A Symbol of Faith or Culture? Brazil’s Constitutional Dilemma

Bruno Santos Cunha is a professor of constitutional and administrative law in Brazil and a PhD candidate in constitutional law at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil.

Renato Costa is a lecturer in law and a fellow of the Centre for Public, International, and Comparative Law at the University of Queensland, Australia.

This blog post examines religious expression in Brazilian public institutions, a topic that has been debated since at least 1892, following the 1891 Constitution’s formal disestablishment of an official state religion in Brazil. While this matter has been discussed across various public fora over the years, it is ultimately the judiciary that adjudicates controversies pertaining to the inclusion of pluriform religious expressions in public institutions.

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Portuguese Colonization, Catholic Faith, and the Relativization of Secularism in the Jurisprudence of Brazil’s Supreme Court

Ana Cristina Melo de Pontes Botelho is a research professor at the Center for Comparative Constitutional Studies and a collaborating professor at the University of Brasília.

The Role of Portuguese Catholic Colonization in the Emergence of the Brazilian Nation

With the Portuguese colonization of Brazil, Franciscan priests and members of other religious orders were sent to catechize the indigenous inhabitants of the region. The Portuguese brought with them the culture of the June festivals dedicated to various saints, including Saint John, Saint Peter, and Saint Anthony of Padua, a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order, who died on 13 June 1231.

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