“CATHOLICOVID-19” or QUO VADIS CATHOLICA ECCLESIA: the Pandemic Seen in the Catholic Institutional Field

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to understand, in a panoramic way, the ideas that some organized groups of Catholicism have expressed about the pandemic of the new coronavirus. We shall take as material for analysis, the web official pages of the following segments: Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) [National Conference of Bishops of Brazil], Heralds of the Gospel and Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), especially from the moment when the first case of the disease caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus and the health-social-economic emergency were checked. Catholic beliefs about Covid-19 and related themes (restrictive measures, social inequalities) show an intense and internal conflict of values or worldviews and lead to inquiring about the incidences of Catholicism in the public sphere. The qualitative-exploratory hypothesis demonstrates that the advancement of the new coronavirus has accentuated tension lines existing in the Catholic Church and indicates that there is an ongoing dispute between the various official segments about the correct intonation of the Catholic voice in Brazilian society. To raise responses to the proposed problem, the paper is based on a qualitative method, namely, partial review of the bibliographic productions of the religious studies and analytical mapping of the main official positions (editorials, speeches, notes, texts) proposed by the three Catholic segments aforementioned.

Catholicism in Day-to-Day Life in Argentina During a Pandemic Year: Blurring the Institutional Boundaries

“…This stands in contrast with what happens in other contexts. In Brazil, for example, the health crisis caused by COVID-19 is hardly mentioned by the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, even though this runs into open conflict with the communication policy of the Episcopal Conference of Brazil (CNBB) (da Silveira 2020 ). The social and political context, as well as the alignments of church movements, determines the possibilities of managing the pandemic in Catholicism.…”

“…For the Brazilian case, Py ( 2020 ) analyzed how politicians and the media utilized Christian discourse to readjust the conservative and fundamentalist constituency by resorting to messianic discourses about the salvation of the country and the economy as opposed to the social chaos of the quarantine. The mobilization of the Christian discourse as expressed in pandemic times, supported by the charismatic figure of president Bolsonaro, who contracted the disease and survived, upholds the “necropolitical stance.” In this context, the Catholic Church shows conflicting internal trends: whereas the Catholic leadership (the CNBB or Episcopal Conference of Brazil) acknowledged the social impact of the pandemic and called upon the population to take special care, other currents aligned with the Charismatic Renewal and more conservative groups did not make any statement about the pandemic and started early on to demand the possibility of in-person attendance at masses and religious celebrations (da Silveira 2020 ).…”