Torquemada ghost runs through Brazil | A tense atmosphere prevails in cathedrals and churches as polling approaches

Ghost Torchemada Looking for unclean spirits in Brazil. He is not an inquisitor with a toga, a cross and his olive branch. There are many, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Men and women campaign to bring Jair Bolsonaro absent votes. They incite hatred against those who do not align with their conservatism, attack rogue priests in their own churches, call for burning students in the Holy Office, pressure parishioners not to support Lula, become obsessed with their holy war, and operate in the first Catholic community. the world

The Latin American giant faces its first crusade of the 21st century. Violent rhetoric fills social networks, stalks the streets and carries out last-day brutal attacks in temples and universities. These trust patrols They bare their claws daily and stoke the fires of discord. They go in with impunity Where is a divided country Religion seems to have displaced politics as an expression of identity.

The former president’s winning first round smells something rotten. This October, ecclesiastical sentiments engulf Bolsonaro’s flock as it enters its decisive week. The Catholic Church rejected the head of state’s political use of the Nazareth candlelight procession he held in Belém., the capital of Para, when he arrived uninvited. The government encourages environmental degradation in the heart of the Amazon.

Michelle, Bolsonaro’s wife, the margin of vote in favor of Lula travels through significant northeastern capitals. He runs behind and leans down Believers of evangelical churches. In this category, the far-right military also enjoys clear advantages. But not everything is the same. The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) – the main authority of the Catholic Church in the country – remains neutral and has not announced which of the two candidates it supports for the presidency.

An atmosphere of tension and violence is breathed in the main nave of every cathedral or parish. October 16 marked a turning point. Father Everton Machado delivered his homily in Zacare, São Paulo. But he interrupted when he remembered the socialist councillor Mariel Franco, was murdered by the police on March 14, 2018. One of them, Ronny Lessa, who was arrested today, is Bolsonaro’s neighbor in the gated community of Barra de Tijuca. “You’re not going to talk in the house of God about the PSOL and the gay left who want sexist ideology inside the children’s school,” they shouted at the priest.

Priests are very divided. People like Edivaldo Betioli defend the Bolsonaro government and even the use or carrying of arms. He says in one of his prayers: “Mother of God, our Mother, free us from the scourge of Communism.” Others, such as Dom Leonardo Steiner, argue that religion has become “ideology”. The likes of Fray David Santos and Julio Lancelotti, who voted for Lula, did not play.

A detailed report by BBC Brazil gives an indication of why the extremist far-right set out to seize electoral wills. “According to a 2020 Datafolha Institute survey, 50% of Brazilians declare themselves Catholic, and 31% declare themselves Evangelical.” Among the former, the majority vote for Lula. Analyzing the percentage of religious belief, these figures are not enough to overcome the slope of the first turn for the current president. The PT leader also received 6.1 billion votes from him.

The candid testimonies of Catholics and evangelicals disaffected with their churches reflect the growing tensions. Some of the complaints collected by the BBC said: “The persecution of Christians has already begun, only within the church.” “It’s like we’re living a dictatorship inside the temple.” “I saw hatred in people, in friends from church.”

The victims were asked to pray for the candidate proposed by the religious. They were told that they were not Christians if they supported another. And the public university is “a dangerous place” for young people. Students were shown biased videos about “doing drugs” or “going gay.” Ricardo Senra, the journalist who presented the televised trial, said there were more than a hundred witnesses. At work, when evangelicals vote for Bolsonaro with images of Bolsonaro in the background, or when they stab BD, Lula, and the left, they ask, “What are they going to dismantle?” God established.” Churches consulted declined to respond to the BBC.

They work in temples Courts of Inquiry. Your shepherds do not burn incense. They want to stoke the fires of hatred that spread across Brazil’s vast geography. Followers of Bolsonaro, these torchbearers do not necessarily become priests or pastors.

Bibo Nunes is a character from the underworld. This Liberal Party (PL) representative in Rio Grande do Sul, a fan of the president, said in a recent video that university students who protested against cuts to the national government’s Ministry of Education deserved to be burned alive.

His medieval message was not aimed at any academic community. It targeted students from the Federal Universities of Santa Maria (UFSM) and Pelotas (UFPEL) in southern Brazil. In the first city, there was a fire at Kiss nightclub, which killed 242 people in 2013. Most were very young, and those nuns preferred to be purified by fire. It was the worst tragedy in Santa Maria’s history.

Troglodyte is now being investigated by the Central Public Ministry. UFPEL’s central leadership said Bibo’s words were “something despicable”, and UFSM rejected “any hate speech, incivility, intolerance of different ideological and political views and promoting aggression”.

Airton Silva, a student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and president of the state student union, asked himself in an article he wrote: “What makes Bolsonaro choose us as enemies? A public university has the potential to transform society!

Brazil have youngsters like Silva at their opposite end. They echo the president’s views and follow him in his most violent demonstrations. At the Federal University of Mato Grosso they encouraged an armed mobilization in support of Bolsonaro on the Guayaba campus in their WhatsApp groups. The Department of Justice has been investigating the two students since last Friday on a complaint filed by the Regional Election Prosecutor’s Office.

Lawyer Erich Raphael Masson said, “As in the present case, it is not acceptable to call on protesters to take up arms in a public place” (…)”. Also, “they refrain from demonstrating, propagandizing, gathering and/or carrying out an action using weapons on public roads. They can be fined up to 100,000 reais (about 7 million pesos) for non-compliance.

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