Catechism Class In Public Schools In Minas Gerais (1938-1962)

Abstract

The present work aims to investigate the presence of Catholic precepts on the João Alcântara School Group in Porteirinha, Minas Gerais, Brazil, during the period of 1938 to 1962. We will investigate how some papal guidelines were put into practice in everyday school life. Investment in education was a powerful strategy when it came to expanding and maintaining the power of the Catholic Church. The work advances by showing how the Catechism and printed compendia were integrated into everyday school life. As a research method, we propose Bibliographic Research carried out in books, articles, dissertations and theses. In addition, we employ Documentary Research, which includes the analysis of sources that were circulating at the time, such as: minutes books of teacher meetings, local newspapers, laws and decrees of the local executive, pontifical and episcopal documents, manuscripts, photo albums, minute books of religious associations and their manuals, parish records books. It is concluded that children and young people in Porteirinha/MG, during the period studied, were enrolled in the Catechism of the Church. The instruments used for this were, above all, the combined action of the press and the school. This front of action also provided people with religious instruction through the presence of Catechism and Religious Education classes. As for the press, newspapers, pamphlets and books became not just a religious apparatus, but objects of religious culture.