Na mira contra as esquerdas: o catolicismo anticomunista nas Cruzadas do Rosário em Família na América Latina na década de 1960

Abstract

This article relates the activities of the American Father Patrick Peyton and his actions in Brazil and Latin America from 1959, with the rise of dictatorial regimes. In Brazil, six major media events were held in some capitals, especially São Paulo in 1964. The text is an integral part of the research developed during the master's degree in history with the theme "The Crusades of the Rosary in the Family and the anticommunist work of Father Patrick Peyton in Brazil (1962-1964) "and defended in 2013. Our sources are provided in autobiographical material, correspondence, Brazilian newspapers and also the US. The 'Rosary Crusades' movement is understood here as an anticommunist mechanism of action for the Americas in a critical period of the so-called Cold War, preparing public opinion, especially in Catholic circles, to react to socially-charged forms of socialist thinking. We also study the approach of Catholicism to anti-communism in the United States under the Kennedy administration, developing what we call here Catholic anti-communism.