Brazilian archbishop and socialist
Helder Pessoa Camara
[a]
OFS
(7 February 1909 ? 27 August 1999) was a
Brazilian Catholic
prelate who served as
Archbishop of Olinda and Recife
from 1964 to 1985 during the
military dictatorship in Brazil
. He was declared a
Servant of God
in 2015.
A self-identified
socialist
, Camara was an advocate of
liberation theology
. He did social and political work for the poor and for human rights and democracy during the military regime. Camara preached for a church closer to the disfavoured people. He is quoted as having said, "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a
communist
."
[1]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
He was born Helder Pessoa Camara on 7 February 1909
[2]
in
Fortaleza
,
Ceara
, in the poor
Northeast Region
of Brazil. His father was an accountant and his mother was a primary school teacher.
[3]
He was educated in local Catholic schools and entered
seminary
in 1923.
Career
[
edit
]
He was ordained a priest in 1931, with a dispensation from the
Holy See
since he was below the canonical age.
[4]
Camara was named auxiliary bishop of
Rio de Janeiro
by
Pope Pius XII
on 3 March 1952.
[5]
During his first years as a priest he was a supporter of the far-right
Brazilian Integralist Action
(
Acao Integralista Brasileira
, AIB), an ideological choice that he later rejected. He also founded two social organizations: the Ceara Legion of Work, in 1931, and the Women Workers' Catholic Union, in 1933. On 12 March 1964,
Pope Paul VI
appointed him Archbishop of
Olinda e Recife
.
[6]
During his tenure, Camara was informally called the "bishop of the slums" for his clear position on the side of the urban poor.
[7]
With other clerics, he encouraged peasants to free themselves from their conventional fatalistic outlook by studying the gospels in small groups and proposing the search for social change from their readings. He was active in the formation of the
Brazilian Bishops' Conference
in 1952, and served as its first general secretary until 1964.
[8]
In 1959 he founded
Banco da Providencia
in
Rio de Janeiro
, a philanthropic organization to fight poverty and social injustice by facilitating the contraction of loans by poorer populations.
[9]
He attended all four sessions of the
Second Vatican Council
and played a significant role in drafting
Gaudium et spes
.
[8]
On 16 November 1965, a few days before the council ended, 40 bishops led by Camara met at night in the
Catacombs of Domitilla
outside Rome. They celebrated the Eucharist and signed a document under the title of the
Pact of the Catacombs
. In 13 points, they challenged their brother bishops to live lives of evangelical poverty: without honorific titles, privileges, and worldly ostentation. They taught that "the collegiality of the bishops finds its supreme evangelical realization in jointly serving the two-thirds of humanity who live in physical, cultural, and moral misery". They called for openness "to all, no matter what their beliefs".
[10]
[11]
Under the guidance of Camara, the Catholic Church in Brazil became an outspoken critic of the
1964?1985 military dictatorship
and a powerful movement for social change.
[9]
Camara spoke out and wrote about the implications of using violence to repress rebellion resulting from poverty and injustice in other venues than Brazil.
Traditionalist Catholics
urged the military government to arrest Camara for his support of
land reform
[12]
and Camara's colleague, Father Antonio Henrique Pereira Neto, was murdered by unknown conservative forces.
[13]
[14]
A proponent of
liberation theology
, he was Archbishop of the Diocese of
Olinda
and
Recife
from 1964 to 1985, the entirety of the dictatorship. Liberation theology brought forth the political aspect of the Church's charitable work and was criticized on the grounds that it was encouraging the armed revolutionary struggles that swept Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s.
[9]
Camara published
Spiral of Violence
in 1971, a short tract written when the United States was immersed in a still escalating
Vietnam War
. It is distinctive for linking structural injustice (Level 1 violence) with escalating rebellion (Level 2 violence) and repressive reaction (Level 3 violence). In it, Camara called on the youth of the world to take steps to break the spiral, saying their elders became addicted to those escalating steps.
He died in
Recife
on 27 August 1999 at the age of 90.
Views
[
edit
]
Camara endorsed the position of the Orthodox Church that spouses who were abandoned should be allowed to remarry within the church. He also admitted women's ordination.
[15]
He criticized
Pope Paul VI
's removal of artificial contraception from the purview of the Second Vatican Council as "a mistake" meant to "torture spouses, to disturb peace of many homes", "a new condemnation of Galileo",
[16]
"the death of the Council" and "the practical denial of
collegiality
".
[15]
According to the former
Vatican's Secretariat of State
, however, Camara went on to send a telegram to the Vatican praising the encyclical
Humanae Vitae
.
[17]
In his famous interview with Italian journalist
Oriana Fallaci
, he also stated that, despite his support for non-violence, he did not condemn violent tactics: "And I respect a lot priests with rifles on their shoulders; I never said that to use weapons against an oppressor is immoral or anti-Christian. But that's not my choice, not my road, not my way to apply the Gospels".
[18]
Camara identified himself as a socialist and not as a Marxist, and while disagreeing with
Marxism
, had Marxist sympathies. In the Fallaci interview, he stated, "My socialism is special, it's a socialism that respects the human person and goes back to the Gospels. My socialism is justice." He said, concerning Marx, that while he disagreed with his conclusions, he agreed with his analysis of the capitalist society.
[18]
He never denied his communist sympathies and he openly supported dialogue with communists. He believed in the
Fatima apparitons
but he interpreted its call for the "conversion of Russia" as meaning that the
Soviet Union
would abandon his anti-religious policies but will not be rejecting communism. He wrote: "And what was the appeal of Fatima for?... Not for the annihilation of the USSR and China, but for their conversion... In 1967 the Russian Revolution will celebrate its jubilee... We must accelerate the pace, there is no more time to waste".
[15]
In a poem dedicated to French Dominican priest
Louis-Joseph Lebret
, Camara states his belief that
Karl Marx
was in
Heaven
, and has him decorating Lebret of behalf of
Jesus Christ
: “Who decorated you/ in the name of Christ/ It was Karl Marx,/ taken to heaven/ for criticizing capital/ and for the protection of workers?!.../ And the lack of understanding regarding faith?/ It was the Christians' fault/ that he found around
and gave him wrong vision/ of Christ and Christianity?...."
[19]
[20]
Legacy and honors
[
edit
]
Servant of God
[
edit
]
On 15 February 2015, the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Antonio Fernando Saburido announced that he was sending a letter to the
Holy See
requesting the opening of the process of canonization of Camara.
[23]
The letter was received on 16 February 2015, and less than ten days later, the assent was given by the
Congregation for the Causes of the Saints
, meaning that Camara was given the title of
Servant of God
on 7 April 2015.
[8]
[24]
[25]
[26]
The opening of the beatification process took place on 3 May that year in Olinda Cathedral.
[27]
This marked the beginning of the diocesan phase of the
beatification
process.
[28]
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Quote: "Quando dou comida aos pobres, chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles sao pobres, chamam-me de comunista." ? cited in Zildo Rocha,
Helder, O Dom: uma vida que marcou os rumos da Igreja no Brasil
(Helder, the Gift: A Life that Marked the Course of the Church in Brazil), Page 53, Editora Vozes, 2000,
ISBN
978-85-326-2213-6
. ? 208 pages
(in Portuguese)
- ^
"Helder Pessoa Camara | Brazilian Bishop & Human Rights Activist | Britannica"
.
www.britannica.com
. Retrieved
13 April
2024
.
- ^
O'Shaughnessy, Hugh
(8 August 2003).
"Helder Camara ? Brazil's archbishop of the poor"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
25 October
2017
.
- ^
Santana, Ana Lucia. ≪Dom Helder Camara≫. InfoEscola. Retrieved 17 September 2016. (Portuguese).
- ^
Acta Apostolicae Sedis
(PDF)
. Vol. XLIV. 1952. p. 433
. Retrieved
11 May
2020
.
- ^
Acta Apostolicae Sedis
(PDF)
. Vol. LVI. 1964. pp. 461, 861, 874
. Retrieved
11 May
2020
.
- ^
Healy, Barry (14 July 2009),
"
'Bishop of the slums' ? Dom Helder Camara and Brazil's church of the poor"
,
Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal
, retrieved
20 April
2015
- ^
a
b
c
O'Connell, Gerard (27 April 2015),
"Call Him a Saint?"
,
America
, retrieved
18 April
2015
- ^
a
b
c
"Helder Camara"
.
the Guardian
. 31 August 1999
. Retrieved
20 June
2021
.
- ^
The Pact of the Catacombs (Domitilla); A poor servant Church
(PDF)
, Rome: SEDOS - Documentation and Research Centre, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 27 April 2015
, retrieved
20 April
2015
- ^
Sobrino, Jon (24 March 2010),
"The urgent need to return to being the church of the poor"
,
National Catholic Reporter
, retrieved
20 April
2015
- ^
Lernoux, Penny
(1989),
People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism
, New York: Viking, p.
341
,
ISBN
0-670-81529-2
- ^
Browne, Malcolm W. (12 July 1969), "Church Liberals in Argentina Target of Rightists",
New York Times
, p. 8
- ^
"Priest and Civilian Murdered in Brazil",
New York Times
, p. 7, 29 May 1969
- ^
a
b
c
Come i progressisti
non
vinsero al Concilio / Una recensione di
Roma, Due del Mattino
di Monsignor Helder Camara / di Massimo Introvigne, CESNUR Official Website (Italian)
- ^
Camara, Helder (2015) [2009], "15
a
Circular (Reservada) - Roma 24/25.9.1965", in Luiz Carlos Luz Marques; Roberto de Araujo Faria (eds.),
Dom Helder Camara Circulares Conciliares
(in Portuguese), vol. I, Recife (PE), Brazil: Companhia Editora de Pernambuco,
ISBN
9788578581558
, retrieved
9 April
2016
- ^
Blessed Paul VI, the Pope who led the Church's barque in troubled waters, Catholic News Agency
- ^
a
b
Entrevistas historicas: Oriana Fallaci entrevista dom Helder Camara, Socialista Morena Website (Portuguese)
; Engl. trans. in Oriana Fallaci.
Interview with History
, London: Michael Joseph (1976).
ISBN
0-7181-1530-9
, pp. 288?309.
- ^
Dom Helder Camara e o Marxismo: Um Dialogo Possivel, Revista Jesus Historico (Portuguese)
- ^
Nelson Pilleti e Walter Praxedes,
Dom Helder Camara: entre o poder e a profecia
, Sao Paulo, Atica, 1997, p. 409 (Portuguese)
- ^
Nobel Peace Prize nominations
. American Friends Service Committee
- ^
"Pa lag med diktaturet"
(english: "Cooperating with the dictatorship", NRK 9 March 2017
- ^
Brazil: Helder Camara, The Bishop of the poor
, Comboni Missionaries, August 28, 2020, accessed 17 November 2021.
- ^
Modino, Luis Miguel (10 April 2015),
"The initiation of Dom Helder Camara's path to sainthood now has a date"
,
Iglesia Descalza
, retrieved
18 April
2015
- ^
"Dom Helder Camara recebe titulo de 'Servo de Deus' da Santa Se"
. 8 April 2015.
- ^
Dom Helder Camara is declared “Servant of God” by the Holy See
http://news.cancaonova.com/dom-helder-camera-and-declared-service-for-santa-se/
Accessed 9 April 2015.
- ^
and-canonization-of-dom-helder-camara / Notice - Process of beatification and canonization of Dom Helder Camara
. Accessed 9 April 2015.
- ^
http://site.adital.com.br
/site/noticia.php?lang=EN&cod=84903
https://web.archive.org/web/20150518093834/http://site.adital.com.br/site/noticia.php?lang=EN&cod=84903
- Regan, David (2002),
Why Are They Poor? Helder Camara in Pastoral Perspective
, Theologie und Praxis, vol. 13, Munster: Lit,
ISBN
3-8258-6151-1
External links
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