João Paulo II: a restauração romântico-conservadora da Igreja Católica e a sua recepção no Brasil (1978-1992)

Abstract

This study analyzes the project of romantic-conservative restoration in the Catholic Church during the papacy of John Paul II (1978-2005). The research is of a historical-documentary nature, grounded in the perspective of long duration and in the analysis of official and biographical sources. As a consequence of a process that began in the mid-nineteenth century, the Polish pope concentrated his policy and ecclesial magisterium on the objective of maintaining the dissensions of Catholic Christianity in relation to modernity, which was responsible for the so-called disenchantment of the world. In consonance with certain ideals of Romanticism, upon assuming the papacy, John Paul II sought to reverse the process of disenchantment that supposedly influenced the theological, moral, and organizational structures of the Church throughout the twentieth century. Among other objectives, his pontificate aimed to remind the Church of its Christocentric nature, to establish a particular type of universal hermeneutics of the texts approved by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), and, within the scope of the Church in Brazil, to restrain ecclesial tendencies that presented themselves as alternatives to Vatican centralization. Thus, in analyzing this ecclesial governance, it is noteworthy that the concept of romantic-conservative restoration can be considered one interpretative key – among others – for understanding the dynamics of the Church in its recent history, especially during the pontificate of John Paul II. It involves observing how this bimillennial religious institution reacted, even when pressured by the vicissitudes of modernity, to monitor, discipline, and accommodate divergent forces within itself. At the same time, it sought alignment with the Polish pope’s ideals, which aimed to promote the thesis of a certain ecclesial universality and unity, whose essence resided in the centralization of ecclesial discipline and theology.