From Integralism to Integral Humanism: Catholic Action and Anticommunism in Vargas' Brazil, 1930–45

During the presidency of Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian society witnessed a veritable explosion in Catholic lay activism: workers formed Catholic Círculos Operários, intellectuals formed Catholic think tanks, journalists founded Catholic newspapers, and students came together in Catholic university groups. Known as the “Catholic restoration,” this surge in Catholic fervor was often defensive in nature, meant to protect the Church from its many enemies: freemasons, Protestants, liberals, modernists, atheists, “the indifferent,” and, of course, communists. While the restorationist Church is often dismissed by scholars as a static, homogenous bastion of conservatism and reaction, my paper seeks to promote a rather different narrative, one that emphasizes its diversity and innovation. Focusing on Catholic Action and its relationship with the Benedictine liturgical movement, I will show how one of the most powerful restorationist organizations was far from static or homogenous, and its relationship to communism was more complicated than previously thought. While many Catholic militants, particularly in the early years of the restoration, were sympathetic towards (or, indeed, members of) the fascist Integralist movement, other groups, particularly Catholic university students connected to the Benedictine-led Center for Liturgy, were experimenting with humanist, democratic viewpoints inspired by the work of French Catholic intellectual Jacques Maritain. Committed to the notion that the Catholic laity should actively (and equally) participate in the both the sacred and material world, these young students and monks advanced radical ideas that made leaders of both the Vargas’ authoritarian Estado Novo and the hierarchical Church uncomfortable. Their democratic spirit may have ensured their continued anti-communism, but such a stance signified not traditionalism or conservatism, but rather creativity and transformation.