O cristofascismo, o integrismo e a guerra cultural: um estudo sobre a Associação Cultural Monfort

Abstract

Politics and religion are two strands that, throughout history, have been moved by attempts to either unite them or separate them. However, it is indisputable that these relations have always been motivated by the hegemony of power. In recent years, Brazilian politics has used conservative religious discourse to sustain its agendas. Since Brazilian re-democratization, a reactionary project has continued to resist and has found space to grow in the Christian religious milieu, making political differences surpass ideological and partisan setbacks. The consequences of this were a sectarian, segregationist and Manichean posture in which, according to representatives of conservatism, society is divided between ‘good’, represented by them, and evil, encompassing everything that differs from their guidelines and vision traditional family, natural order and Judeo-Christian values. This leads to the establishment of a “cultural war” in which the defense of Christian references is at stake. It is characteristic of the fascist structure to choose an enemy constructed by forged situations, and it is a necessary condition to foment hatred against this imaginary agent in order to maintain the status quo. This discourse based on the “cultural war” is a creation of the ultraconservative right that has been used by fundamentalist Catholic groups, under the accusations of a growing communism and ideological progressivism that puts Christian traditions at risk. The objective of this work, therefore, is to analyze the relationship of the conservative Catholic group called Associação Cultural Montfort as part of this fascist structure that has been consolidating in the country, using Christian religious premises, called by the theologian Fábio Py as Christofascist. The methodology used is the exploratory research of the letters sent to the Montfort Cultural Association website, as well as the answers given by its founder Orlando Fedeli and his students, with the purpose of investigating whether these contents contain subsidies to favor an attitude of intolerance and fascism based on theological discourse. Allied to this, an analysis of the secondary bibliography will be carried out, establishing a comparison between what is conceptualized as Christofascism, culture war and hate rhetoric with the “modus operandi” of the Montfort Cultural Association, especially from the recent work of João César de Castro Rocha and João Décio Passos