Igreja Católica e jovens trabalhadores: a formação, os modos de atuação e a crise da JOC no Amapá (1957-1968)

Abstract

This monograph has as its primary theme the relationship between the Catholic Church worlds of labour, starting from the realisation that religion is still predominantly interpreted by historiography as the element that weakened the battles of the catholic workers. Having as object of study the Catholic Young Workers (JOC) of the state of Amapá, within 1957 and 1968, aiming at elucidating the formation, the ways of action and the crisis of the local JOC, highlighting that the church becomes closer to social movements before the Second Vatican Council. The utilised methodology bases itself upon the reunion and confrontation of collected information from: specialised bibliography, articles of A Voz Católica newspaper, inventory books, and interviews with people who were members of JOC, anchored in the thematic oral History. As a result, we verified that the JOC was officially founded in the state of Amapá by the Bishop Dom Aristides Piróvano (in 1957), with the intention of forming – in a confluence with local hegemonic groups – young workers to act against the Communism in associations and syndicates. Increasingly numerous in the final years of the decades of 1950 and the beginning of 1960. However, under a relative autonomy of workers, obtained in the middle of “leftisation” of catholic sectors, the movement continued gaining combative outlines according to the principles of the ecclesiastical social doctrine, assuming a reformist character, compatible with the ascending social movements in the time when João Goulart was governor (1961-1964). With the help of ecclesiastical assistants and having as a reflective and humanising method the See-Judge-Act, the members of JOC organised neighbourhood meetings, congresses, assemblages, retreats, formation mornings and leisure activities. Spaces of debate and socialisation in which the members, being part of an everyday life of structural insecurities, developed a critical consciousness upon their own social reality and, based on this critical consciousness, they started acting in favour of workers through documentary manifestos the JOC and of entities such as syndicates and political parties. Above all, beginning in 1968, with the implantation of the Institutional Act n° 5 (AI-5), the Brazilian JOC started facing a virulent repression from the business-military dictatorship (1964-1985), which culminated in its disarticulation.