Hélder Pessoa Câmara (7 February 1909 – 27 August 1999) was a Brazilian

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

archbishop. A self-identified

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

, he was the

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

of Olinda and Recife, serving from 1964 to 1985, during the

military dictatorship in Brazil The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dicta ...

. He was declared a

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...

in 2015. Câmara was an advocate of

liberation theology Liberation theology is a Christian theological approach emphasizing the liberation of the oppressed. In certain contexts, it engages socio-economic analyses, with "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples". I ...

. He did social and political work for the poor and for human rights and democracy during the military regime. Câmara preached for a church closer to the disfavoured people. He is quoted as having said, "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

Early life and education

He was born Hélder Pessoa Câmara on in

Fortaleza Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

, in the poor Northeast Region of Brazil. His father was an accountant and his mother was a primary school teacher. He was educated in local Catholic schools and entered

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

in 1923.

Career

He was ordained a priest in 1931, with direct authorization of the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

over his premature age. Câmara was named auxiliary bishop of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

on 3 March 1952. During his first years as a priest he was a supporter of the far-right organization Integralismo, an ideological choice that he later rejected. He also founded two social organizations: the Ceará Legion of Work, in 1931, and the Women Workers' Catholic Union, in 1933. On 12 March 1964,

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

appointed him Archbishop of Olinda e Recife. During his tenure, Câmara was informally called the "bishop of the slums" for his clear position on the side of the urban poor. With other clerics, he encouraged peasants to free themselves from their conventional fatalistic outlook by studying the gospels in small groups and proposing the search for social change from their readings. He was active in the formation of the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference in 1952, and served as its first general secretary until 1964. In 1959 he founded Banco da Providência in

, a philanthropic organization to fight poverty and social injustice by facilitating the contraction of loans by poorer populations. He attended all four sessions of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

and played a significant role in drafting ''

Gaudium et spes ''Gaudium et spes'' (, "Joy and Hope"), the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, is one of the four constitutions resulting from the Second Vatican Council in 1965. It was the last and longest published document from the cou ...

''. On 16 November 1965, a few days before the council ended, 40 bishops led by Câmara met at night in the

Catacombs of Domitilla The Catacombs of Domitilla are an underground Christian cemetery named after the Domitilla family that had initially ordered them to be dug. They are located in Rome, Italy. They are situated over 16 metres underground, about 2 kilometers from t ...

outside Rome. They celebrated the Eucharist and signed a document under the title of the

Pact of the Catacombs The Pact of the Catacombs is an agreement signed by 42 bishops of the Catholic Church at a meeting following Mass in the Catacombs of Domitilla near Rome on the evening of 16 November 1965, three weeks before the close of the Second Vatican Counc ...

. In 13 points, they challenged their brother bishops to live lives of evangelical poverty: without honorific titles, privileges, and worldly ostentation. They taught that "the collegiality of the bishops finds its supreme evangelical realization in jointly serving the two-thirds of humanity who live in physical, cultural, and moral misery". They called for openness "to all, no matter what their beliefs". Providencia

Under the guidance of Câmara, the Catholic Church in Brazil became an outspoken critic of the 1964–1985 military dictatorship and a powerful movement for social change. Câmara spoke out and wrote about the implications of using violence to repress rebellion resulting from poverty and injustice in other venues than Brazil. Traditionalist Catholics urged the military government to arrest Câmara for his support of land reform and Câmara's colleague, Father Antônio Henrique Pereira Neto, was murdered by unknown conservative forces. A proponent of

, he was Archbishop of the Diocese of

Olinda Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state capital. It has a population of 393,115 people, covers ...

and

Recife That it may shine on all (Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South Am ...

from 1964 to 1985, the entirety of the dictatorship. Liberation theology brought forth the political aspect of the Church's charitable work and was criticized on the grounds that it was encouraging the armed revolutionary struggles that swept Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s. Câmara published ''Spiral of Violence'' in 1971, a short tract written when the United States was immersed in a still escalating

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. It is distinctive for linking structural injustice (Level 1 violence) with escalating rebellion (Level 2 violence) and repressive reaction (Level 3 violence). In it, Câmara called on the youth of the world to take steps to break the spiral, saying their elders became addicted to those escalating steps. He died in

on 27 August 1999 at the age of 90.

Views

Câmara endorsed the position of the Orthodox Church that spouses who were abandoned should be allowed to remarry within the church.Come i progressisti ''non'' vinsero al Concilio / Una recensione di ''Roma, Due del Mattino'' di Monsignor Hélder Câmara / di Massimo Introvigne, CESNUR Official Website (Italian)
/ref> He criticized

's removal of artificial contraception from the purview of the Second Vatican Council as "a mistake" meant to "torture spouses, to disturb peace of many homes", "a new condemnation of Galileo", "the death of the Council" and "the practical denial of

collegiality Collegiality is the relationship between colleagues. A colleague is a fellow member of the same profession. Colleagues are those explicitly united in a common purpose and respect each other's abilities to work toward that purpose. A colleague is ...

". According to the former Vatican's Secretariat of State, however, Câmara went on to send a telegram to the Vatican praising the encyclical ''Humanae Vitae''. In his famous interview with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, he also stated that, despite his support for non-violence, he did not oppose violent tactics: "And I respect a lot priests with rifles on their shoulders; I never said that to use weapons against an oppressor is immoral or anti-Christian. But that's not my choice, not my road, not my way to apply the Gospels". Câmara identified himself as a socialist and not as a Marxist, and while disagreeing with

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

, had Marxist sympathies. In the Fallaci interview, he stated, "My socialism is special, it's a socialism that respects the human person and goes back to the Gospels. My socialism is justice." He said, concerning Marx, that while he disagreed with his conclusions, he agreed with his analysis of the capitalist society.

Legacy and honors

*In 1973, Câmara was nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

by the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends ('' Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort b ...

(AFSC). His candidacy was however undermined by two conservative members (

Sjur Lindebrække Sjur Lindebrække (6 April 1909 – 1 October 1998) was a Norwegian banker and Conservative Party of Norway politician. He was born in Voss. During the 1940 Norwegian Campaign, Lindebrække was mobilized by the Norwegian 4th Division. Fro ...

and

Bernt Ingvaldsen Bernt Ingvaldsen (12 October 1902 – 24 April 1985) was a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party. He was born in Trondheim. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from the Market towns of Buskerud county in 1950, and was re-e ...

) of the

Norwegian Nobel Committee The Norwegian Nobel Committee ( no, Den norske Nobelkomité) selects the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize each year on behalf of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's estate, based on instructions of Nobel's will. Five members are appointed by ...

, who cooperated with the Brazilian ambassador in Oslo as the military dictatorship in Brazil was vehemently against him receiving the Nobel peace prize. *In 1975, he was awarded the

Pacem in Terris Award The ''Pacem in Terris'' Peace and Freedom Award is a Catholic peace award which has been given annually since 1964, in commemoration of the 1963 encyclical letter '' Pacem in terris'' (Peace on Earth) of Pope John XXIII. It is awarded "to honor a ...

, initiated by the Catholic Interracial Council of the Diocese of

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and ...

. It was named after a 1963

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

letter by

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 28 Oc ...

that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. ''

Pacem in terris ''Pacem in terris'' () was a papal encyclical issued by Pope John XXIII on 11 April 1963 on the rights and obligations of individuals and of the state, as well as the proper relations between states. It emphasized human dignity and equality ...

'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for "Peace on Earth".

Servant of God

On 15 February 2015, the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Antônio Fernando Saburido announced that he was sending a letter to the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

requesting the opening of the process of canonization of Câmara. The letter was received by the Vatican on 16 February 2015, and less than ten days later, the assent was given by the

Congregation for the Causes of the Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pas ...

, with which Câmara received the title of

on 7 April 2015. The opening of the beatification process was called for 3 May at Olinda Cathedral. The installation of the court on that date marked the beginning of the diocesan phase of the

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to Intercession of saints, intercede on behalf of individual ...

process.http://site.adital.com.br /site/noticia.php?lang=EN&cod=84903 https://web.archive.org/web/20150518093834/http://site.adital.com.br/site/noticia.php?lang=EN&cod=84903 In the

Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil ( pt, Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil – IEAB) is the 19th province of the Anglican Communion, covering the country of Brazil. It is composed of nine dioceses and one missionary district, each he ...

, Câmara is already in the calendar of saints and his feast day is celebrated on 27 August.

Notes

References

External links

Links for Dom Helder Camara

Alastair McIntosh website
Text of Câmara's 1972 speeches to Mani Tese
University of St. Thomas
The 1965 "Pact of the catacombs" for a servant and poor church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Camara, Helder 1909 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Brazil 20th-century Roman Catholic theologians Brazilian anti-capitalists Brazilian Christian pacifists Brazilian Christian socialists Brazilian Roman Catholic theologians Brazilian Servants of God Catholic socialists Christian socialist theologians Liberation theologians Nonviolence advocates Participants in the Second Vatican Council People from Fortaleza Roman Catholic archbishops of Olinda e Recife Roman Catholic bishops of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro