Modernity and Catholicism in 1930s Brazil: Coexistences and Interactions Surrounding the Creation of the Catholic Electoral League in Mato Grosso

Abstract This text aims to present an analysis of the presence of Catholicism in Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century, through the study of the interactions between Catholicism and politics – evidenced in the analysis of the articulation process for the creation of the Catholic Electoral League in the State of Mato Grosso in 1932.This process was carried out through hierarchical relations and networks of sociability between leaders of the Catholic Church and members of the Catholic intellectual elite. Special attention will be given to the actions of Cardinal Sebastião Leme da Silveira Cintra, the intellectual Alceu Amoroso Lima, and Archbishop Francisco de Aquino Corrêa. The hypothesis investigated is that the nature of Catholicism’s presence in the Brazilian public sphere during this period unfolded within a rhythm specific to the form of modernity present in Brazil, in which secularization, secularity, and religion coexisted in a tense and contradictory process, with particular emphasis on its repercussions in the state of Mato Grosso.