The Brazilian Catholic Church and Church-State Relations: Nation-Building

Catholicism and Its Civic Engagement

“…In Brazil, for example, a central role for the church and for lay organizations with close ties to the church is the defence of human rights. Cardinal Evaristo Arns took a stand against the government following the torture and death of Vladimir Herzog, a prominent Jewish journalist, in 1975, and the Catholic Church was a major factor in the wave of democratization in the late twentieth century and also helped to improve the conditions of persons in prisons (Cleary 1997). Likewise, the Catholic Church in Hong Kong has also played a very important role in its democratization, although it is a different matter in other dioceses in greater China.…”