Encounters and confrontations in the forge: Church, lefts and military in Volta Redonda
Military Dictatorship. Diocese of Barra do Pirai-Volta Redonda. Lefts
This dissertation discusses the relationship established between the Catholic Church, political groups of the lefts and military in the city of Volta Redonda between 1967 and 1979, during the military dictatorship. In this period the local Church, in accordance with the guidelines of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and the Episcopal Conference of Medellin (1968), and anchored in Liberation Theology, developed an active policy of defending human rights, against the arbitrariness committed by the dictatorship, approaching groups opposed to the regime, mainly leftists. This political position, initiated in the bishopric of Dom Waldyr in 1966, triggered an intense repression of the military against the Church and local leftist groups. This dissertation aims at discussing the transformations in the production of discourses and the internal and external performance of the diocese, from the bishopric of Dom Waldyr Calheiros (1966), focused on the struggle against the military dictatorship and on the new relations established with leftist groups of the city, as well as to analyze the relations, lines of contact and militancy established between the diocese and those leftist groups, including clandestine organizations of the revolutionary leftists, as well as to analyze the political repression against the Church and the lefts in that context. To analyze those complex relations, we make use of the Gramscian referential, with the concepts of historical block, hegemony, state, civil society, political society and ideology. Empirical research was carried out based on primary sources deposited in the Archives of the Diocese of Barra do Piraí-Volta Redonda; in APERJ- Public Archive of Rio de Janeiro-APERJ, in the AN-National Archive and in the CEMESF, Memory Center of the Fluminense South (ICHS-UFF), which contains the archives of the Municipal Commission of Truth, composed of interviews and testimonies of individuals affected by political repression and their families. In addition to the sources listed above, we also use oral history, with open interviews with individuals who have had an outstanding performance throughout this process. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the role of the Church of Volta Redonda in the political process of resistance against the dictatorship and in the struggle for democracy, as well as providing elements for a better analysis of the Church's and lefts relations in Brazil in the military dictatorship, and clashes. It also provides new lenses for analysis of the work of the local Church, highlighting the figure of Bishop Dom Waldyr, and his relations with leftist sectors, including the armed left