Leitores apenas de Português, pulem para os links no final do texto em inglês.
On Nov 13, 2008 president Lula signed a Concordat with the Holy See, at the Vatican State. Dilma Rousseff, now the president, was there also.
What is this "Concordat"?
The answer you get will depend on who you ask.
On May 13, 2011, in an event in São Paulo, this editor asked Mr. Cãndido Vaccarezza, leader of the government (Lula's Party) in the Low Legislative House, why that body approved the Concordat in August 2009 despite strong allegations it harmed the constitutional principle of a laity state. Mr Vaccarezza, to begin with, took advantage of the confusion common people make regarding the concept of laicity itself. He said the agreement was not with the Church, but with the State of Vatican. And as religion did not play a part, the agreement was ok.
What one must know is that a laity state is not a state where "all religions are equal". The Catholic Church (the Vatican) does not endorse that all religions are equal (see text by Dom Dimas among the links below). And never will.
So the Vatican and PT government does not reaaly agree on this crucial point. History and International Law teaches us that a laity state is that where the Church (or the Vatican - these two terms are used interchangeably in texts in History and Law) does not interfere with the ruling of the country.
So Mr. Vaccarezza came up with a more convenient lesson, one good enough to silence the regular students, which most of the people are.
Then, does the Concordat imply the Church interferes with the Brazilian state affairs? Yes!
And religion is not the only matter. Actually religion is the lesser problem: catholicism is being taught at schools, and a high judiciary official, a woman (give me some time to ferch her name), has started a motion. It certainly is a problem, I mean, but it is the one most people are inclined to think it is ok, and religion is good for education...
Mr. Vaccarezza, still downplaying the Concordat, added that Brazil just recognized the Vatican as a state, which he has already done in practice all long the way.Without the Concordat, he continued, there were many problems, without, however, specifying anyone.
A young journalist seated next to me 'bought' all this vague, misleading "answer". "Didn't he answer?", he addressed me with a smile full of maivety.When I retorted that was vague, a "lulaby", he said: "He is not obliged to know every single detail". Well, that also means our journalist will not look for more information himself. The case is hopeless.
This sort of non-blue mentality also buys so weak an answer as this: "Only five countries do not have diplomatic relations with the Vatican" - Mr. Vaccarezza emphatically pointed out, now avoiding looking at me. Yes, just imagine the face I put on!
Mr. Vaccarezza reported that voting session as a very ordinary one - "Just simbolic vote, I guess". Then I replied: "It was voted under the guise of urgency". On what he again looked down, working to make me a fool before the audience: "That was the regime of voting".
Of course it was the regime of voting. Then what? But by resorting to those deviations, he got away with all that, as far as the conscience of the majority is concerned. Two senior men came to me later to check I was among the silly to fall on those tricks. They were happy to learn I was not.
When I tried to refer to the motion, Mr. Vaccarezza immediately cut me off in his authoritarian style that satisfies crowds: "Everything we do there (in the Low House) is questioned", indicating that such questioning is siliness. Mr. Claludio Lembo, former state governor, on the Representative's right, looked firmly at me. Paulo Delgado, on his left, made a start to say he was part of the House's Commission of Foreign Relations... and was also cut off.
And the event was over.
Back to the Concordat, can you get a copy of it after the mass? I do not think so. But there is a copy in this blog (a link below). It is a bunch of twenty items that do not tell anything to the average person. It is drawn up like that on purpose. What I had to do was listening to the noise - and celebration - the Church made after that meeting at the Vatican. And to keep following the struggle PT- Vatican thereafter.
Most of the Concordat is vague - or too ample. It is akin to a blank cheque. "We legally recognize the Catholic Church" menas much, much more than Mr. Vaccarezza declared.
And, yes, in the text of the Concordat, we find "Catholic Church", "Holy See" and "Vatican".
Let's see the correct interpretation of that, through the real consequences we have observed:
1) The archbishop of Sao Paulo declared on the internet that the head of any parish could now go to the Mail Office or the bank and introduce himself as the head of that community.(Not only as the head of the catholics)
2) The PNDH3 (National Program for Human Rights nr. 3) was "returned" by Lula after the Church complained fiercely: "How can oen (Lula) ignore what has been already recognised"? So, no more abortion in that Program - which is still lost "back there".
3) Since the visit of the Pope in 2007 and just before the election campaign of 2010, not a single line about abortion on the papers had come out. And the campaigns turned out to be that shameful dispute only about abortion just because the Church and her Concordat was behind all that, actually deciding who would be the next president.
Reaction against the Concordat has been huge, but not accompanied by due attention of the formal media.
Check the links below:
em português
A scholar in Education has published an academic article http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-73302009000100013
where the topics of the Concordat related to education are fully discussed.
A selection of four of our crucial posts on the Vatican is found here:
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2011/02/four-main-posts-on-vatican-catholic.html
And what else we have also written about this matter:
EM PORTUGUÊS:
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/01/igreja-como-assinar-uma-concordata-por.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/08/vaticano-e-bafafa-na-camara-e-fora-dela.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2011/02/contra-concordata-acao-popular-ajuizada.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/12/que-acordo-com-igreja-e-esse-tirando.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/10/vovozinha-para-que-um-acordo-desses-com.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2008/12/18112008-acordo-entre-igreja-e-estado.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2011/02/jornal-valor-foi-o-que-tocou-no-ponto.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2011/01/brasil-de-dilma-rousseff-maior-colonia.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/12/outras-fontes-sobre-o-acordo-brasil.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/12/o-papa-e-um-lider-religioso-ou-um-chefe.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/12/registro-historico-imerso-em-panos.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/11/banco-do-vaticano-especializado-em.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/11/brazilian-high-minister-in-vatican.html
(O link está em inglês, mas o texto é em português)
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/06/banco-do-vaticano-curso-crise-mundial-e.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/09/igreja-tem-milhoes-de-euros-bloqueados.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/09/papa-no-reino-unido-nao-exatamente-o.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/04/inspirados-pela-maracutaia-de.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/04/afirmei-que-esta-postagem-seria-sobre.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/03/revista-veja-censura-na-internet-para.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2010/03/sem-escandalos-e-sem-abalos-como-vejo.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/11/republica-federativa-vaticana-do-brasil.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/10/fe-como-negocio-e-negocio-bem-escuso.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/10/afeto-e-bandeira-vaticana-na-porta-das.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/08/papa-bento-paraisos-fiscais-enciclica.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2009/02/estrutura-do-estado-igreja-universal.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2008/12/acordo-lula-bento-16-de-que-ningum.html
http://mariangelapedro.blogspot.com/2008/12/pecados-santos-superinteressante-ed.html
PÁGINA TAMBÉM DE NOSSA AUTORIA:
http://acordovaticano.blogspot.com/ Reações à Concordata (also compiled by this editor)
External Source: (This organization refers to our page "Reações à Concordata" [Reactions to the Concordat] in its site, but we do not have any ties with it)
http://www.acaoeducativa.org.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1843&
Fonte externa:
(Essa organização incluiu link à nossa página "Reações à Concordata" em seu site, mas não temos nenhum vínculo com ela.)
http://www.acaoeducativa.org.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1843&
