Money and robes: a perspective of the imbrication of the Catholic Church in the Brazilian political process (1961-1970) through the sources of the Institute of Research and Social Studies (IPÊS)

Abstract

The article deals with the participation of the Catholic Church in the political life of Brazil, particularly centered on the process of deterioration of its fragile democracy that led to the 1964 coup d'état and the establishment of a dictatorship, the fruit of an unquestionable social coalition. It certainly had military members in its composition, but it also included other actors, such as businessmen, traditional politicians, technocrats and members of the clergy. We know many of its details from sources bequeathed by the Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Sociais (IPÊS), one of its most important rams coordinating one of the groups with the greatest performance, through which we seek to show a core part of that participation. These documents illustrate how this interweaving was intense, often more direct and sometimes more opaque, firm evidence that there was a real project behind it all. Thus, we can see how the Institute made use of the discourse of the Catholic Church, of its cadres and even of specific institutions for this purpose, in a process that was neither linear nor homogeneous, since they also show us tensions and oppositions.