(en) Brazil, Anarkio.net: A-Infos #17 - Anticlerical & CIA + FIGHTING FOR PRIESTS (pt)

Anticlericalism ---- The discourses and practices anarchists produced in the late 
nineteenth and early twentieth century reveal a vast attempt to subvert customs 
regulations. The libertarian militants appeared to be endowed with an inexhaustible verve
in criticizing established. Among the most significant opposition stood out a manifesto 
anticlericalism and secularization of an extensive defense of life. Libertarians, more 
than any other current Labor Movement, hated the Catholic Church. "The importance of the 
doctrine to anticlericalism and anarchist propaganda was very large and conjugated both 
the defense of free thought that made men, as with his belief in social progress driven by 
science and experience." (2)

Libertarians were tireless in
allegations that the state brings privileges and
misery and the Church, his Intima ally, violates
consciences. Always trying to show that
miserable life of workers was not
due to a divine will, but the
union between the capitalists and their
allies, the Church and the State. For Bakunin: "The
abolition of Church and State should be
first and indispensable condition for
true liberation of society, only then
that happens is that the company may be
organized differently. "(3)

In short, the considered three major
enemies - State Capital and Religion - were
attacked with ferocity. The authors libertarians
esgrimiam fierce criticism denouncing the
articulation between them ensured
continuity of operation. As stated

S?bastien Faure, a Jesuit novice who
become anticlerical and pacifist, in
Anarchist Encyclopedia: "The Authority assumes
three main ways to generate three types of
coercion: the first political form: the State; second form
Economic: Capital; 3 to form moral: the
Religion. "(4)

The state is accused of failing to promote
safety of all, on the contrary, it only
ensures the safety of the owners ante
threat of expropriation of layers
dispossessed. For Bakunin: ... "State wants
say domination, domination and whole supposes
subjugation of the masses and consequently its
exploitation for the benefit of a minority
any government. (5)

The Capital usurps the work product
collective. This allocation is made through
certain power relations between
capitalists and the working masses. The
antagonism was present in these relationships
explained in provocative motto of Proudhon:
"Property is theft."

Religion was considered an element of
support of private property and
social relations of domination. Thus,
all religions except those less
prepared, were associated with rulers.
The dominant ideology seeks to defend a
harmonic vision of society and the acceptance of
each of the intended place in the social structure.
In seeking to instill in the exploited acceptance
its miserable fate as a desire to
God, religion corrupts social awareness and
causes a conformity lethargic, becoming
combined with the other enemies of the workers. (6)

The Catholic Church was accused of being equal
other centralized institutions,
authoritarian and bureaucratic. For priests, the
Christian life is a whole, from which no
space or behavior can escape the
rules dictated by them. The care of the Church in
demarcate people's lives through
sacraments was ridiculed by
Libertarians: Religion, namely
Catholic, is a bunch of ghostly
bringing the man arrested from cradle to grave,
birth, since entering the sauce holy water,
to run the fasts of life, the maceration, the
confessions and marriage. In death
commendation, Masses, etc ... (7)

Between the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the
beginning of the First World War, although religions
no one present worldwide
apparent decrease was apparent that the
Central Western countries, perhaps with the exception
U.S., there was a retreat without
precedents of traditional religions. (8)

The process of de-secularization and the
society occurred, with degrees of radicalism,
in all countries of the Catholic population. The
progress, advancement of science and reason,
as well as the growth of secularization
promoted a loss of status in the Church. The struggles
emancipatory promoted by oppressed sectors and
same strategic interests of liberal politicians
caused a sharp occurred and dechristianization
one increasingly militant secularism.

As Hobsbawm said: "The anticlericalism up
became a central issue of the Catholic countries of policy
for two main reasons: because the Catholic Church
Roman opted for a total rejection of the ideology of reason and
Progress only can therefore be identified right
policy, and because the fight against superstition and obscurantism, more
divide that capitalists and proletarians, joined the liberal bourgeoisie and
class worker. "(9)

Anticlerical The word is of French origin, appearing for the
first time around the 1850s. The anticlericalism was
incorporated into the program of the grouping of left and center
that country. Soon, it spread throughout Europe and arrived in
America. (10)

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FIGHTING FOR PRIESTS

Expression anarchist anticlerical:
a) fighting priests, to show the
? contradictions of their lives with the doctrines
who profess; priesthood as a profession,
taking as basis material interest;

b) fight against the political influence of the Church
direct action and propaganda
extraparliamentary;

c) termination of the economic power of the Church,
Church as a company, as an assistant
capitalist exploitation, as a factor of
crumirismo.
This is the anticlericalism of the anarchists. (11)
Neno Vasco (12)

The greatest influence of the anarchists took
in Latin countries, where the presence of
Catholicism was stronger. The clash between two
as antagonistic conceptions was inevitable. The
anticlerical discourses of radicalism grew
as was increasing the angry tone of
priests. Every occasion was utilized to
repudiate Christianity and the clergy.
Bakunin, in the article "The State: alienation and
nature, as well as on other occasions,
stressed the need to combat Church
Catholic: All states where people still
can breathe, are, from the standpoint of the ideal
State incomplete, as are all the churches
compared with the Catholic Church! "

Faced with the threat of hell preached by
priests to those who deviate from
straight path of Christ, anarchists
indicated that between life carried by
exploited working classes and the location of
Biblical pena??o the difference was perhaps only
grade.

The clergy were always attacked with ferocity.
"The Catholic clergy is a vast pool
religious-political-social, whose ends move away
of contemporary civilization, whose members,
the characteristic of their way of life,
away from the reality of life, are
a constant threat to progress and
civilization, morals and good customs. "

Or: "Clerics, these instruments
blind to the rich, those parasites that only
serve to brutalize the people, keeping it
in greater obscurity, tell your listeners:

Children! Work, Taste, respect to
our bosses, the powerful, because the
more you suffer on earth much more shall you enjoy in heaven!

The popes, as top leaders of the Church,
were accused of being the head of the snake:
.... "The Church is a reptile that goes around the
world, / and whose drunken rage spirals
insane / an immortal consciousness LaConte
human / centuries was convulsing estorce
atrocious / The links that you are ruthless monster
ye bastards / The head is the papal Now
Snakes / have the strength in the tail and the poison in
teeth! '

The Bible was considered "literature
rulers, intended to celebrate the tyrants and
its laws and to teach the people and the resignation
obedience to the Bible exposes the mechanism of
Slavery in clear, candid almost to
light of modern democratic hypocrisy! "

The Church was accused of keeping celibacy
clerical as an important value, although not
always be fulfilled by its members. The
Chastity was appointed as a violation of
biological laws, contributing to the perpetration
of heinous crimes. The denunciation of violations
standards of sexual abstinence and
behavior deemed immoral by
clergy has been a hallmark of
anticlerical discourse. For anarchists,
many priests and nuns relativizavam the
prescriptions of Rome on the subject of moral
sexual. In the pulpit and in their preserved with
faithful until they were able to preach the
recommendations of the Church. However, this
misogamy was not fulfilled. In iconography
libertarian, priests and nuns were
often represented through
pictures of obese men and women,
apparently drunk and looks
lustful.

In the theme anticlerical another aspect
important was the struggle in favor of reason,
science and knowledge and against
"Medieval obscurantism of the Church. Priests
were accused of fearing the advancement of science,
because it impairs the rhetoric of superstition
foisted on them.

In press articles anticlerical, was
common the presence of biographies of scientists, especially
promoted the persecution by the Inquisition.

Despite a prophetic tone and often angry, it is undeniable that
scathing satire and sarcasm were also important components
in libertarian discourse. The old anarchist - and this should serve as a
example for today - the protest and would enjoy desbragadamente
visit of Pope John Paul fie maybe even make caricatures showing that
Mother Teresa of Calcutta was lover Frei Damiao. Catholics would
scandalized, to the delight of anticlerical libertarians. The struggle of
ancient heretics and excommunicated still deserves to be remembered.

Eduardo Valladares