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A Brief Historical and Legal Description of Religious Liberty
Brazil gained independence from Portugal in 1822, retaining a monarchial system until a republic was established in 1889. Democratic rule has been interrupted by lone periods of authoritarian rule, most recently under military governments from 1964 to 1985.1 It became a member of the United Nations in 1945.2
Brazil, with a population of over 150 million, is a constitutional federal republic comprised of 26 states and the federal district. In 1994 voters elected a new President, two-thirds of their Senate, 513 federal deputies, 27 governors, and members of state legislatures. It was the second time since the end of military rule that Brazilians freely chose their President and renewed the legislative bodies in accordance with the 1988 Constitution. Fernando Henrique Cardoso became President on January 1, 1995, and will serve a 4-year term, reduced from 5 years by a 1994 constitutional amendment.3
Brazil has no state religion. All faiths are free to establish places of worship, train clergy, and proselytize, although the Government controls entry into Indian lands. Eighty-five percent of Brazilians belong to the Roman Catholic Church, but Protestant churches (currently 6%) have been expanding, and spiritism is widely practiced.4
A recent statement from the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States established that "Brazilian society is celebrated for its religious syncretism and tolerance towards all professions of faith. Furthermore, our Constitution stipulates the inviolability of religious freedom, of the right to practice one's faith and places of worship. Religious freedom, therefore, is a non-issue in Brazil."5 According to the Institute of Religious Studies in Rio de Janeiro, "there have been only two minor cases of religious intolerance. In the first case, against Protestants in the interior of the country, in the 30's; in the second case against members of Afro-Brazilian cults in the 50's."6 However, the Institute's study doesn't account for a few recent incidents, as noted in the case section below.
Constitutional Provisions and Legislation Relating to Religion
Provisions relating to religious freedom in the reformed Constitution of 1988 are as follows:
Article 5 (VI): Freedom of conscience and of belief is inviolable, being assured the free exercise of religious worships, and granted, by law, the protection of the places of worship and their liturgy.
Recent Reported Cases of Religious Intolerance
On October 12, 1995 Pentecostal pastor, Sergio Von Helder, destroyed with his hands and feet an image of "Virgen Aparecida" (a particular effigy of the Virgin Mary) on a live TV show aired by a channel property of the Universal Christian Church.7 October 12 is the day of the "Virgen Aparecida," which is venerated by the majority of Brazilian Catholics as the holy mother of the country.8 The Catholic National Conference of Bishops criticized Von Helder's actions and declared that it "offended more than 100 million Catholics of the country." The President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, warned, through a spokesman, against the "danger of a holy war" in Brazil. The Ministry of Justice was considering making "kicking a Saint" a "federal crime against human rights."9 Von Helder was charged with "pre-meditated aggression against an image" and other crimes which could land him in prison.10
The President of the Brazilian Evangelical Association, pastor Caio Fabio D'Araujo Filho, condemned Von Helder's behavior, stating that the public destruction of religious symbols could be the spark that would ignite a "process of religious intolerance with their unforeseeable holy wars."11
In June 1995, a tiny, partially constructed church building some 2,500 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro was embroiled in a land-rights court battle that, according to church workers, could have widespread ramifications for the entire nation of Brazil.12 Timber buyer and land owner Seiky Furia Isamu has filed suit against the international mission agency Youth With a Mission (YWAM), charging that the Church of Estacao, which the ministry helped establish, was built illegally on land he now owns.13 Isamu claims that the church should be demolished, and YWAM should pay him damages for using the property. YWAM maintains that the local people have lived and fished in the area for more than 60 years and have "community squatters' rights," including the right to build a church there.14
On September 1, 1992, at a trial attended by more than 100 representatives of mission and church groups,15 three members of the military police were found guilty of beating a YWAM missionary in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's fourth-largest city. The judges ruled that police were guilty of attacking a group of eleven YWAM workers who were carrying out their ministry among the city's homeless.16
In May 1992, Bishop Edir Macedo, founder and leader of the Universal Christian Church, a charismatic movement with evangelical theology, was imprisoned on charges of "charlatanism, illegal exercise of medicine, and fraud" (undue collecting of funds).17 The Universal Christian Church has more than four million members, and has experienced an explosive growth in the last years. As a consequence, more than one million of Evangelical Christians marched on Río de Janeiro streets asking for Macedo's release which took place days after the arrest.18
ENDNOTES 1. "Brazil." Freedom in the World, 163.2. Edward H. Lawson, ed., The Encyclopedia of Human Rights (New York: Taylor & Francis, Inc., 1991): 138.
3. U.S. Department of State. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1995): 332.
4. Lawson, 138.
5. Letter from the Brazilian Ambassador in the U.S., Paulo-Tarso Flecha de Lima, to The Rutherford Institute, (September 13, 1995).
6. ibid.
7. "Secta declara guerra santa contra el Gobierno en Brasil." El Nuevo Herald (December 3, 1995): 29A.
8. ibid.
9. ibid.
10. ibid.
11. "Advierten sobre guerra santa entre católicos y evangélicos." El Diario, La Paz, Bolivia (October 15, 1995).
12. Elisabeth Farrell, "Church Case Setting Precedent on Squatters' Rights." News Network International (August 11, 1995): 22.
13. ibid.
14. ibid.
15. "Brazil." News Network International: Special Edition (October 23, 1992): 4.
16. ibid.
17. "Evangelicos se unen por la libertad religiosa en Brasil." Rutherford (Spanish version) (August 1992): 1.
18. ibid.
Source: Handbook on Religious Liberty Around the World, Pedro C. Moreno, Editor. Charlottesville, VA: The Rutherford Institute. This report is reprinted here by special arrangement with the Rutherford Institute and may not be reproduced or mirrored on another webside without written permission of the Rutherford Institute.
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