O ensino religioso nas escolas públicas paulistas: relações entre Estado, Igreja e Educação (1931 1961)

Abstract

This research work aims at understanding and analyzing how Catholic Church has articulated itself in the state of São Paulo to implement religious study in primary public schools in the period 1931 from 1961. The questions we proposed to analyze in this research were formulated as follows: what were the strategies used by Catholic Church to include the subject Religious Studies by a decree in 1931 and turn it part of the Constitution of 1934? From that period on, which were the practices of the Church to institute, maintain and supervise the Religious Studies subject in primary public schools in the state of São Paulo? Who were the teachers that were in charge of Religious Studies in primary public schools in São Paulo and which contents and teaching methodology were applied for that specific subject? Starting from the hypothesis that Roman Apostolic Catholic Church used of its powerful influence with the dominant classes and troublesome political moment that surrounded the achievement of President Getúlio Vargas to the federal power to set itself as an institution that would provide moral background to inhabitants, providing the new social order. Getúlio Vargas, aiming the Church support, in creating the Ministry of Education and Health, inviting Francisco Campos, from the State of Minas Gerais, anti-liberal and catholic, a person who strongly defended religious studies in public schools, to be the first minister of education in Brazil. The interest from Catholic Church in including religious studies in public primary schools was due to such study modality has passed to the condition of being obliged to the inhabitants and school being an important space to improve the number of Christians and keep its hegemony in Brazil. In order the Cúria Metropolitana of São Paulo made the Religious Studies effective in public schools, it applied its accumulated experiences in popular schools, once it had no practice in education of poor people, historically has often dealt with elite education, especially in secondary school. To accomplish the realization of this research work, documents from Cúria Metropolitana were consulted as sources, as well as publishings of newspapers, magazines and teaching manuals. The reading and interpretation of such documents were reinforced by authors like: Goodson (2001), Chervel (1990) and Bittencourt (2003) and others