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Vladimirskiy State University named after the Stoletov brothers

The interaction of religion and state in Brazil

Lyubimova O.V

Scientific supervisor: prof. Fedulenkova T.N.

The understanding of the relationship between church and state in Brazil still reflects concepts of secular philosophy that governed the birth of the Republic. One of its principle theorists was the Brazilian jurist, Rui Barbosa (1849-1923), for which the separation between church and state was one of the foundations of the modern state. This jurist was one of those responsible for the separation of the Catholic Church and the Brazilian State and for the consequent extinction of the patronage system in the nascent Republic. Rui Barbosa was not anti-clerical, much less antiCatholic. According to his theory, the alliance between the sovereignty and the altar was an alliance of mutual slavery that was bad for both the Church and the State. According to this view, the objective of religious liberty, considered as the liberty for excellence, was to become a fundamental element in the political and social organization of the country. Within the Brazilian conception of the separation of church and state, it is not considered an offense to secularism if, for example, the State creates an ecumenical chapel within the annex of the Federal Senate. A synthesis of the Brazilian legal understanding of the separation of church and state was given by the Federal Court of the Fourth Region.

Considering the secularism of the State under a non-denominational rubric, the court affirmed four fundamental pillars of state secularism:

(a) the State cannot adopt any religion or make any official statements aboutreligious questions;

(b) in the State's official acts and protocols, it cannot observe religioussymbols;

(c) the State cannot program education or culture according to religious guidelines;

(d) public education cannot be confessional

The country has an area of 3,286,488 square miles and a population of 191.9 million. Nearly all major religious groups are present. Many citizens worship in more than one church or participate in the rituals of more than one religion. The 2000 census by the Geographic and Statistical Institute of Brazil indicated that approximately 74 percent of the population identified itself as Roman Catholic. Approximately 17.9 percent of the population is Protestant, an estimated 85 percent of whom are Pentecostal or evangelical, including the Assemblies of God, Christian Congregation of Brazil, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the Quadrangular

Gospel, God is Love, Maranata, Brazil for Christ, House of the Blessing, and New Life. Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Methodists, and Congregationalists account for most of the remaining Protestants and are centered in the south. In the 2000 census, 199,645 residents identified themselves as belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons); however, the church lists its current membership at approximately one million.

According to the 2000 census, there are 214,873 Buddhists, 2,905 Hindus, and 151,080 adherents of other eastern religions. Japanese-Brazilians, to a limited extent, practice Shintoism. The census reports 17,088 adherents of indigenous religious beliefs. Members of African and syncretic religious groups such as Candomblй total a reported 127,582, while followers of Umbanda total 397,431. There are no statistics on the number of followers of Xango or of Macumba; however, the census indicates that members of Afro-Brazilian religious groups total 0.3 percent of the population.

The census reported 25,889 practitioners of Spiritualism. However, according to Fundacгo Getulio Vargas, a higher education institution considered a "policymaker think-tank," in 2003 followers of Spiritualism, mainly Kardecists--adherents of the doctrine expounded by Frenchman Allan Kardec in the 19th century--constituted approximately 1.4 percent of the population. An estimated 5 to 7 percent of the population does not practice any religion.

Reliable figures on the number of Muslims do not exist. The 2000 census reported only 27,239 Muslims. Muslim leaders estimate that there are between 700,000 and 3 million Muslims, with the lower figure representing active practitioners. There are significant Muslim communities in the industrial suburbs of the city of Sгo Paulo and in the port city of Santos, as well as in smaller communities in Paranб State in the coastal region and in Curitiba and Foz do Iguazu in the Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay triborder area. The community is overwhelmingly Sunni; the Sunnis are almost completely assimilated into broader society. The recent Shi'ite immigrants gravitate to small insular communities in Sгo Paulo, Curitiba, and Foz do Iguazu. Sunni and Shi'a Islam are practiced predominantly by immigrants who arrived during the past 25 years from Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. Conversions to Islam increased during the reporting period among non-Arab citizens. There are approximately 60 mosques, Islamic religious centers, and Islamic associations. relationship church state brazil

According to the Jewish Confederation of Brazil (CONIB), there are more than 120,000 Jews, of whom 65,000 reside in Sгo Paulo State and 40,000 in Rio de Janeiro State. Many other cities have smaller Jewish communities

Article 5 of the Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion. Criminal Code (Law 2.848/40), article 208 enforces protection of religious freedom.

There are no registration requirements for religious groups, and there is no favored or state religion. Religious groups are free to establish places of worship, train clergy, and proselytize. There is a general provision for access to religious services and counsel in all civil and military establishments. The law prohibits discrimination based on religion.

The Government observes the following religious holidays as national or regional holidays: Saint Sebastian's Day, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Corpus Christi, Saint John's Day, Our Lady of Carmen (Carmo), the Assumption, Our Lady Aparecida, All Souls' Day, Evangelicals' Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas.

Education is mandatory for all children, but parents are free to send their children to the public or private school of their choice. Public schools are required to offer religious instruction, but neither the Constitution nor legislation defines how this should be done. Religious instruction is optional for students. Each school defines the religious curriculum, usually in agreement with parent councils. The law prohibits public subsidies to schools run by religious organizations.

It is illegal to write, edit, publish, or sell books that promote anti-Semitism or racism. The law enables courts to fine or imprison from two to five years anyone who displays, distributes, or broadcasts anti-Semitic or racist material.

According to a March 7, 2009, article in the O Estado de Sгo Paulo newspaper, the Federal Public Ministry in Sгo Paulo requested an injunction prohibiting the broadcast of television programs on the TV Globo, Record, and Gazette channels that offend religious groups of African origin.

Both the Union or federal government and states and municipalities have the power to legislate for the political organization of Brazil. For this reason, there exists a large number of legal instruments dealing with religious issues on the national level but also in the diverse states of the Federation and the thousands of municipalities. In recent years, there has been a major influence by religious groups on Brazilian society, not only in relation to new religions and churches, but also in relation to Afro-Brazilian cults like Umbanda and Candomblй. One example of this phenomenon is the Code of Garbage Collection of Porto Alegre, altered by the Complementary Law Number 602/2008, which expressly accepted from sanctions any disposal in public places of dead animals used in the worship of African religions and in Umbanda.This practice is ordinarily punished, but, for religious reasons, it is now permitted.

Jurisprudence. There is a great deal of jurisprudence in the Brazilian courts, dealing with religious liberty. There are decisions that deal with issues such as religious teaching in public schools,taxation of churches and religious associations, the involvement of churches and religious groups in the electoral process, religious assistance in the armed forces, etc. In some cases, an evident contradiction and lack of uniformity in the application of the laws of religious liberty by Brazilian courts is noted. A good example of this contradictory jurisprudential position can be found in cases involving disputes about Sabbath day observance according to an individual's personal religious precepts. Many of these cases involve members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that ask colleges to hold exams on days other than Saturday because it is the Sabbath day of their religion, as well as for Jews and members of other religions. Some courts, including the Federal Supreme Court, deny them the enjoyment of this right. According to some decisions, conceding the benefit of holding the exam on a different day than that determined for the majority of the other students would be an unwarranted discrimination. Based on this position, the right to religious liberty, protected by Article 5 of the Federal Constitution of 1988 (CF-88), cannot be invoked to support an exemption from a legal obligation imposed on all or to exempt a refusal to perform an alternative obligation provided by law. Other courtsconsider this issue differently and hold that the precepts of a religious order can fall under Article 5 of the CF-88 and thus justify holding exams on a different date other than that established for the majority of the candidates.

In tax matters, a consolidated jurisprudence, confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court, considers the tax immunities provided by Article 150(VI)(b) of the Federal Constitution of 1988 to reach not only buildings designated by a church for religious worship, but also all the religious institution's assets, including their rent and essential services. Other questions addressed by Brazilian courts on the issue of religious liberty are: religion and the liberty to come and go; anti-Semitism and crimes of racism; and freedom to worship and travel for religious reasons.

Religion and Propaganda. The risk of misuse of political influence by churches and religious communities for electoral ends brought the Superior Electoral Court in 2008 to issue Resolution Number 22.71845 that prohibited religious advertising by way of speakers or sound amplifiers at a distance more than two hundred meters from a church (art. 12, § 1, III). The same resolution considers temples as common areas, similar to public light posts and traffic signals, viaducts, walkways, bridges, bus stops, and other urban facilities, in which advertising of any nature is prohibited, “including graffiti, ink signs, or the hanging of signs, standards, banners, or the like” (art. 13, § 2).