The Catholic Church and Religious Education in Brazil (1889-1930)

This article presents the debate about education that took place in the early twentieth century in Brazil and provided a productive discussion on the role of education in society. On one side was the Catholic Church that supported religious teaching in public schools and on the other side, educators who were close to Progressive Education and advocated secularism. We point out the main theses that guided this dispute and emphasize the differences between these two groups. We also present a brief history of the separation between the State and the Catholic Church after the proclamation of the Republic and elucidate the rearticulation of this institution by highlighting the contradictions between the Church and the educators in favor of Progressive Education. We understand that the issue of secularism was an important factor in this process and that it contributed to the sharp differences between the Church and the supporters of a secular state. In the field of knowledge, historians, sociologists, political scientists, philosophers and religious studies scholars have been addressing this topic and produced studies, analyses and considerations both in favor and against the introduction of religious education in Brazilian public schools. This article is the result of a bibliographic research that took into account scientific articles, books, dissertations and theses on the proposed topic.