Needs of the Heart

Kenneth P. Serbin

Description

Needs of the Heart traces five centuries of conflict and change in the life of the clergy in Brazil, home to the world's largest and arguably the most dynamic branch of the Roman Catholic Church. Serbin examines how priests participated in the colonization of Brazil, educated the elite and poor in the faith, propped up the socioeconomic status quo, and reinforced the institution of slavery, all the while living in relative freedom from church authority. Earthy men, many flouted the rule of celibacy and became embroiled in politics.

Serbin also describes the conservative modernization of the clergy, effected through seminary education, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Emphasizing discipline, the seminaries aimed to mold a new kind of priest—moral, isolated from politics and social entanglements, and, above all, obedient and celibate. However, the social, cultural, and religious upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s led students to reject the seminary. Seminarians worked to form a national union, and many left seminaries to establish greater contact with the people. The seminarians' movement sparked the practice of liberation theology; it also reflected the quest for professional and individual development, including optional celibacy. The Church responded to its seminarians' demands for personalized education by attempting to build an ambitious program in liberation psychology, a phenomenon as important as liberation theology.

Seminaries necessarily dealt in the psychology of sexuality, friendship, and other basic human tendencies—what historian Marc Bloch has called the "secret needs of the heart." Serbin argues that the "needs of the heart" were a cause of the political transformation of the Brazilian Church, a transformation catalyzed by the profound identity crisis experienced by clergymen and seminarians in the 1960s and 1970s. The story of this generation of seminarians and priests is intermingled with the challenges and fears present during the repressive military dictatorship (1964 to 1985) and its aftermath.

Serbin's definitive history of the Brazilian clergy combines social science research, including over one hundred interviews, with cultural and social theory and a sweeping historical perspective. Through his history of the clergy and seminaries, he provides a history of modern Brazil itself.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Essays
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• América del Sur
• Catholic Church
• South America
• Latin America
• Christianity
• Marc Bloch

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268159948
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

N E E D S of the H E A R T

ASocial and Cultural History ofBrazil’s Clergy and Seminaries

K E N N E T H P .S E R B IN

Needs of the Hear t

         

Scott Mainwaring,general editor

The University of Notre Dame Press gratefully thanks the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies for its support in the publication of titles in this series.

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N E E D S of the H E A R T

A Social and Cultural History of Brazil’s Clergy and Seminaries

K E N N E T H P . S E R B I N

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

University ofNotre DamePress Notre Dame,Indiana www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Copyright ©by University ofNotre Dame Published in the United States ofAmerica

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Serbin, Ken. Needs of the heart : a social and cultural history of Brazil’s clergy and seminaries / by Kenneth P. Serbin. p. cm. “Fromthe Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies”. Includes bibliographical references and index. -: ----(pbk.:alk.paper) -: ---(pbk.:alk.paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-268-15994-8 (web pdf) . Catholic Church — Clergy — Training of —Brazil —History. . Catholic theological seminaries —Brazil —History. I. Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies. II. Title. .  '.— dc 

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

For the seminarians and priests of Brazil.

For my parents.

For Regina and Bianca.

O padre furtou a moça, fugiu. Pedras caem no padre, deslizam. A moça grudou no padre, vira sombra, aragem matinal soprando no padre. Ninguém prende aqueles dois, aquele um negro amor de rendas brancas. . . . — Carlos Drummond de Andrade, “O padre, a moça”

We have dissociated ourselves from the normal concerns of most people’s lives under the pretext of thus becoming available for the preaching of the gospel. Many of us come from working-class families, and more than one cardinal has come from peasant stock. Our early entry into the seminary tears us away from our native environments and our families and offers us a way of life that represents a step up on the social scale. Our classical education alters our way of thinking and our vocabulary. The long training period in the cloister removes us from the real problems that affect the lives of everyone except the clergy and the rich. Is it possible at this point to build a bridge between our world and the world outside our ecclesiastical institutions? —Frei Betto,

Contents

List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Map of Brazil xii Preface xiii

1 2 3

4 5

6

7 8

Introduction: The Meaning of the Priesthood To Be a Priest in Brazil



Romanization and the Grand Discipline, ‒  (or, Trent Comes to Brazil) The Costs of Discipline “The Modern Saint Is a Social Saint”: Crisis in the Seminaries and the Search for a New Brazilian Priesthood, ‒   “A Special Grace from God”: Experiments in Psychoanalysis and Liberation Psychology

ThePequenas Comunidadesand the Theological Institute of Recife Epilogue: Seminaries and the Clergy in the New Millennium

Brief Timeline of Important Events Abbreviations and Glossary Notes References Index



Figures

Fig.. Father Henrique Lacoste, a French Vincentian itinerant missionary,. Courtesy PBCM (Província Brasileira da Congregação da Missão).

Fig.. Vincentian fathers with mission participants, Diamantina. Courtesy PBCM.

Fig.. The church and colégio at Caraça. Courtesy PBCM.



Fig.. Dom Antônio Ferreira Viçoso, bishop of Mariana. Courtesy PBCM.

Fig.. The seminary at Diamantina. Courtesy PBCM.





Fig.. The seminaries shaped personalities by taking in ever younger candidates, as seen here at the Vincentians’ Escola Apostólica Vicente de Paulo in Fortaleza, . Courtesy PBCM.

Fig.. Seminarians at Mariana. Courtesy PBCM.



Fig.. Father Géza Kövecses. Courtesy Província do Brasil Meridional da Companhia de Jesus.

ix