Secret Dialogues / Edition 1

by Kenneth Serbin

Overview

Secret Dialogues uncovers an unexpected development in modern Latin American history: the existence of secret talks between generals and Roman Catholic bishops at the height of Brazil's military dictatorship. During the brutal term of Emílio Garrastazú Médici, the Catholic Church became famous for its progressivism. However, new archival sources demonstrate that the church also sought to retain its privileges and influence by exploring a potential alliance with the military. From 1970 to 1974 the secret Bipartite Commission worked to resolve church-state conflict and to define the boundary between social activism and subversion. As the bishops increasingly made defense of human rights their top pastoral and political goal, the Bipartite became an important forum of protest against torture and social injustice. Based on more than 60 interviews and primary sources from three continents, Secret Dialogues is a major addition to the historical narrative of the most violent yet, ironically, the least studied period of the Brazilian military regime. Its story is intertwined with the central themes of the era: revolutionary warfare, repression, censorship, the fight for democracy, and the conflict between Catholic notions of social justice and the anticommunist Doctrine of National Security.

Secret Dialogues is the first book of its kind on the contemporary Catholic Church in any Latin American country, for most work in this field is devoid of primary documentary research. Serbin questions key assumptions about church-state conflict such as the typical conservative-progressive dichotomy and the notion of church-state rupture during harsh authoritarian periods. Secret Dialogues is written for undergraduate and graduate students, professional scholars, and the general reader interested in Brazil, Latin America, military dictatorship, human rights, and the relationship between religion and politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822957263
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	10/19/2000
Series:	Pitt Latin American Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kenneth P. Serbin is assistant professor of history at the University of San Diego. He received his B.A. in history from Yale (1982) and his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego (1993). He was a fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame (1992) and a research associate of the North-South Center at the University of Miami (1992-1993). His articles have appeared in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Journal of Latin American Studies, Christian Century, National Catholic Reporter, In These Times, and other periodicals.

What People are Saying About This

Brian Loveman

Brian Loveman, San Diego State University

Serbin's carefully researched book reveals the importance of informal and secret channels between church and state under the Brazilian military government. Bishop Dom Avelar asked, ‘Where does social justice end and subversion begin?’ Serbin's fascinating account of how the Brazilian church and Brazilian military sought to negotiate the answer to this question in private, in order to prevent a definitive rupture between the government and the church, forces reexamination of the Brazilian military government in the 1960s and 1970s and perhaps even of the nature of moral opposition under authoritarian regimes.

Thomas Bruneau

Secret Dialogues is a major contribution to our understanding of the complex relations between the Brazilian Armed Forces and the Catholic Church, the two main protagonists in the authoritarian regime between 1964-85. Drawing on previously unavailable archives supplemented by interviews, Serbin analyzes the efforts by sectors of the elite of both institutions to confront authoritarian excesses and human rights violations, and avoid a rupture in church — state relations. He provides insights into the actions of individuals and the institutions whereby we can better understand the nature of the authoritarian regime and the subsequent transition to democracy. (Thomas Bruneau, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Ca.)

Editorial Reviews

... crticially important work of scholarship ... carefully and painstakingly researched and written ... Serbin writes with grace...lucid and jargon free.”
—Luso-Brazilian Review

From the Publisher