Presented by Dr. Dirceu Marroquim, Professor, Department of Socio-Philosophical Foundations of Education, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
About the presentation: Philip Jenkins, a historian, asserted that if we wanted to visualize a “typical” contemporary Christian, we should think of a woman living in a village in Nigeria or a Brazilian slum. He pointed out that missionary efforts have inexorably shifted “southward” towards Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This lecture aims to establish the historical construction of the links between the Catholic Church and poverty in Latin America, focusing on the case of Recife, a city located in the Brazilian Northeast. I will do this through a study of the territorial occupation by Vatican representatives in the impoverished areas of the city, directed towards people who lived without citizenship rights outlined in the Brazilian Constitution of 1891. With this, the study seeks to reflect on notions of Social Assistance, Charity, and Access to the city and education by representatives of the Catholic Church aimed at the poor population of Recife. The period under analysis, 1890-1945, is crucial for understanding contemporary Brazil, the consolidation of its National State, and the fragile construction of a “secular state.” To achieve this, I employ various documentary sources, ranging from parish records and chronicles written by priests to documents produced by state bureaucracy.
About the presenter: Dr. Marroquim completed his Ph.D. in Social and Cultural History at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2022, following a Ph.D. research fellowship at Yale University Divinity School in 2020. He also holds a Master’s degree in Cultural History from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), earned in 2015. His academic and professional career encompasses various roles and activities. Since 2023, he has been a professor in the Department of Socio-Philosophical Foundations of Education at the Federal University of Pernambuco. Previously, he served as the General Manager of Institutional Articulations at the Recife Secretariat of Culture in 2023 and as the General Manager of Cultural Actions and Training from 2021 to 2022. He has also worked as an instructor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and as a Teaching Assistant in the UF Summer Program in Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, he has contributed to academia with numerous publications, including articles in specialized journals and chapters in books. His bibliographic output covers a range of topics, from cultural history to tourism. He has also been involved in curating museum exhibitions, notably serving as Cultural Curator in various exhibitions at the Museum of the City of Recife.
