Teologia da libertação em São Gonçalo: da atuação da Pastoral da Juventude à formação da Comunidade Eclesial de Base do Morro do Jurumenha (1973-1987)

Abstract

The present research analyzes the work of the Youth Ministry called Pastoral da Juventude (PJ) of São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro, between the 1970s and 1980s, as well as an Ecclesial Base Community created from this work. Evidencing during the process of this action the forms of action of these groups of young people who worked with a perspective of a Christian project guided by Liberation Theology, forged in the work of social action with needy communities in the city. This analysis demonstrates how these gonçalense Catholic youth managed to play an important role as an organized group in the progressive field in the political panorama of the city in this period, despite being linked to the Archdiocese of Niterói, considered a conservative church. In this movement, a CEB formed in the community of Morro do Jurumenha, in the neighborhood of Santa Catarina, stands out, in which a group of young people from the PJ worked together with the residents for political formation based on various social actions developing a pastoral work and politician who ended up collaborating decisively for the victory of residents in the struggle for land in the face of real estate speculation. Despite the performance within the CEB model, those agents were never able to publicly declare themselves as such due to the conservative clergy of the church in Niterói, which made it possible to question the forms of existence of CEBs who could never officially declare themselves as CEBs.