The catholic-midiatic field in the COVID-19 syndemic

tensions, disputes, and “the war of gods

Abstract

In this research, we seek to understand the recent public controversy involving segments of the
official Catholic media in support of Bolsonaro’s government, and the reactions it has produced
in the Catholic Church. An imbroglio was created in the institutional field of the Catholic media, a “war of gods” – the internet users might say (a pluralism of world views and values in conflict) – has taken place, and this incites questions concerning the political-religious agency of Catholicism over secularism and the public sphere. Concerning methodology, it was carried out a qualitative research study, presenting a partial literature review, based on a list of authors from Social Sciences and Religious Studies, and an analytical mapping of notes and official statements. The exploratory and qualitative hypothesis is: the discourses and positions of institutional Catholic agents express a new front of the old disputes over a public Catholicism. Based in Bourdieu there is – in progress and without any predictable outcome – a symbolic
struggle to define a “correct” ethos of how to be a Catholic person in the public sphere.