Description
The objective of this research is to analyze, using the point of view of the Sciences of Religion, the work that the Congregation of Missionaries of Jesus Crucified developed at the School of Social Service of Maceió Padre Anchieta, since its creation in 1957 until the time the school was built in 1971 at the Federal University of Alagoas. Our interest is to study a socio-political-educational position, engaged by the women belonging to a religious congregation, the Roman Catholic Church which spent a significant time of renewal in the light of Vatican II (1962-1965). The following position will be addressed, for its implications in the creation and direction of the School:1) the time social, political and Church of the State of Alagoas, on the eve and the sequence of the military coup of April 1964, 2) the position of Archbishop of Maceió, Dom Machado Cavalcanti Adelmo and his invitation to the Missionaries of Jesus Crucified to take the direction of the School, the specific characteristics of that congregation, which helped define the progressive direction that the School has, even in adverse conditions, the first direction, and with Mother Galrão Zilda mainly, the administration of Mother Zelly Perdigão Lopes, the period between 1963 and 1972. At that historic moment in which the civil and military used the "fear of communism", as the main gun advertising ploy in the search for consensus to block the growth of consciousness and organization of social classes, any actions in favor of the religions were misunderstood, and persecuted as being Communist. In such a circumstance, Zelly Mother, and her colleagues transformed the school into a democratic space for studies, meetings, debates, discussions and activities, an attitude, opposite to what was expected of "obedient" women, where the hierarchical church in Maceió supported the actions of the repressive military power.
