Spiritism in confrontation with the Catholic Church in dispute for space during the Vargas period

Abstract

From 1930 to 1945, in the Era Vargas, the spiritist and catholic leaders set in motion a series of strategies of power struggle in religious field. One of them, fundamental to both groups, was the seeking of a closer relation with the state. Spiritism had to establish himself in Brazilian society amid legal disputes and political instability, which was sharpened in the context of religious competition with the Catholic Church. Values converged with the varguismo as work and education, nationalist and corporatist inflection and the respectability of prominent figures with insertion in the civil service, in the press and in the military environment led to the configuration of a tense harmony between spiritists and Vargas government.