“Soldiers of the faith.”

adminonNovember 22, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Members of an Afro-Brazilian community demonstrate against religious intolerance in Rio de Janeiro © Thomas Milz (KNA)

Brazil has a reputation for being a tolerant country. Now, however, cases of religious intolerance are on the rise, especially in Rio de Janeiro, where Afro-Brazilian communities are suffering from attacks by evangelical Christians.

"Break everything, everything, in Jesus' name!"Loudly, one of the seven armed drug dealers demands that the priestess smash her Afro-Brazilian idols in the religious meeting house. "You are the biggest devil! All evil must be destroyed in the name of Jesus."

Then they urinate on the destroyed statues, tear off the believers' ritual necklaces with the butt of a rifle. Then they put the crime video online. Another video shows a priest first tearing down his meeting house and then tearing ritual necklaces.

Drug gang member: "Next time I'll kill you"

Next to it, a bandit threatens with a baseball bat with "dialogo" carved into it – dialogue. "Next time I'll kill you," shouts the man with the baseball bat. "The only flag here is that of the TCP and that of Jesus Christ. Macumba we do not want here. Tell everyone that I belong to Jesus."

TCP is the drug gang "Drittes Kommando", and "Macumba" is a swear word for Afro-Brazilian rituals: "devil stuff". Played out the horrific scenes in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Here, most people are dark-skinned, of African origin.

Archaic methods, twisted morals

In the midst of a chaos of poverty, violence and drugs, drug dealers like to act as guardians of morality with archaic methods and twisted morals. Videos of them shaving off the hair of unfaithful wives also circulate on the Internet. Evangelical churches are growing fastest in the favelas. Within a few decades, their share of the total population has already grown to over 20 percent.

People like to blame Afro-Brazilian religions for the general misery, says priest Dona Heloisa. "Every day we are attacked by evangelicals who discriminate against us and say we are devil worshippers."

Two thirds of the assaults hit Afro-Brazilians

Perpetrators call themselves "soldiers of faith". Many have been converted in prison by evangelical pastors, many of whom were once drug dealers themselves. They have been banning Afro-Brazilian priests from the favelas for about ten years now. But such an accumulation of cases of intolerance is new. Since the beginning of August, 32 cases have been reported to Rio's authorities.

Overall, Brazil's diverse society seems to be becoming more rigid and discriminatory. Whereas the nationwide intolerance hotline received just 15 reports in 2011, it had already received 759 in 2016. Attacks on Spiritist centers or Christian churches were also registered; however, in more than two-thirds of the cases it is against Afro-Brazilians.

Protest march against intolerance

"The numbers are increasing because of evangelical groups," says Eder Jo Soares, a member of the Afro-Brazilian community "Filhos de Gandhi" (Sons of Gandhi). He does not understand what goes through their heads. "We don't want holy wars here in Brazil after all." Together with hundreds of Afro-Brazilians, the "Filhos de Gandhi" participated in a protest march against intolerance at Copacabana over the weekend.

Including Spiritists, Evangelicals, Lutherans and Buddhists. Rio's Catholic archbishop had also called for participation. "This is more than intolerance, these are already crimes," said Fabiane Gaspar of a Spiritist group. "Politics must provide answers." But the policy seems to be more part of the problem.

Rio's mayor calls for fight

Marcelo Crivella has been mayor of Rio since January, a "bishop" of the "Universal Church of the Kingdom of God". The church founded by Crivella's uncle Edir Macedo is known for its outbursts against Afro-Brazilian religions. And Macedo's speeches are full of calls to fight the devil on earth. Crivella himself has in the past denigrated homosexuals and members of other religions in books and speeches.

That was a long time ago, he says. But he was the first mayor in decades not to attend the opening of the carnival, which in Rio is dedicated to African traditions. He cut off funding to a memorial for enslaved Africans in the city center. When he changed the licensing procedures for religious events in May, Afro-Brazilian groups protested strongly. Crivella remains silent on the recent attacks.

Bandits replace police

"At the beginning of the 20. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was the police who destroyed African places of worship, now it's the bandits," said priest and anthropologist Pai Rodney. "And the state, through its inaction, is writing the script for the horrors against black people and their culture."

The fall plenary meeting of the U.S. bishops in Baltimore will also see a change in the presidency. In parting, Cardinal DiNardo recalled challenges for the Church. There were also words of caution from another.

Pope's ambassador to U.S. has urged U.S. bishops to make greater efforts to implement pope's priorities. "The pastoral thrust of this pontificate must reach the American people," Archbishop Christophe Pierre said at the start of the fall meeting of the U.S. bishops' conference Monday (local time) in Baltimore. Observers rate the speech as unusually clear.

"Our communion with the Holy Father can be expressed in concrete actions we can take to make his teaching authority better known among the people," the nuncio explained. Pierre explicitly referred to the 2015 environmental encyclical "Laudato si". Some of the pope's positions would need "greater efforts on our part to reach the hearts of political and civil leaders," the archbishop said.

Pierre also addressed the apostolic letters "Amoris Laetitia" on the family and "Evangelii Gaudium" on evangelization as two other areas that deserved greater commitment. The papal envoy to the U.S. explicitly urged the bishops' conference to welcome migrants and fight racism.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, considered a close ally of the pope in the U.S. church, said Pierre recalled "what the church teaches about the important role of our communion with the Holy Father".

Cardinal DiNardo relinquishes presidency

The outgoing president of the conference, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, focused in his farewell address on "the continuing struggle to defend unborn children". DiNardo also mentioned the abuse crisis, which had challenged him personally strongly.

He said his encounters with the victims had "changed his life forever". Their testimony had given the church "the knowledge we need to make a difference". This includes moving away from the prevailing clericalism; church leaders must be servants, says DiNardo.

In response to questions from the floor, Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley ared that the Vatican would soon present the announced investigative report on Theodore McCarrick, who was removed from the priesthood and cardinalate for sexual abuse. The report could be ready before Christmas, or in the new year at the latest.

On the first day of the fall meeting, the U.S. bishops approved a slight three percent increase in the budget for the coming year, to $22.69 million. They also heard reports from relevant committee chairs on priest shortages, gun violence, pastoral care for young people and women with unplanned pregnancies.

The U.S. bishops' plenary meeting, which runs through Wednesday, also has important personnel decisions to make. Widely expected is the election of DiNardo's previous deputy, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, of Los Angeles, to succeed to head body. Mexican native would be first Latino to lead U.S. bishops.

Australia requires priests to report abuse cases confided to them in confession. Several states have passed laws on this. The conflict between church and state is programmed.

"If there should be a law requiring priests to break the seal of confession, I am one of those who will not obey that law," wrote Jesuit and lawyer Frank Brennan back in 2016 in "Eureka Street," a publication of the Australian Jesuits.

Meanwhile, such laws already exist in the city-state of Canberra and several other states. The policy cites a recommendation in the final report of the state abuse commission, which the panel presented in December 2017.

State law vs. church law

Without exception, all persons who learn of sexual abuse should be required to report it to the police, the recommendation reads. "This recommendation includes information given in religious confessions," the report explicitly states, reasoning, "The Commission has heard reports of cases in religious settings in which perpetrators who confessed to child sexual abuse sought forgiveness and then did it again."Now it's state law against church law: because a violation of the seal of confession automatically results in excommunication for priests.

Bishops and politicians agree that children must be protected, sexual abuse must not be covered up but reported to police. But church leaders say the seal of confession must not be lifted from this duty.

Threat to religious freedom

Christopher Prowse, Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn, sees legal compulsion to break the seal of confession as a "threat to religious freedom". He says the measure does nothing to protect children. "Regrettably, breaking the seal of confession will not prevent abuse and it does not help us in our ongoing efforts to improve the safety of children in Catholic institutions," Prowse wrote in a well-received piece for the Canberra Times.

Charlie Pickering, on the other hand, speaks from the heart of many Australians who are outraged by the church's refusal to give up the sacrament of confession in abuse cases. The Church, thundered the prominent host of the satirical magazine "The Weekly" in the broadcast of 20. June, protect "the perpetrators in the name of God".

As a horror example of the protection of offenders in God's name, the presenter cites the case of Catholic priest Michael McArdle, who, he says, committed a total of 1.500 abuse confessions. "He was told 1.Forgiven 500 times. He was merely told to go home and pray."

Abusers usually don't confess to abuse

Sociologist Stephen de Weger is researching sexual misconduct by priests at the Queensland University of Technology's Faculty of Law. For the scientist, the debate about the secrecy of confession is rather a side ie. "It's not a big problem because most of those who sexually abuse children do not confess their behavior or their sin," de Weger told the Catholic News Agency (KNA).

However, the expert does not want to exclude the possibility that there are cases in which pedophile priests confess their acts to each other and absolve themselves. "Bishops and the church need to keep making it clear that this form of 'confession' does not absolve sins," de Weger said. Priests barred from this form of forgiveness would then have to live with fear of damnation, according to Catholic conviction.

Frank Brennan pointed out a way out of the abuse and confessional secrecy dilemma back in 2016: "If a pedophile told me he or she had molested a child, I would demand as part of the penance that that person report himself or herself to the police and seek therapy. If he refuses, I would refuse absolution," Brennan says, but adds, "But I would not break the seal of confession."

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