Abstrakt
The 1889 military coup in Brazil led not only to the fall of the empire and establishment of republican regime, but also to involuntary separation between Church and State, including ban on religious education and loss of major source of funding. In reaction to this, Roman Catholic hierarchy launched complex campaign aiming to restore its former position and regain lost influence, using, among other measures, its own press (so-called "good press") to formulate and disseminate its political agenda.
This paper will analyze the role of poverty in this struggle for renewal of Catholic religious and also political dominance over the course of First Brazilian Republic (1889-1930), based on its newly-established press machinery and related official Church documents from the local dioceses. It aims to present the issue of poverty in its complex and conflicting nature for the Catholic hierarchy, both as an instrument of its propaganda and mobilization of wider population for its cause, but also as a potential threat.
Furthermore, it will consider specific Franciscan dimension of the issue, analyzing influential biweekly magazine Mensageiro da Fé published by the order.