Four Catholic parishes in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro suddenly announced the suspension of all their activities between 5-7 July amid rumours that the closures followed an order from a powerful drug lord who is also an Evangelical Christian.
According to the news website <em>G1</em>, local residents said armed men on motorcycles visited St. Hedwig and St. Cecilia parishes in Brás de Pina, as well as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and St. Justin parishes in Parada de Lucas, and ordered the immediate suspension of all celebrations.
The churches alerted parishioners through their social media accounts that all weekend activities would be cancelled, without giving an explanation. St. Hedwig parish also announced the suspension of its traditional festivity in honour of St. John the Baptist and other saints whose celebrations are in June.
Drug trafficker Álvaro Santa Rosa, known as Peixão (“Big Fish”), a major gang commander who controls a set of favelas in the northern part of the city, is notorious in Brazil for his fervour as an Evangelical Christian. He was named as the man responsible for the churches’ temporary closures.
Peixão was raised in a family of adherents of Umbanda, a religion of African origin, but at a certain point he converted to Neo-Pentecostalism. After taking control over drug trafficking and other criminal actions in several favelas, he named the area under his dominance as the "Israel Complex", stressing his connection with Christian Zionism. He painted the Star of David all over the region and named his gang as "Aaron’s Band".
Over the past years, Peixão was criticised several times for carrying out acts of religious intolerance. In slums under his command, community centres related to the Umbanda religion and to Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion, had to be closed and moved elsewhere. A number of them were attacked and vandalised by armed men under Peixão’s orders. Religious sculptures were broken or had to be permanently removed.
The reaction of the media to the closing of the Catholic churches led the state government of Rio de Janeiro to declare that police forces had been deployed to the northern part of the city, after which all parishes were able to resume their ministries.
The Church authorities emphasised that no order had been given by any drug lord concerning the churches and that it was only a rumour. On 7 July, all parishes had a regular service. St. Hedwig even resumed the June festivity for St. John the Baptist.
Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro, a member of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, is Catholic and used to be part of a musical group connected to the Charismatic Catholic Renewal.
According to Ivanir dos Santos, a scholar and Candomblé leader who has been monitoring religious intolerance in Rio de Janeiro over the past decades, “there has been a growing violence against other creeds lately and the State failed to take action in order to combat it.”
“Attacks on Umbanda and Candomblé centres have been happening for years and nothing has been done. Hostilities to the Catholic Church have already happened in the past as well, but nothing like what occurred now,” he told <em>Crux</em>.
Dos Santos said serious inquiries must be carried out by the police and the judiciary when orchestrated acts of religious intolerance are promoted.
Addressing the closures of the Catholic churches he said: “It’s not relevant if it was only a rumour or if it wasn’t. We know that violence like that is common when it comes to Umbanda and Candomblé centres. Of course, such violence can be expanded to other religions too,” he said.
In dos Santos’s opinion, “Brazil needs to establish a serious plan against religious intolerance” in order to avoid the escalation of such events.
Father Luiz Antônio Pereira Lopes, who heads Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas Pastoral Ministry, blamed the so-called dominion theology as the ideology driving the hostilities perpetrated by such armed groups Peixão's against other creeds.
Dominionism, initially a term applied to Christian groups in the United States, has been increasingly debated by analysts in Brazil over the past few years due to the increasing force of Evangelicals in Brazilian politics, media, and society.
“Faith apparently became a reason to conquer territories and even to silence other religious groups," Pereira Lopes told <em>Crux</em>. "It looks like the Old Testament, when violence was employed to conquer people to one’s faith."
After decades working in slums, including during violent periods, Pereira Lopes said that when priests are confronted with such a scenario they usually prefer to find someone with influence to mediate with the drug lords instead of directly confronting them.
“Gang leaders usually have at least one relative that frequents the church. At times, the mother of a drug lord is a member of the parish. We try to talk to that person in order to de-escalate the situation. It’s an effort that we have to do to avoid losing our space in a community,” he said.
“We can’t question them face to face. It’s like opening a hornets’ nest,” Lopes explained.<br><br><em>Photo: St. Hedwig’s parish in Brás de Pina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Credit: St. Hedwig’s parish, via Crux.)</em>
