Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
The most controversial newspaper in Brazil last year was not the Tribuna da Imprensa, the mouthpiece of Carlos Lacerda, the governor of Guanabara who was so closely identified with the revolution of March 31,1964, but the now-defunct Brasil Urgente, a weekly tabloid published in São Paulo with the approval of the Cardinal Archbishop by the Dominican Carlos Josaphat and a militant group of laymen determined to give Brazilians a Catholic Left beyond the promises of Christian Democracy and virtually as radical as the Communist Party. Although the revolution has put a stop to the politics of the Left, and movements of leftist tinge are momentarily as defunct as Brasil Urgente, it is still important for the background of the revolution to know what the Catholic Left was doing, and to realize once more that in a country like Brazil, where Christian Democracy was never a force, as in Chile and Venezuela, and where political nuances, until a few months ago, were not considered important, a Catholic Left, of the kind envisaged by the editors of Brasil Urgente, was not beyond the realm of possibility.
Paper written in September, 1963, for delivery at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C, and subsequently revised in the light of the Brazilian revolution of March 31, 1964.
* Paper written in September, 1963, for delivery at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C, and subsequently revised in the light of the Brazilian revolution of March 31, 1964.