The contribution of the Catholic Church in making the popular housing a public problem in France and Brazil

Abstract

Several studies about the public politics directed to the favelas in the City of Rio de Janeiro focus on the significant presence of the Catholic Church during the 1950’s. In order to understand the motivations of the actions taken by Catholic militants in the favelas within this period of time, we should take into account that this phenomenon was not only the result of an individual action from one single character. Instead, it is related to the former process of redefinition of the view of the Church towards the poor, which had its roots in Europe in the XIX Century. Only discussing these actions in a wider social and political context is that we are able to analyze the effects of these initiatives in the search for solutions to the “problem of the favelas” in Rio de Janeiro in the 1950’s. However, as this period was marked by the beginning of the Cold War –when the communism was represented as a “threat”, once it could be established in the settlements of lower social classes–, it was then that this process would reach its highest levels.