Igreja, anticomunismo e a ditadura civil-militar em Alagoas: a atuação de Dom Adelmo Cavalcante Machado frente à Arquidiocese de Maceió (1955-1976)

Abstract

The paper analyzes aspects of the Civil-Military Dictatorship in Alagoas, re-reading the political and religious trajectory of the Alagoas Bishop, Dom Adelmo, from the anti-communist discourse given and spread by him, in an ideological propaganda that used the newspaper “O Semeador”. to instruct the faithful and contribute to reinforce the anti-communist imagination among Catholics in Alagoas. Initially, I contextualize the Civil-Military Dictatorship in Brazil, to later reach the state of Alagoas, where the Bishop was an emblematic figure in this political scenario, in which the Social Action of the Catholic Church was confused with his biography. I also question the scope and power of a Christian discourse in a contemporary society, in which the sacred seeks to interfere in the daily life of the faithful, making them assimilate or not the demands of the Church in the construction of a thought that would commune with the values of the Church. Christian faith, in its conservative aspect.