This project challenges the historical binary of a revolutionary versus a reactionary Church through a comparative case study of right-wing Christian Democrats in Brazil and Integralist/Nationalist intellectuals in Argentina. Intellectually, the project centers on Jacques Maritain and notable Latin American figures. Such figures include Brazilians Alceu Amoroso Lima and Dom Hélder Câmara, and Argentine leaders Julio Meinvielle and Leonardo Castellani. The study will argue that these figures’ intellectual stands represented diverging paths for each country’s conservative majority, but also shaped their respective hierarchies’ reactions to key events in the Catholic and secular world: the Spanish Civil War, World War II, the Second Vatican Council. While anti-Modernists, Brazilian intellectuals came to favor pluralist and democratic solutions of Social Democracy over and above the organic (and encompassing) visions espoused by Franco’s Spain, and subsequently, the Argentine hierarchy. This study will analyze major Catholic newspapers and journals, including Criterio, Jauja , A Ordem, and O Diario de Belo Horioznte. These sources will give the reader a glimpse into the intellectual societies and forums in which these thinkers moved, and will more clearly display the distinction mentioned above. Surprisingly, conservative Brazilian papers maintained a vigorous anti-Communist stance, but came to see the government as an oppressing force prohibiting the legitimate social actions of the Catholic faithful. vi Argentine intellectuals took a much more ambivalent attitude toward democracy at best, and a more hostile one at worst. Julio Meinvielle and Leonardo Castellani from their journal Jauja directly challenged the Second Vatican Council, the liberal state, and the rights of left-wing dissidents. More generally, Argentine ties to Franco’s Spain through the 1970s, as well as to conservative varieties of Peronism, as well as the loss of the unifying Gustavo Franceschi (editor of Criterio) in 1957, put the sizable democratic and reformist minority firmly outside the good graces of the hierarchy, paving the way for the Catholic purges in Argentina of the 1970s. vii Table of Contents Introduction: A Tale of Two Right Wings ...............................................................1 Chapter One: The Church in the World: The return of the Catholic Intellectual Elite .......................................................................................................................14 Comparative or Connected Histories? A few examples as a project guide ..16 The social movements begin:........................................................................25 Jacques Maritain: The Catholic elephant in the room ..................................34 Catholics in the Spanish Civil War: A global and Latin American perspective ..............................................................................................................43 The Cold War Begins: Division, Reform, and Conflict................................60 The Second Vatican Council: Receptions and Reactions .............................68 Conclusion: ...................................................................................................76 Chapter Two: “A Country of Jauja”: Authoritarian Catholics in Argentina 1930-1980 .......................................................................................................................80 Introduction: ..................................................................................................80 Conservatives and Liberals: Deconstructing the myths ................................84 Liberal and Nationalist Argentina: Convergences and Contrasts .................93 Catholic Nationalism: Beginnings ................................................................96 Catholic Nationalists and Peronists: Friends or Foes? ................................105 The Jewish Question: Differing responses .................................................120 The Democratic Shift: Realities and Illusions ............................................123 Leonardo Castellani: Argentina’s priest .....................................................132 Jauja: Castellani’s moutpiece .....................................................................140 Conclusion: Cabildo and the Coup of 1976 ................................................150 Chapter Three: Liberty through Order: Tracing Brazilian Catholic Exceptionalism, 1930-1970 ...................................................................................................157 Precursors to Liberty: Contextualizing the Brazilian Church’s intellectual tradition ..............................................................................................161 Alceu Lima: Rupture or Continuity? ..........................................................173 Gustavo Corção and the Catholic Counter-Narrative .................................182 viii Alceu Lima the Trojan Horse: The Catholic Press’ disguised dissent in plain sight ....................................................................................................185 Other sources speak: Contextualizing the Centro Dom Vital through O Diário de Belo Horizonte and O Lutador ......................................................189 Failing democracy, the coup, and the Catholic response: ...........................191 Signs of tension: The Church and State conflict in the Catholic Press .......200 The Struggle ‘in the Middle’: O Lutador sounds off against Nationalism and Communism .......................................................................................204 Conclusion: .................................................................................................223 Conclusion: ..........................................................................................................226 Bibliography ........................................................................................................232 ix Introduction: A Tale of Two Right Wings In October 2013, Catholic and Jewish worshipers in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires holding a service remembering the Holocaust suddenly heard shouts accusing them of desecrating the space of worship.1 The source of the disturbances was a group of right- wing Catholics disturbed that rabbis would be allowed in what they considered the most sacred space of worship in the sprawling metropolis. Groups of similar ideologies had also opposed former-archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) for his openness to other religious communities, and especially, his stance toward the Jewish community in particular. This contrasted with the images of adoring throngs of Catholics, both traditionalists and progressives, on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro during Pope Francis’ June 2013 trip. Furthermore, enthusiastic Brazilian bishops praised Pope Francis’ new Latin American style through his focus on poverty (clear in his March 2015 authorization for the cause of Brazil’s Dom Hélder Câmara ) and everyday metaphors to explain complex Catholic doctrine. In contrast, the Archbishop