Frente Agrária (FA)
Frente Agrária (FA)
In 1962, the Brazilian Catholic Church established the Frente Agrária to promote the interests of rural workers through the formation of labor unions. Begun in the South, the Frente was preceded in the Northeast by the church's Rural Assistance Service (SAR; founded 1949) and Rural Orientation Service of Pernambuco (SORPE: founded 1961). New church teachings promulgated by the peasant-born Pope John XXIII inspired the young priests who led the organization. Although the Church wanted them to combat communism and Peasant League influences in the countryside, some of the Frente's radical clergy eventually worked together with Communists in the Superintendency of Agrarian Reform (SUPRA). The 1964 military coup d'état suppressed the front and jailed its leaders.
See alsoAgrarian Reform; Catholic Church: The Modern Period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Emanuel de Kadt, Catholic Radicals in Brazil (1970).
Thomas C. Bruneau, The Political Transformation of the Brazilian Catholic Church (1974).
Additional Bibliography
Bandeira, Marina. A Igreja Católica na virada da questão social (1930–1964): Anotações para uma história da Igreja no Brasil: (ensaio de interpretação). Rio de Janeiro: Editora Vozes: Educam: Centro Alceu Amoroso Lima para a Liberdade, 2000.
Stédile, João Pedro, and Douglas Estevam. A questão agrária no Brasil. 2nd ed. São Paulo: Editora Expressão Popular, 2005.
Cliff Welch